Where BP/GoM Oil Spill Made Landfall
The NYT has had some dazzling intergraphics showing various aspects of the Deepwater Horizon spillage. This one startled me — the extent of the environmental damage is far greater than I previously imagined:
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click for interactive graphic
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I was also taken aback by this quote, via the NYT’s Joe Nocera:
“We have to get the priorities right,” the chief executive of BP said. “And Job 1 is to get to these things that have happened, get them fixed and get them sorted out. We don’t just sort them out on the surface, we get them fixed deeply.”
-BP CEO John Browne, in 2006, regarding the Prudhoe Bay spill in Alaska
Nocera accuses BP of having 4 years to prepare and prevent this disaster — and they blew it:
Do you remember the Prudhoe Bay leak and the Texas City explosion? They were big news at the time, though they quickly faded from the headlines. BP was fined $21 million for the numerous violations that contributed to the Texas City explosion, and it was forced to endure a phased shutdown of its Alaska operations while it repaired the corroded pipeline, which cost it additional revenue.
In retrospect, though, the two accidents represented something else as well: they were a huge gift to the company. The fact that these two accidents — thousands of miles apart, and involving very different parts of BP — took place within a year showed that something was systemically wrong with BP’s culture. Mr. Browne had built BP by taking over other oil companies, like Amoco in 1998, and then ruthlessly cutting costs, often firing the acquired company’s most experienced engineers. Taking shortcuts was ingrained in the company’s culture, and everyone in the oil business knew it.
The accidents should have been the wake-up call BP needed to change that culture. But the mistakes and negligence that took place on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico — which are so profound that everyone I spoke to in the oil business found them truly inexplicable — suggest that the two men never did much more than mouth nice-sounding platitudes.
Which also makes the disaster even more unforgivable than it already is. BP executives had four years to fix the company’s problems before an accident took place that was truly catastrophic. And they blew it.
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June 19th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
[...] Where BP/GoM Oil Spill Made Landfall By Barry Ritholtz – June 19th, 2010, 12:00PM [...]
June 19th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
They need to be put down like a rabid dog.
June 19th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
far better graphic here (almost real time)
http://gomex.erma.noaa.gov/erma.html#x=-90.42000&y=28.03000&z=6&layers=4080+4063+497+3930
June 19th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
What about all the little shrimp? Pardon the pun…
June 19th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
And where is Hayward?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/As-oil-spews-in-Gulf-BP-chief-apf-1422722456.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
“As oil spews in Gulf, BP chief Tony Hayward attends yacht race at UK’s Isle of Wight ”
This is what I believe is referred to as “entitlement”, meaning when you reach elite status, you are entitled to be an assh_le.
At least he has his life back.
June 19th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
I thought maybe BP had canned Browne as a way of addressing their problems after these accidents. Nope. Tony Hayward became BP’s CEO after Browne was caught finding boyfriends through a gay escort service called “Suited and Booted.”
Ah, BP…Does it stand for “British Petroleum,” “Beyond Petroleum,” or “Beyond the Pale?”
June 19th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Obviously this is a very bad situation. And Im not happy about it.
However, given the 5th-grade-chicken-little behavior of all the press surrounding it some perspective is in order.
The most recent reliable rate of flow I’ve read comes in on the order of 1 million gallons/day.
According to the EPA there are 643 quadrillion [643,000,000,000,000,000 gallons, or 643 million billion gallons] gallons of water in the Gulf of Mexico; http://www.epa.gov/gmpo/about/facts.html
So 60 days @ 1 million gallons/day yields a 3 to 32,150,000,000 [32 billion, 150 million gallons] ratio
or 384 ounces for every 32,150,000,000 gallons
Expressed in FULL bathtubs [assuming a 100 gallon bathtub, which is very common] that’s 321 million, 500 thousand bathtubs;
So if the oil was Oil of Olay oil, those 3 ounces would have to be shared by roughly every person in the US[ there’s “only” 307 million, 6 thousand and 550 people in the US, sorry but not everyone bathes… {http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=uspopulation&met=population&tdim=true&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+of+the+US}
So the number of ounces of oil in the GofM, expressed in the common full bath tub is … 1 millionth of an ounce, per tub.
Oh yes, there is a real world historical perspective… it is estimated that roughly 700 million gallons of oil were released into the Persian Gulf during Gulf War I. So, the well in the Gulf of Mexico would have to run for 21 or so months, or just over two total years.
Dont get me wrong, this is a bad thing. And just so it’s clear. I think this was not a “corporate” evil; remember it was US, NOT British, citizens who manned the rig, made the decisions, and succumbed to pressure or greed. …. or what I think happened, made a decision they believed to be safe, but one that proved to be wrong.
Those I despise in all of this. The politicians and regulators. If you dont understand why, then it’s probably impossible for you to understand.
Just please try to remember these numbers when looking at the “dazzling” NYT graphics. I figure if the red dots were drawn to scale, it would be a dazzlingly white graphic.
June 19th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Sorry, missed a typo, the “3″ in “So if the oil was Oil of Olay oil, those 3 ounces ” should have been “384″, or ounces should have been changed to gallons.
Regardless the final “tub number”, one millionth of an ounce, is correct.
