The Patriot's Flag

This post is a documentation of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil well spill.  The links here were gathered during the 86 days of the event and are listed in chronological order. All links contain a “mouse over summary” meaning you can place your cursor on the link and a general summary of what is at that link will pop up for you.  If you are doing research on the spill, this is a good place to start.

This has been a “daily updated post” meaning that as news comes in, it is added. Now that the leak is plugged, the additional news links will be found in the “News AFTER the Leak Stoppage” area. You can use the “Post Links Menu” that follows to quickly get to the information you are seeking:

Post Links Menu

A. Background Information

B. Latest News & Commentary

C. BP Links

D. Investigating the Cause

E. Technology Links (Educating Ourselves)

F. Obama Administration Lame Responses

G. News AFTER the Leak Stoppage

H. The Bottom Line

I. Dispersants and the Piper (Dispersants Worked!) <-= Patriot’s Flag Post

J. Damage? Oil, Media or Government? <-= Patriot’s Flag Post

K. Brer Obama and the Oil Spill <-= Patriot’s Flag Post

A. Background

Background on this Post: There has been a huge amount of “coverage” on the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the DeepWater Horizon.  An accident killed 11 people on the rig and now we are told this is the largest “spill” in the world’s [recorded] history. What we are hearing are pundits talking about a subject which nearly none of them understand.  All we hear about is the potential environmental damage, how badly BP has performed, that our government will “save” us by keeping a “boot on the neck of BP” and that if BP can’t get it done, the government will push them aside and take over. (As the admiral of the Coast Guard said, “with what?”).  We have a bunch of politicians trying to “solve” a scientific and engineering problem … and it is laughable. And the more Obama “talks” about it, the more he “owns” the problem (The Patriot’s Flag – Brer Obama and the Oil Well.

Focus on the Problem, and the Problem is BP’s. BP has taken responsibility for this catastrophe. That “accountability” is not in question. With anything attempted, there is risk .. and from time to time, risk catches up with “risk management” and we encounter a disastrous problem such as this.  My point of this post is that there is ONLY ONE technical source which could stop this problem, and that is the expertise of BP.  And the last “help” we need is from the government and environmentalists that forced drilling 6 miles off shore in 1 mile deep water, rather than to drill on land on in shallow water where accidents could be avoided and problems solved more quickly.

Tune Out the Political “Noise.” Obama tries to look “presidential” like Truman and “takes full responsibility” (the buck stops here) for the disaster. No, he was probably playing golf when it happened, and he had nothing to do with it and he will have nothing to do with the solution.  For Example, he goes to the Gulf beaches and looks at the tar balls, gives a speech and within 3 hours flies off to a vacation in Chicago … that will certainly help “plug the damned hole!”  My point is that this administration is prepared for “nothing” when it comes to the safety of this nation, environmentally, against terrorism, economics,  border control or any other threat to our safety and sovereignty.  Any response we get to any of these is finger-pointing, denial and words well versed in politics and ideology.  This catastrophe happening on the Gulf of Mexico shores will not be abated or solved with “words”. The best “help” Washington add would be to “put a sock in it!” and get the hell out of the way.

Get Educated on the Problem: So turn off the TV, and light up your computer.  Get yourself educated.  Watch the technical seminars from BP (Linked Below) and learn the terminology and the specifics of this historic problem. You will see videos of equipment you have never heard about on TV and you will see it being employed by REAL engineers and scientists. I’ll be linking to wonderful graphic illustrations of project cybernetics. You will probably see REAL PEOPLE make technical and engineering mistakes while they work on a problem of magnitude never before encountered.    And eventually, you will also see these same people solve the problem.

