RESEARCH NEEDED: Oil Lake in the Gulf and upcoming Hurricane Season
Yesterday, as we were reading more about the Gulf Oil Disaster the Obama Administration caused with its lax regulation and disregard for safety procedures, we caught a few lines about a massive 100 mile “lake” of oil that’s settled on the bottom of the Gulf. We can’t find the article we read this in, but it was an interview with a man who has written books on world petroleum reserves, including one about Saudi Arabia’s lies regarding just how much oil it really has (not as much as it claims).
In the article, the expert was talking about the Obama Administration’s failure to pump out this Lake of Oil that’s at the bottom of the Gulf. Apparently, in addition to being 100 miles wide, it’s three or four feet thick. That’s a lot of oil just sitting there that the Obama White House is pretending doesn’t exist, or is insisting is someone else’s responsibility.
The article called for BP to be removed from this situation completely, and for the US Navy to take up the operation….and to begin pumping that oil lake out of the water and into tankers…BEFORE HURRICANE SEASON.
This is the part that really caught our attention, because what’s going to happen in just a month or two will be much, much worse than Katrina…and we have to wonder if Obama’s either so incompetent he’ll let this happen because of his chronic dithering or if he actually WANTS this disaster to destroy the Gulf states, just because he likes watching the world burn.
Think about it: all of that oil in the deep water. Sitting there. Not moving.
Hurricane season rolls in. Even the deepest water is affected by that massive push of weather.
The Hurricane whirls and swirls and churns through the Gulf, raising that Oil Lake and pushing it towards the Gulf Coast.
If you think the oil washing up NOW is a problem, just wait until August and September. What if another Katrina hits this year, coupled with all that oil from Obama Lake that’s formed in the Gulf?
What happens then…and how will the Left blame Bush for this one?
We want to learn more about this Oil Lake, and figure out who the author of these petroleum books was so we can read more of his work and get a better handle on all of this.
It’s something that’s going to be an issue for many years to come, and one of the things the incoming Palin Administration is going to have to deal with in a big way once the Governor takes office in 2013. We hope we don’t have to wait that long to have someone who knows what she’s doing in charge of the Gulf cleanup, but if Obama’s fey dithering and blame-pointing is any indication of his intended ongoing behavior, this disaster sure seems like it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.
© 2010, HillBuzz. All rights reserved.
Also Recommended:
Latest Buzz:
Help HillBuzz by Shopping Amazon
"Bee" Advised!
I look forward to your comments. Please follow these simple guidelines:
- Please do not complain about your comment not yet showing up
- Stay on topic of the article ("This is OT, but..." = bad!)
- I will STING if you troll, spam, bait, swear or attack someone
I think the next new thing on the national stage will be a woman president. I think the nation is ready and craves it. I hope it is Palin.
I am not sure that it is true that the water below a few dozen feet actually gets churned during a hurricane. Fish and sea animals are not generally harmed by hurricanes as long as they stay deep in the water (or you would see millions of them floating dead on the surface after a hurricane which is not the case). So depending on how deep this lake is, it may or may not be affected by a hurricane.
The other thing to consider is that a lot of oil spills eventually mostly evaporate as hydrocarbons are highly volatile. One has to wonder how much of the current slick would evaporate if it were subjected to several days of 150mph+ winds. Just asking.
The other thing to remember is that the NOAA (which predicts hurricanes) has been dead wrong for the last 3 years counting. We are in the middle of a very low hurricane period so we don’t know whether there actually are going to be any during this season.
Sorry, but I used to work in a petroleum research lab. Sure, pure hydrocarbons are volatile–but crude oil ain’t gasoline. Crude oil as it comes out of the ground is thick, nasty, smelly GUNK.
Yes, nature is marvelously resilient–but in geological time, not necessarily in human-lifespan time.
If we’re really, really, really lucky, maybe there won’t be any hurricanes in the Gulf this season. Too bad we can’t count on that.
I caught the tail end of David Letterman one night late last month and he had Dr. Ed Overton from LSU on and he was mentioning that a tropical event would actually help because it’s the concentrated oil that is the problem. He says a storm would break up the oil and that in smaller amounts nature can handle it and clean it up naturally.
However, he also states that there is a lot of debate about the subject.
Here’s the video. They start talking about it at around the 2:50 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbTlOGi0NuQ
Hurricane season started 1 June for the Houston area ……………….
Andre, I’m wondering if the oil isn’t suspended between thermal layers – I BELIEVE there are differences in salinity, which would affect the dispersal in differing temperatures ………………
Long story short, Boyz, IF we have another Katrina or Ike, “we” can kiss the Gulf goodbye for generations …………….
