Comments on: It’s What They Do

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:44:06 +0000

If they had set the goal to stop the oil, and not to cover their butts, they would have been putting pressure on a system that hadn’t been eroded by the grit in the oil for over a month.

I’m not very confident in the BOP or the riser standing up to the pressure at this point.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:17:08 +0000

We all know it should have been fixed within a week, and we also know it is possible to do so. I'm not sure whether "fixed" is a good word, it's not really going to be "fixed" until the relief wells get down deep enough to inject mud into the borehole and do a bottom-kill (the reason you need relief wells to do that is because otherwise you can't get enough head on the mud to overcome the pressure via weight of mud alone, and you need the mud to overcome the pressure because otherwise the pressure will just push the concrete for the final plug out of the bore before it cures enough to stop up the bore). But certainly there are a large number of things that can be done in the meantime to stop the flow of oil, and BP's clumsy attempts at doing so appear aimed more at PR rather than actually spending the money necessary to do it. .-= last blog ..Buried ledes =-.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:30:02 +0000

… it’s the way the systems and processes in the USA have been corrupted over the last few decades, the past decade especially, …

you won’t get any argument from me on this.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Fri, 28 May 2010 05:49:41 +0000

Hmmm. OK, I hope you guys are right. 🙂 You would have a better idea about it as insiders than I as essentially an outsider (though I have also worked in that industry, albeit over 20 years ago, for ARAMCO). For myself, it’s not any particular company I have issue with, it’s the way the systems and processes in the USA have been corrupted over the last few decades, the past decade especially, and the attitudes and even the understanding of these things the average people have. The Capitalist ideal brainwashing has been rather thorough. We all know it should have been fixed within a week, and we also know it is possible to do so. Too many people don’t understand that. The very fact that this has been allowed to continue, is rather troubling. I honestly see no end in the near future.

That’s just my opinion, for whatever it’s worth. It’s not just the USA BTW, I see it here too. The findings of our ‘Black Saturday’ Royal commission were no surprise to almost everyone here. The so-called *leadership * was abysmal and failed completely, and hundreds died as a result. You have the same problem now, the only real difference is the death toll from the BP disaster has only just begun, and is not going to be all over in a few days.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:05:36 +0000

There are a lot of companies that would love a chance to cap this sucker, because it would be a major “résumé” item and a reason to jack up their fees.

you bet.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:38:56 +0000

You do what you have to to survive, Kryten. You can’t let a client, even your biggest client, destroy you. Like Badtux says, no one is going to want BP for a client after this.

You would be amazed at the problems that “active” law firms have getting anyone to do anything for them. The money isn’t worth the risk.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:10:10 +0000

I doubt Haliburton are motivated to bite one of their major feeders.

One thing to remember is that this is a different Halliburton from the one that electrocuted our troops in Iraq (which was the since-spun-off KBR division), this is the oilfield services division, which is run far more professionally. BP is going down, so yes, Halliburton would have every motivation to not go down with them and preserve the remainder of its business by making sure BP, not them, gets stuck with the blame. Yes, they’re not going to release a press release saying explicitly “BP is a bunch of lying scumbags!” (though some of their releases have certainly implied such), but they (or rather someone close but far enough for deniability) are decidedly running a leak campaign right now — these un-named “oilfield workers” who are stepping forward to talk to newspapers on condition of anonymity are being provided to the newspapers by *somebody*, and it ain’t by BP :).

And it makes sense for Halliburton to be doing this. If BP is 10% of their business, what good is it to keep BP but lose the other 90% because BP has painted them as incompetent? Sometimes you have to just cut your loses and recognize that one of your customers is just too much risk and headache to be worth the money. Back in my consulting days there was at least one customer we simply said, “we don’t want your business anymore”, because they were nothing but trouble, they were always issuing contracts to subs who were idiots then blaming us when our computers were hooked up to the infrastructure and (duh) didn’t work (because the wiring was wrong, doh, as they would have known if they’d hired *us* to do the wiring as well as the computers rather than saying “Cousin Billybob knows how to string Christmas lights, let’s hire HIM to do the wiring!”). Unlike Janet “the moron” Napolitano who somehow thinks BP is the only oil company in the world, Halliburton recognizes that BP ain’t the only company that needs their expertise, and at this point isn’t worth keeping as a customer.Who needs a customer who’s going to bad-mouth you and try to get you sued for their own incompetence?