Back to Top

B. Latest News Links: (What’s happening now)

1. BP’s LIVE FEED of UNDERWATER OPERATIONS
2. BP offers $500M to Academics to study Oil Spill’s Effects (SunHearld 05-10)
3. AP Top Kill Failed (AP 05.29.10)
4. BP to Know by weeks end on new procedure (Reuters 05.30.10)
5. BP may not cap Gulf Well until August (NYPost 05.31.10)
6. BP to retry spill “containment” (WashTimes 05.31.10)
7. Oil Leak may continue till August (MSNBC 05.31.10)
8. BP Begins 3rd attempt to contain leak (WSJ 05.31.10)
9. Diamond Saw gets caught – Oil approaches FL (AllVoices 06.02.10)
10. BP Places Cap, Oil still flows from well head (WSJ 06.04.10)
11. BP only capturing 10% of the leak now (Gather 06.05.10)
12. AL.COM’s coverage of Gulf Oil Leak (lots of new news) (AL 06.05.10)
13. Containment Cap Closely Watched (ABC 06.07.10)
14. BP “Majority of oil being captured” (ChristSciMon 06.07.10)
15. BP planning a 2nd containment vessel (DripOil 06.07.10)
16. White House Chief tied to BP advisor (WND 06.08.10)
17. BP will be next bailout (NYPost 06.08.10)
18. Crisis not “wasted”:Obama to Nationalize Oil? (WND 06.08.10)
19. Disaster in the Gulf: 48 Days and Counting (Fox 06.08.10)
20. Kerry: Offshore drilling will not be halted (Yahoo 06.07.10)
21. BP/Gov Ties are disturbing (Examiner 06.07.10)
22. Leave BP Alone (Forbes 06.08.10)
23. BP’s Horrible Safety Record (BI 06.08.10)
24. BP Value sinks $17B Yesterday (NYPost 06.10.10)
25. BP hires dead man to solve BP Spill Problem (NBC 06.10.10)
26. Revealed: Administration lied about stopping drilling (WSJ 06.10.10)
27. BP Flow Update (The Street 06.11.10)
28. CleanupOfficial: Plentiful Packgen Boom, didn’t pass Gov Tests (BMcCarty 06.13.10)
29. US Turned Down UK Aid to help clean up spill (Dispersants!) (TimesOnline 06.14.10)
30. BP Escrow Fund Another Bad Idea (NLPC 06.14.10)
31. Amazing spill pictures posted at Free Republic (FR 06.15.10)
32. BP Hopful for 2nd Oil Capture Method Tuesday (XE.com 06.15.10)
33. An Offer BP Couldn’t Refuse (Foundry 06.17.10)
34. Day 60 and Tony Hayward steps down, Bob Dudley to take over (06.20.10)
35. Spill could last 2-4 years! (Newsmax 06.22.10)
36. Oil flowing freely after Containment Cap accident (Time 06.23.10)
37. Moratorium won’t reduce drilling risks (NYTimes 06.26.10)
38. Jindal gives most blistering rpt on Fed Response (07.01.10)
39. Oil Spill Concealment has begun (07.03.10)
40. Obama’s Deliberate Katrina (07.03.10)
41. Cap Loosens (07.04.10)
42. First rig sails from Gulf to Egypt (banned) (07.10.10)
43. Cap Removed to replace Cap, oil gushes (07.11.10)
44. Majority of tar balls in TX are not from Deepwater Horizon (07.11.10)
45. BP Places Cap on Well (07.13.10)
46. White Hose proposes 3rd Moratorium! (07.13.10)
47. Idled Rigs head to Africa (07.14.10)
48. As  cap test halt, Scientists fear spill’s future (07.15.10)
49. BP finally stops oil spewing from Gulf oil Gusher (07.16.10)
50. Maybe Tony Hayward was right … not as bad as thought?
51. Jindal announces commencement of fishing (07.30.10)
52. The crisis that wasn’t (07.31.10)
53. House Votes to end drilling ban (07.31.10)
54. Miss. Dept Marine Resources: Let’s go fishing! (07.31.10)
55. BP completes cementing Gulf Oil Well (08.05.10)
56. Key Oil Spill Evidence raised (BOP on board!) (09.05.10)
57. White House Altered Drilling Report (banning drilling) (11.13.10)
    

August 4 2010 Update

“Quote: ‘There’s absolutely no evidence that there’s any significant concentration of oil that’s out there that we haven’t accounted for.’ So, I’d say that Mother Earth just beach-slapped the Democrats and the media.” -Rush

NY Times: WASHINGTON — The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated — and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm.

Did the Democrats once again try to “exploit a crisis too good to waste” … trying to stop drilling with moratoriums, trying to pass Cap and Trade, etc? This “performance” is getting a little old and folks are getting wise to it.  (Check out post #57 above … they did exploit the crisis by changing the data so they could use it!)