Semper Fi’
DM
A very illuminating article on the federal response early on to the oil spill:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/7043272.html
A relative from Houma, LA sent the following letter about the moratorium. Sorry, it is quite long, but explains a lot:
The reason for this letter is to ask you to write your congressman Charlie Melancon and Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter. Or whoever it might be wherever you are. I know some of my contacts are out of state. We all know what’s going on in the gulf. But all our lives are about to change… drastically! Here’s how.
There is a Moratorium set in place for 6 months or until further notice. And this doesn’t just affect the oilfield, its going to change your life too. Let me explain.
With this “Moratorium” or ban of drilling in the Gulf, that means that 33 rigs are going to be put out of work. For every rig there are about 200-300 people per rig. That’s somewhere in the ball park of around 9000 people. There are an estimated 3 people for every person who works on a rig that indirectly work for each person on a rig (Crew Boats, Supply Boats, Chopper Pilots, etc.) So that brings us up to around 27000 people out of work in the next two weeks. That doesn’t include individual company layoffs. You all know I work for Chouest so let me explain.
ECO (Edison Chouest Offshore) has lost 350 million dollars this week and the oilrigs haven’t even pulled out the Gulf yet. Contracts are being paid off and companies are going to head overseas. Chouest is talking about laying off over 60% of its workforce in the next two months. That’s over 4000 people. And that’s one company among dozens.
Obama is pissing off these companies and they’re threatening to go overseas. Just like the Jones Act protects us in that non U.S. flagship vessels have to employ U.S. citizens in this country, they have the same rules wherever these boats end up. On boats, that means “ONE” American captain and “ONE” American engineer if they push the issue. The rest of the crew is foreign on “OUR” boats.
Well how is it going to affect you?
The oilfield has supported the economy throughout the entire country for a very long time much less South LA. They said that if all the southern Parishes in LA formed a single State, that we would be among the tenth largest economy in the world. That’s how much money is coming through here from the oilfield. What do you think has kept our economy going?
The major exports coming out or LA are sugarcane, seafood, and oil. Do you really believe that sugarcane or can support us while oil production is on hold? How many sugarcane farmers do you know? I don’t know any. They said that if a hurricane come through it will suck up the oil and it will rain oil. There goes the sugarcane. Pour some oil on your lawn and see what happens. What about seafood? Well we already know that’s shot, but even if it weren’t, go take a ride down the bayou. How many rich fisherman do you know? Ask any fisherman and they will tell you that throughout their life they have supplemented their income in the oilfield. That’s right. Most of them work in the oilfield in the off season.
So, let’s say you work in a restaurant. Where do you think all that money for people to eat in your restaurant is coming from? Who’s coming into your restaurant when there no work around. But more than just oil field personnel come in, right? Who’s going to be able to pay the taxes to pay our teachers, fireman, or police force? The sugarcane industry? Nope! The seafood industry? Nope! Well you sell cars. Not anymore. The economy is busted so no one can afford one. Who’s going to buy a car when they can’t pay their bills? Well I work in the medical industry so I don’t have to worry. How many people are you going to see when none of us have insurance. Public health care doesn’t go into affect for 3 years (I think). Well what if your retired? Well, Bobby Jindal (our Governor) said that if Obama doesn’t lift this ban on drilling, that he would put a moratorium on the Loop.(Which is a great idea BTW) [ The Loop is a facility where all the oil is coming into this country and processed.] That means no foreign oil coming into the country. And no domestic oil for that matter. So guess what? That’s means inflation, the likes of which we have never seen. Remember $4 a gallon gas? Wait until its $12-$15 a gallon or more. Then you will see the price of everything really skyrocket. So let’s see how far you can stretch your retirement savings then. Bet you won’t have as much as you thought.
Millions of dollars have been filtering through LA for decades and going straight into our federal governments pockets as “taxes” among other things. Louisianans have been lobbying for years trying to get some of the revenue back in this state. How do you think we pulled ourselves out of that little jam we were in a few years back. OIL MONEY! That’s the answer. Not solely but a very large part.
I’m the first one to say that we need alternative fuels but we can’t just cut off oil overnight. That fact is oil companies have been very safe over the last 50 years. They have among the fewest casualties, per amount of people who work there, in any industry. I realize the impact the this is having on our environment just as well as anyone. I’m right here in the middle of it. I see the birds covered in oil and I hate it as much as you. But we have to get our priorities straight. The birds affected are going to be affected whether we stop production or not. With a moratorium, not only are the birds going to be dying on our beaches, but now our kids will be starving in our homes.
