Sunday, May 16, 2010

BP Succeeds In Inserting Siphon Tube Into Leak... Kinda. UPDATED

According to NPR, BP today announced success!

Kinda sorta (all emphasis is mine).
BP officials say they were on the verge of a breakthrough stemming the gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but another accident has set them back.
Officials say they successfully inserted a new pipe into the broken pipe spewing oil into the Gulf. That new pipe started sending oil to a ship on the surface, but, just moments later, two remotely-operated robots crashed into each other and knocked the pipes partially apart. The robots were taking photos of the operation.  BP spokesman Glenn DaGian says engineers estimate it will take about nine hours to fix the problem. Despite the debacle, he says, BP was able to prove that their latest effort to fix the well was working — however briefly.
"Sending oil to a ship on the surface?"  It seems to me that the underlying theme here by British Petroleum is not just permanently stopping the leak, but also figuring out how to divert the leaking oil into the "profit" column.

I'll refrain from making any comparisons to Laurel and Hardy.

UPDATE:
According to the latest report, the mile-long drinking straw seems to be working!
I hope it continues to work, and they figure out how to actually stop the leak instead of merely diverting it to a tanker above.
Otherwise, if the estimate of a flow equal to the Exxon Valdez every four days is right, they'd better get a bunch of tankers lined up... for years to come.

1 comment:

Grace said...

Thanks for the updates. You're right, they need to stop the leak instead of keeping their focus on the dollar signs. What a damn mess.

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