BP Lied: Neither BP nor Obama Administration Deployed Assets To Stop Spread of Oil Spill

June 12, 2010 (LPAC)—British Petroleum claimed that it could handle an oil spill of 12.6 million gallons (or 300,000 barrels) a day, in its "Oil Spill Response Plan" filed as a requirement for being allowed to operate its Deepwater Horizon well. But because neither BP nor the Federal government was prepared to deploy the necessary assets to clean up the spill, BP has only been able to recover about 1.5 million gallons over the past six weeks, according to Ben Raines of Alabama's Mobile Press-Register, who was interviewed on National Public Radio's "To the Point" program.

Raines was joined by Prof. Edward Overton of Louisiana State University, who agreed with Raines, and insisted that there should have been a "war" on spilled surface oil from the beginning, but that very little has been done. If this had been done from the beginning, Overton said, you wouldn't have to disperse it below the surface, and could stop it before it reaches the shore line. "We've got the technology to do this," he said; it's just not in the Gulf. He pointed out that every major port in the world has large skimmers, which should have been put on C-117s and flown in to the Gulf. They should have put up floating hotels for workers operating skimmers so they can spend most of the day working instead of in transit back and forth. Overton also said we need aerial assets to find where the thick oil patches are, so they can be skimmed up.

Overton said it's best to use booms to collect the oil, and then skim and suck the oil up out of the booms. Raines said the BP Response Plan listed hundred and hundreds of skimmers in the Gulf, and claimed they could recover 17.6 million gallons per day by skimming, but they arrived at this figure by just adding up all the skimmers in the Gulf; but of course they are not all being deployed, and many are small and can't work offshore in big waves.

Raines said burning is far and away the quickest way to get rid of the oil; in one day, they burned 700,000 gallons. But BP doesn't have the fireboom technology; they had to buy the first one in Illinois, and get more from Alaska, from which they ordered 8,000 feet, then cancelled the order, then re-ordered 10 days later. The Coast Guard has a 1994 plan, which gives pre-approval for burning off oil spills; this could have been implemented immediately, but for the lack of the firebooms and other needed assets. There are now eight fireboom boats, but there should have been 40 boats out there with the booms, soon after the explosion when the spill started.

Crisis in the Gulf of Mexico Part III

NOTE: Check at 6.40 Min !!!

 

Coast Guard to BP: Speed It Up, Stop the Spill