The fact is BP messed up. Not us. We are having to pay for the mistakes of one man (or two men or ten men whatever the case may be) that made a tragic decision that’s impacting the lives of so many. If you think we were in a depression before, you don’t know what’s about to hit us. How much of oil revenue money has affected your life when you put it in perspective? People this is not an “oilfield” problem. This is a national issue.
the article is http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/companies/simmons_gulf_oil_spill.fortune/
Never fear – Kevin Costner is here. He claims BP has purchased around 30 of his oil/water separating machines, and he hopes they will deployed on the wells to be like the “fire engines” of the oil slick world. We shall see.
I heard these guys on WLSAM 890 this morning. They have yet to be contacted by anyone in the government or BP about this, despite the fact that scientists have said it would work. All the mechanics exist for getting it done, from obtaining enough hay, to spreading it, to cleaning it up and RECYCLING the oil soaked hay into usable fuel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo
ok….totally offtopic and not serious at all….but I swear I was told today (at the local WalMart no less) that if I wanted to hang any bed linens or such outdoors to dry I’d best plan to do it real soon. As soon as the weather from the gulf starts moving north everything outside will get all oily. Swear to God, she said this with a straight face! She believes it! I quite literally burst out laughing. Some days it is an utter joy to live here in rural west Tennessee.
LOLOL!!
My next door neighbor is down there now having a roof put on her Florida home. The home is near Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area. She told me yesterday that they drove over to Clearwater and the recorded temperature of the gulf was 88 degrees at 10 AM! She said the newzies are commenting on it because it is so rare to be that hot this early in the summer season. In addition, we were educated during the Katrina disaster on how much worse a hurricane is when the water is “hot” – warmer than usual, which it was at that time. Add that info to the fact that a scientist on CNN talked about the oil spill actually warming the gulf even more than usual. And we have a “president” that has no knowledge of anything outside of community organizing and politics. What a perfect storm of a mess.
Am I missing something here? A lake of oil just laying on the bottom of the Gulf? Why the hell does the stuff float on the surface of the water? Is this some sort of special bottom floating Obama Gulf oil?
I don’t think this expert knows too much. While I’m not an oil expert but it would seem to me that if it becomes more dense than water it has been degraded. In otherwords, microbes have been feasting on the stuff. They in turn will be eaten by plankton and thus the food chain continues from there.
This is an issue that I am VERY concerned about since I live on the Coast and had to rebuild a flooded house after Katrina. And yes, if there is a storm that causes inland flooding from a storm surge, it will be MUCH worse than Katrina. See Murphy Oil spill in Chalmette for the consequences of an oil leak during a hurricane. They had a leak at their refinery resulting from Katrina and ended up paying for the damaged homes in a general area there.
As for not being a concern if it’s deep enough, this is true at half a mile down. But consider this – the storm surge along the MS Coast was 35′ more or less in places where the eye came ashore. The point – it’s more than just a few feet at the top of the surface that gets mixed around during a hurricane.
As for the suspension of the oil, different temperatures and different mixture rate with the disperant will affect the depth of suspension and the concentration level. And it won’t evaporate in the wind before it gets blown and stuck onto something like a bird, fish, turtle, dolphin, grass, beach, or land IMO!
While I would like to think Costner’s centrifuges will work, I’m still skeptical. Did you see the size of the ones they’ve been testing? Not very big and I would suspect susceptible to clogging if used in a heavy slick but this is just my uneducated opinion. I am certainly not a petrochemical engineer nor do I play one on tv! LOL
Now that I’m home from my work trip to FL – sorry I missed the Boyz at Disney – I fully intend to get involved in the cleanup which will be ongoing for some time. Will post findings of same when I know more.
longer answer in moderation but no, not likely to evaporate and yes, will be one heck of a mess if hurricane blows it ashore. Storm surge in Katrina was 35′ in places so oil can’t be too close to the surface or else it’s a disaster. Suspect that even if the underwater plumes aren’t blown ashore, the surface oil is enough now to create HUGE disaster.
I believe that Obama does not care about the southern states because the governors are all Republican. It does not matter that all the animals and plants are being destroyed. It was 24/7 coverage of the disaster of Katrina but the media barely covers the disaster going on now. If the Obama continues to destroy BP, the company will go out of business than what will happen to everyone there?
I concur… I am also beginning to think BP & Obama are in cahoots. BP was a big O donor; Obama needs this for his tax program; you are correct that 3 of the affected governors are Republicans; both refuse to help the states and their people; both refuse access to reporters; etc.
Hello Hillbuzz,
I have to work so my comment is brief. I believe that The Clintons are building a political base (Senate and House) to mount a
third party and challenge Obama and Repub. in 2012. I see no other reason politically why he is still campagining for a party (Dems), that is DEAD ON ARRIVAL.
The man’s name is Matthew Simmons and his book is twilight in the desert…he is an investmentbanker that specialised in oil and oil production.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/companies/simmons_gulf_oil_spill.fortune/
I am heading out and dont have time but this may bethe article you are referencing.