Back to Top

C. BP Links

1. Kent Wells May 24th Technical Seminar:
2. Kent Wells May 31st Update
3. BP’s RSS Feed to your own site
4. BP’s ROV Cam
5. Alabama Response Website
6. Florida Response Website
7. Louisiana Response Website
8. Mississippi Response Website
9. BP Reports from the Gulf (news from BP reporters)
10. Video Links:
    • All ROV Work on one page!
    • Ship: Ocean Intervention III – ROV #1
    • Ship: Ocean Intervention III – ROV #2
    • Ship: Viking Poseidon – ROV #1
    • Ship: Viking Poseidon – ROV #2
    • Ship: Boa Deep C – ROV #1
    • Ship: Boa Deep C – ROV #2
    • Ship: Skandi – ROV #1
    • Ship: Skandi – ROV #2
    • Ship: Enterprise – ROV #1
    • Ship: Enterprise – ROV #2
    • Ship: Q-4000 – ROV #1
    • Ship: Q-4000 – ROV #2

Back to Top

D. Investigating the Cause

1. There was nobody in charge (WSJ 05-27.10)
2. Disaster Plans Lacking in DepWater Rigs (WSJ 05.18.10)
3. Focus Turns to Well-Blocking System (NYT 06.05.10)
4. BP Spill highlights lack of regulatory oversight (CH 06.08.10)
5. Rig Survivors: BP ordered shortcut on day of blast (CNN 06.08.10)
6. Spill, Human Error, not System Failure (WSJ 06.12.10)
7. BP Rig missed 16 Inspections prior to explosion (CBS 06.12.10)
8. BP Emails, Doomed Rig was a Nightmare Well (CBS 06.14.10)
9. Foreign Flag of Offshore Rigs Skirts US Safety (LATimes 06.14.10)
10. Insp. Gen’s report on Minerals Management Service (ABC 06.14.10)
11. Five crucial moves by BP, leading to cause? ChristSciMon 06.17.10)
12. Was Oil Spill an Inside Job? (Conspiracy Theory Alert) (06.20.10)
13. Cracks show BP battled well 2 mos B4 blast (Bloomberg (06.22.10)
14. BP Spill Cause (Radio Voice 06.30.10) <= Excellent article
15. Deepwater Horizon Drill hit Underground Cavern (07.01.10)
16. Blowout Preventer Activation Device modified in China (07.18.10)
    
17. Oil Rig Alarm was not fully turned on! (07.23.10)
18. Picture emerges of “iffy” decisions (07.25.10)
19. Coast Guard Investigation: Firefighters help sink rig? (07.27.10)

Back to Top

E. Technology Links (Educating Ourselves)

1. Blowout – definition … causes, explanations (Wiki 06.05.10)
2. Blow Out Preventors (BOP) and ROVs (IEEESpectrum 05.20.10)
3. 

   Blowout Preventer

   Blowout Preventer (Wiki 06.05.10)

4. Blowout Preventer (Oilfield 06.05.10)
5. Blowouts – notable historic list (Wiki 06.05.10)
6. Cutting Metal Under Water (OilDrum 06.01.10)
7. Dispersants … how they work (PopSci 06.05.10)
8. Drilling Rig (types and uses) (Wiki 06.05.10)
9. Drilling Relief Wells poses challenges (NOLA 05.29.10)
10. LMRP Cap (BP 06.01.10)
11. LMRP Capping AttemptExplanation (TheOilDrum 05.29.10)
12. ROV Definition (Wiki 06.05.10)
13. Top Kill may have failed, why? (OilDrum 05.31.10)
14. Dispersants and the Piper (The Patriot’s Flag 06.11.10)
15. The Well structure is compromised DOWN HOLE (OilDrum 06.15.10)
16. Stat Analysis of how many Relief Wells will be needed (OilDrum 06.15.10)
17. 300 by 300 by 300 feet = Volume spilled to date (FreeRepublic 06.23.10)
18. BP readying a Super Weapon, EPFCG (07.14.10)
19. Why We will Never Run Out of Oil (Discovery 06.17.10)