Talking about which, a lot of other contractors are going to make that same decision as soon as this gusher is stopped, and BP is going to find themselves having a really hard time finding drilling rigs to lease and contractors to put on it… I mean, they sunk a billion dollar boat. How many people want their billion dollar boat sunk by BP when there are oil companies all over the world clamoring for every one of these things that comes off the slips? BP is toast…. they just don’t know it yet.
.-= last blog ..Cooking =-.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:26:26 +0000

I doubt Haliburton are motivated to bite one of their major feeders. This would be the same Haliburton that has amply proven that the past decade. These companies make money no matter what. It’s the small companies that will get screwed as always. They can’t take on BP or Haliburton, and your Gov has no interest or incentive to help the little guys. They are owned by the big Biz interests. It used to be that the only rule Big Biz had was that’s it’s only a crime if you get caught. Now they couldn’t care less if they get caught or not.

Dream on.

Humans never learn. After the disaster there, our fed & State Gov made this announcement:

Australia to open up seabed for oil exploration

And this from a Conservation Group:

Conservation groups say allowing offshore petroleum exploration in waters south-west of Kangaroo Island will put an important biological hot spot at risk.

Thirty-one new offshore exploration areas have been released in Federal Government waters around Australia, including two near the South Australian island.

Wilderness Society’s Peter Owen says recent oil spills off the Western Australian coast and in the Gulf of Mexico have highlighted the risk of something going wrong.

“We’re going to have a scenario where probably one of our biological hot spots, our tourism meccas of South Australia, Kangaroo Island, will just be smothered in oil and then we’ll have oil running up into the gulfs and up onto the metropolitan beaches of Adelaide,” he said.

“I mean we’ve got to think about this type of thing, it’s not an appropriate place.”

Now there’s a truly novel idea… Prior thinking about consequences! It’ll never happen…

And just to change the subject to something actually amazing…
Kitten survives washing machine terror

And… The Royal Commission into the Black Saturday bushfires has ended:
Leadership ‘absent’ on Black Saturday

Just to prove that the *top job seat warmers* here are no different to yours or anyone else’s.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:28:36 +0000

Kryten, oil services companies don’t make their money from oil, they make their money from working for oil companies. In this case, Halliburton would be motivated to take the job to screw BP. BP questioned Halliburton’s professional competence. That is what Halliburton is really selling in its oil services division.

There are a lot of companies that would love a chance to cap this sucker, because it would be a major “résumé” item and a reason to jack up their fees. It’s the kind of job that would bring out the heavy hitters and the little guys with new ideas.

You don;t make your profits on the standard government contract, you make it on the change orders and bonuses. This is why the big guys always get the bid, because they bid below cost, knowing the changes are coming, or that they can max the bonuses.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:10:39 +0000

The problem with using money as a motivator to do *the right thing* is that it won’t have the desired effect. As with your banks, they will simply take the money and continue on as normal. Nothing will change. The Banks posted massive profits every Qtr, even while your Gov was giving them billions of your money. I guarantee the only effect it has was the bank exec’s pissed themselves laughing at how easy is is to con the sheeple into giving them the shirts off their backs. And it’s the same with the oil companies and every other corp you have. They know how easy it is to get money out of you all, they’ve had decades to perfect it.

The only way to fix all your problems is to change everything. That’s not going to happen. The only *failure standards* these criminals would understand now is that if they fail their own lives will be at stake. They have their wealth stashed all over the World, you couldn’t even get most of it back if you tried, and it would probably cost you as much to get it as they have. They control the money, and the laws. There is no other incentive you can offer them. They have all the money they want, and can get all they ever want, and *you* will happily give it to them. 🙂

The only way things are going to change now, is that the sheeple will have to force things to change. And good luck with that.