Have a great day all!
Guyz,
That Simmons guy is largely full of !@#$. Hurricanes don’t work that way, oil floats, and with only estimates which vary by as much as 400% concerning the rate of the spill, he can’t say what size reservoir would be filled by a non-existent “bottom of the ocean” oil lake.
Storms that form early in hurricane season tend to form in the Gulf because the water is warmer than the Atlantic. The farther into the season the less likely they will form there until fall. So we just gotta hope that it’s a gentle season or that the storms take a different path.
Interesting that even the threat of hurricanes does not seem to light a fire under BP or O to get the situation resolved; obviously they do not want it fixed.
Having worked for some very large corporation on some very big projects, I’m a firm believer in Hanlon’s Law” “Never ascribe to villainy what is best explained by stupidity.”
Obama and his team have very little business expertise and minimal experience in crisis management. They are being overcome by events and instead of being able to act, they are constantly having to react. They’re essentially a bunch of n00bs and they look like it. Unfortunately for our country, their ineptitude results in mass misery for hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
I do believe that Obama, though intelligent, is extremely inexperienced when it comes to executive management and to leadership. He knows how to agitate, how to orate, and how to equivocate but not how to ACT DECISIVELY.
I also think he probably suffers from American Guilt-ism, where he feels like we (Americans) have too much wealth, too much power, and use too much energy.
In that regard, I think he is unconcerned with the impact this will have on our national economy, or how his ill-advised moratorium on offshore drilling may impact us long-term.
However, I do not think he is truly happy to see America hurt and intentionally dithering to make things worse.
I do think that the main reasons the government has done nothing are that Obama is an incompetent leader who is way outside his comfort zone, and the government itself is ill-equipped to really be doing much of anything except coordinating cleanup efforts.
What really does bother me, though, is that Obama seems apathetic to get moving on the cleanup, and I can’t figure that part out. He hasn’t declare the area a disaster yet, he allowed bureaucratic roadblocks to delay building sand berms to protect the coastline, and proven cleanup methods used around the world (like dumping hay on the oil) are not being implemented.
Either he is SO incompetent that he is literally paralyzed and waiting for someone to decisively tell him what to do, or he’s currently weighing the options between the negative impact to his administration from having oil everywhere, versus leveraging the ensuing anger towards BP as a bludgeon with which to pass cap & trade and/or other anti-oil, anti-traditional-energy initiatives.
Either way, it’s a flat-out disgrace.
I have yet to hear one person address this nationally.
In every PREVENTATIVE measure to control unwanted critters, etc. there is one common element: oil. Go to any garden, hardware, store and look at the label. If it is a preventive measure (as opposed to a pesticide, which is different) oil is the leading ingredient. Why?
Oil SUFFOCATES the eggs needed to extend the next generation. The lifegiving material inside the egg dies and that brood is gone for good. So here we are, in the spawning season for all kinds of marsh-nesting birds, shrimp, fish and all the rest…and their eggs are being suffocated, rendered inert. That is what is going on here, and where the real future damage will come from. Unless there is some kind of Noah’s Ark type project going on, removing the spawn to a safer location to hatch, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. And I don’t even know where a safe location would be. These species require very specific habitat; you can’t just toss them in a saltwater inland pool, obviously. What a mess.
If any of you have ever been to the Keys and taken one of those glassbottom boat rides, you have seen those crazy neon looking fish, etc. Those fish are native to the Gulf and migrate (in many cases) to live their lives in the Keys. But the Gulf is their spawning ground, as it is for many species that live elsewhere.
But hell, I’ll sleep better tonight knowing we have a community organizer in the WH. Maybe he can take up a petition for Shedd’s Aquarium to rescue some of the sea life.
One thing not talked about nationally is this; I’ve not heard anyone say it.
Every sort of chemically PREVENTIVE remedy for unwanted critters in OIL. Go to any garden, hardware, or home improvement store and read the labels. Pesticides are different. But if you want to prevent the next generation of bugs, for example, the remedy will include oil.
The reason for this is oil suffocates eggs. This means that during this, the spawning season, that those eggs of fish, crustaceans, and marsh-nesting birds are being rendered INERT.
Unless there is some sort of Noah’s Ark project in place to rescue these eggs and putting them in a place to hatch (which must replicate their natural surroundings) we are fucked without the steak dinner. I imagine there are some species that will simply disappear, as they are unique to the Gulf.
Also, there are species that spawn in the Gulf, but do not spend their adulthood there, such as those crazy colored fish you see in aquariums. They spawn in the gulf but end up living in the Keys.
Thanks Obama, you useless piece of crap.
Se Mat Simmons interview on TV saying the same thing.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37560013#37560013