Back to Top

F. Obama Administration’s Lame Responses

1. O tells aids to “Plug the Damned Hole” (Reuters 05.25.10)
2. O to meet with his “commission” (AP 06.01.10)
3. Have you seen this man? (Fugate/Fema) (InvestOba 06.01.10)
4. Admin distances itself from Oil Spill (WashPost 06.01.10)
5. US Ramps up Probes into Oil Spill (WSJ 06.01.10)
6. Political Correctness trumps Expertise (AmerCatholic 06.01.10)
7. Obama Faults GOP & BP, defends his agenda (LATimes 06.02.10)
8. FL’s Repub Atty Gen excluded from Holder Meeting (DailyCaller 06.03.10)
9. Feds deny drilling freeze to shallow waters (WashPo 06-03.10)
10. Feds halt drilling in Gulf (is ANYbody in charge?) (AP 06-03.10)
11. Obama and the Oil Spill (MorningBell 06.03.10)
12. Drilling Ban to cost 1000′s of Jobs (CNN 06.04.10)
13. Coast Grd Logs: White House knew spill extent in 24 hours (HumEvents 06.04.10)
14. Families of Killed Rig Workers to Visit W.H. (WISN.com) [why?]
15. Obama takes swing at BP on LA trip (NYDaily 06.04.10)
16. Obama: “BP Short-changing Residents (SkyNews 06.05.10)
17. Obama knew scope of spill on Day 1 (FirstThingsFirst 06.05.10)
18. Obama’s Manufactured Fury (CanadaFreePress 06.07.10)
19. News Control? People, reporters barred from affected areas (Examiner 06.07.10)
20. Obama: Let them eat Tar Balls – Party on! (AmericanThinker 06.08.10)
21. Obama’s Oil Drill ban crippling Gulf States (HumanEvents 06.08.10)
22. Obama to use oil spill to promote Cap and Trade (InvestObama 06.08.10)
23. Poll: Obama’s spill response worse than Bush’s Katrina (Dakota 06.07.10)
24. Obama meets with experts so he knows “Who’s Ass to Kick” (RealClearPol 06.07.10)
25. Obama: I would have fired BP Chief by now (MSNBC 06.08.10)
26. Spill reveals O’s lack of exec experience (WashExam 06.08.10)
27. Oil Spill reveals Obama’s Total Lack of Plan (FlopAces 06.08.10)
28. Obama’s Mishandling of the Oil Spill (HuckPAC 06.11.10)
29. Lord Tebbit condemns “anti-BP” Obama (ThisIsMoney 06.11.10)
30. Obama, more laws needed (WSJ 06.11.10)
31. Obama: Congress Shares Blame with BP (blaming others!) (Politico 06.11.10)
32. Obama blocks speedy BP oil cleanup (RadioViceOnline 06.11.10)
33. Jones Act: forbids non-US boats to help with spill (LiveShots 06.11.10)
34. Obama refuses to waive the Jones Act (Examiner 06.12.10)
35. The Spill, The Scandal and the President (RollingStone 06.12.10)
36. (Pathetic!) Obama: Gulf Spill ‘echos 911″ (Politico 06.14.10)
37. Obama’s Response to Spill, Incompetence or Politics? (Rant 06.14.10)
38. WH takes cues on spill from Lib think tank (WSJ 06.14.10)
39. Fury as Obama compares BP spill to 911 (Mail 06.14.10)
40. Oil Industry in Ruins: “Mission Accomplished for Obama?” (CFP 06.14.10)
41. Obama accuses BP of “recklessness” (that’ll help!)(MSNBC 06.15.10)
42. EPA’s National Contingency Plan (ThePatriotsFlag 06.10.10)
43. Obama’s Drilling Freeze will cost 120,000 jobs (The Blast 06.16.10)
44. Why Obama’s EPA turned down Dutch help offer (MoonBattery 06.16.10)
45. 53 days later, Obama accepts Dutch offer! (BigGovernment 06.16.10)
46. RNC Ad – Why didn’t you pick up the phone? (LibertyJuice 06.17.10
47. Coast Guard Stops Skim Vessels, said “unsafe” (Neoavatara 06.17.10)
48. Obama accepts help from 5 of 28  offers (GatewayPundit 06.19.10)
49. Emanuel: Hayward’s sailing daybad Obama Golf OK! (Politipage)
50. Gods Work? Luck? Or Lawbreaking! (Market Ticker 06.22.10)
51. Operation Gulf Grease ($$, Obama, Spill) (Investigating Obama 06.22.10)
52. EngySec: BP will save world, accepts $500 Million (ButAsForMe 06.22.10)
53. The Elephant and the Obama Question (American Spectator 06.22.10)
54. Fed Gov halts Sand Berm Dredging (WDSU 06.23.10)
55. BP makes largest political contribution ever (Townhall 06.26.10)
56. How Obama bungled the Oil Spill (Dick Morris 06.30.10)
57. Obama’s Oil Spill “to do” list (Morning Bell 06.30.10)
58. Largest Skimmer in World hasn’t “cleared” Feds (The DC 06.30.10)
59. Obama too late taking up foreign offers (Day 70) (07.01.10)
60. Issa’s report on Gulf cleanup – Cleanup is Bogus! (07.01.10)
61. Issa’s Repoft in PDF Format (07.01.10)
62. Obama shuts down 33% of USA Refining Capacity (07.01.10) <-+ OBAMA HATES USA!
63. Obama Uses EPA to Shut down TX Refineries (07.01.10)
64. EPA Verdict still out on “A Whale” (skimmer!) 07.05.10)
65. US Ready to announce New Drilling Moratorium (07.10.10)
66. Bipartisan Opposition to Obama’s Oil Spill Panel (07.11.10)
67. WH: Says it could contain 90% spill by August (07.12.10)
68. Oil Spill Response: Stuck on Stupid! (07.12.10)
69. Most Transparent Admin: Reports from Gulf = Felony! (07.12.10)
70. White Hose proposes 3rd Moratorium! (07.13.10)
71. Cap and Ban (07.14.10)
72. Gov questions “safety” of BP’s Cap (07.14.10)
73. 100 Days Later, Obama still failing in the Gulf (07.27.10)

Back to Top

G. News AFTER the LEAK STOPPAGE

1. Why We will Never Run Out of Oil (Discovery 06.17.10)
2. House has bill banning BP from (our) offshore drilling (07.16.10)
3. Here’s why oil spill is overblown All going well in LA (07.23.10)
4. Where did all the Crude Go (Can’t find the oil!) (07.26.10)
5. BP Used dispersant despite EPA (07.31.10)
6. So I was right about the BP spill! (08.01.10)
7. Oil Plumes eaten by Bacteria, Seafood tests as “Safe” (08.02.10)
8. Was the [disaster] threat of the spill overplayed? (08.05.10)
9. The Disaster that never was (BP) (08.08.10)
10. BP seals Macondo Well Permanently (09.20.10)

H. Bottom Line

When there is a crisis, people respond with two very distinct behaviors … emotional response, logical response.  We will see that with this crisis also.

• The emotional response will be outrage at BP, outrage at the Big Oil Companies,  lawyers sewing lawyers, speeches, threats, politicians being outraged, etc. This is just noise, it is what we expect from community organizers and general “noise-makers.” It gives people a short term “feel good” feeling, but it doesn’t “plug the damned hole!” Interference to get to the final solution will come from the Emotional Response. (politicians, do-gooders, environmentalists, etc). The noise-makers will exacerbate the problem not solve it. Turn them off!

• The logical response will be, “this is a hell of a mess, now what are we doing about it?”  This response is actionable and this is the response we expect from scientists and engineers that know a great deal more about this subject than politically appointed commissions.  The logical response will be what eventually “plugs the damned hole.”  The eventual SOLUTION to the problem will come from the logical response, (engineers, scientists, ROV operators, etc).

We need to close out the NOISE from the emotionally outraged, and LISTEN carefully to the people who will actually FIX this problem.  What we learn from this disaster will prevent future disasters and will help with the management of future risk.

The final “solution” … (like in the War of the Worlds) was not politicians, government officials or even engineers … but microbes. The tiniest remediation engineers on the planet. And they were on the scene of the “disaster” from day 1 (unlike others we know). Tony Hayward (of all people?) who is a geological engineer understood the problem from the beginning … but with all the “noise” he was chastised and literally run out of town … but in the end …

Telegraph: But through all the fog of name-calling, doom-mongering and political accusations, something unexpected has been happening out on the water. At first, it was just camera crews and photographers complaining that they could not find oiled animals to shoot; then it was the clean-up crews themselves who were struggling to find anything to clean. The immense patches of surface oil that once covered thousands of square miles of the Gulf have largely gone, and now just a handful of dead animals – all birds – are being reported each day. Furthermore, toxicity levels on the ocean floor appear to be low.

One hundred days on from the original blow-out, the question is beginning to be asked: might the scale of the potential environmental damage have been exaggerated? Was the ill-fated Mr Hayward right when he predicted that the environmental impact of the spill would be “very, very modest”?

“The Gulf of Mexico is a bit like the River Tyne. There is a lot of industry and boat traffic along it, as well as the oil industry, which has minor leaks all the time. When Tony Hayward said it was a drop in the ocean, it might have been the wrong thing to say at the time, but it was the truth. This spill is the equivalent of less than a drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. For all but a tiny bit of the Gulf, it will be back to normal within a year.
Professor Geoffrey Maitland, an energy engineer at Imperial College, agrees that the Gulf is well adapted to oil spills because tens of millions of gallons naturally seep into it every year. “Many people do not realise that oil is a naturally occurring substance and nature has a way of dealing with it,” he says. It doesn’t need to be scooped off, burnt or dispersed with chemicals. “In fact, it is often best to let it just evaporate and biodegrade naturally.

“With all the clean-up work, natural evaporation and biodegradation, I reckon 50 per cent of the oil has already gone and the rest will follow shortly. There is talk of a lot of oil below the surface, but I am a bit skeptical, as oil is less dense than water and so it floats.”

Summary as of July 30, 2010

As predicted at the beginning of “The Bottom Line” … there were two forces at work, the noise-makers and the problem-solvers.  The noise-makers made the process worse, the problem-solvers predicted the (lack of) intensity of the ca strophe and understood the built-in environmental solution necessary.  They were also the ones who “plugged the damned hole” … not the “noise-maker” politicians and news media.

The lawyers got in the act and the press was fed its tainted Wheaties to strongly report the “disaster” … the disaster will turn out to be an economic disaster caused by the politicians, the lawyers and the news media.  None of these three did ANYTHING to solve the problem, ALL THREE added to the problem and caused the “real” disaster.

Watching the hype on the “poisonous dispersant” was a study in stupidity. People obviously didn’t have a “clue” as to how they worked, so they began dissing the “poisonous dispersant” from the “big, bad chemical company” … a chemical that would kill the gulf.  I wrote Dispersants and the Piper and with the hits we got on it, many people got educated quickly. One “strong environmentalist that was going after Corexit (the dispersant), wrote me personally and admitted he did not know that technology and thanked me for the information … he also back away from dispersant criticism immediately.

The answer to any problem is knowledge.  “Information” from the news media, pundits, lawyers and politicians is NOT knowledge!  These are simply words that they implement for self-protection or self-aggrandizement.  So it was easy to predict that the “noise-makers” would not solve the problem and would actually exacerbate the problem. All Obama had to fight this was his personal “little red book” of left-wing ideology.  Useless in any situation.

Lesson Learned? Turn off the “noise-makers” … distrust their decisions. Turn off the hype-news media. Anybody talking catastrophe and disaster … turn them off.  You don’t solve a problem by jumping up and down screaming about the problem, ordering the “the hole be plugged”, and looking for “ass to kick.”  You solve the problem by understanding the science and engineering of the problem … and you turn to scientists and engineers.  In that process, you step aside and let them do their work, even cheering them on to give them encouragement.

The 3 AM call…came and …

We now know Obama’s response when an emergency arises.

Blame everybody else and do nothing!

Obama’s “focused response” (I will not sleep!)

But Remember, Obama ONLY thinks about the Oil Spill, First thing in the morning, last thing at night … unless there’s a party going on!  The  lack of “focus” continues …..

…and in the same week..Big Party at Ford Theater. Isn’t it a wonderful life?

Below: Day 55, at Kennedy Center … still partying.

Back to Top

Doug 1st Navy Union Jack - Liberty Threatened