June 19th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
WSJ article about riskier well type used by BP, cheaper too except for the cleanup expenses. BP was pennywise & pound foolish.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704289504575313010283981200.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEADSecondNewsCollection
June 19th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Not to worry, BP still has its’ supporters in Congress. When you get over a million dollars from an industry, you should expect a little help when you need it.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nationworld/stories/061810dnnatbartonbp.b0aaffc4.html
June 19th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
It’s very worrysome. If it gets into the “Loop Current” the East Coast of Florida and the Carolinas will have their own problems. Big Real Estate Interests in the Resorts. Bad for the Economy…dragging it all down..
Not Good.
June 19th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
WSJ article about riskier well type used by BP, cheaper too except for the cleanup expenses. BP was pennywise & pound foolish.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704289504575313010283981200.html
June 19th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
HCSKnight at 1:58pm
Stop being a tedious wanker. The problem is that—duh—the goddam oil is NOT dispersing evenly throughout the gulf. If only it were!
As to your assertion it’s the regulators’ and politicians’ fault, go to the link rktbkr posted at 8:30pm:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704289504575313010283981200.html
I have no love for for corrupt regulators or our political class either, but that WSJ article is a dose of reality far more pertinent than your ideal dispersal ratio exercise.
Besides which, for example, Prince William Sound still has not recovered from the Exxon Valdez. Not to mention that the Gulf has been under assault from industrial and agri-chemical runoff for over 3 generations and already possessed a sizable dead zone before BP’s cost-cutting blessed us with its latest accident.
Sheesh–you usually make some sort of sense…
June 20th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Assuming the relief well comes on board in August, expect by next summer all this will be a distant memory. Sad to say but the average citizen’s memory is no more than six months long. The regulators and the politicians know this all too well. Six months tops-for remembering anything.
June 20th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
GrafSchweik
I often make sense… As for your perception of “tedious wanker”… well that show’s your emotionally non-tedious.
Regardless, let me correct you on a few of your comments.
I know about dispersion and it’s application to the current situation. The fact is I’ve learned, after more than a few flights across this great country, at less than 500′, and a couple of “floats” on the waters of the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf about the vastness of the earth; something the vast majority of the people in the world have little sense of. Hence the 1 millionth of an ounce per BATHTUB – people can not legitimately conceive of something so small. The point remains. I’ll add, the REAL danger to the GofM is the methane, which effects the O2 in the water and kills the fish – NOT the OIL.
Re: “As to your assertion it’s the regulators’ and politicians’ fault, go to the link rktbkr posted at 8:30pm:” & “but that WSJ article is a dose of reality far more pertinent than your ideal dispersal ratio exercise.”
- Wow, you really have a way of coming out and telling everyone how deeply ignorant you are of what has gone on and what is going on. …. Who allowed BP, and the other companies, to use those methods? I’ll give you a hint. Regulators. Here’s an example, from my experience as a military officer; I was on a very large program where contractors become responsible for spaces in which classified military information was to be held. These contractors, became VERY VERY VERY concerned with the letter of the law of regulation regarding classified material spaces. Why? Because the contractor who signed the papers designating the space as meeting the security regulations became PERSONALLY liable. Interestingly, the day prior, when these classified spaces were the responsibility of a military Commanding Officer, [who could waive requirements via administrative process] they were acceptable spaces for classified material. However the contractor refused to sign-off on the spaces as secure until all the building codes were brought up to security specs. It was the responsibility of the military to pay for these upgrades. Needless to say, the military didnt make the upgrades and the space became one in which classified material could no longer be stored. So, I ask you again. Who signed off on these designs? I’ll remind you oil production and exploration is probably, next to nuclear power plants, probably the most regulated industry in the history of the world. I’ll remind you that the behavior of the regulators who were responsible for ensuring these regulations were met has recently been shown to be ….. classic, corrupt, civil-servant criminal dirt bags. So yea, I place a LARGE portion of blame on the regulators and politicians. And it would be good to remember that the “BP” folks are ALL Americans. Americans did this to America. NOT “BP”.
Re: “Besides which, for example, Prince William Sound still has not recovered from the Exxon Valdez.”
- Really? Prove it. And I’ll add that Valdez was REFINED oil, not natural, un-refined, heavy crude.
Re: “Not to mention that the Gulf has been under assault from industrial and agri-chemical runoff for over 3 generations and already possessed a sizable dead zone before BP’s cost-cutting blessed us with its latest accident.”
- Well, if it’s been “under assault”, how was it doing so well? And how big is this “sizable” dead zone you claim exists. And what exactly is a “dead zone”.
- The fact is I do care about the environment, a lot. But the environmental wackos have lied and distorted so much, for so long, it is now their responsibility to prove their claims; not the other way around.
- On this topic, one thing I dont like are the chemical dispersants used to “clean up” the oil. But, again, who allows them to be used? Regulators, politicians, the government.
Seems to me your real problem is you’re either afraid or unable to face and fight the real problem; corrupt, screwed up, regulators and politicians. Try this one on for size; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575306881766723718.html
June 20th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
“I’ll remind you that the behavior of the regulators who were responsible for ensuring these regulations were met has recently been shown to be ….. classic, corrupt, civil-servant criminal dirt bags. ”
+100. Strange how these folks are allowed to “retire early” though.
Still, if they are corrupt, there has to be someone doing the corrupting, unless they are corrupt simply as a hobby. Usually that means payola, “gifts”, a promise of a cushy job after leaving the public sector, etc…
June 21st, 2010 at 2:05 am
Here’s the problem:
BP wants to save the well.
US Gov’t wants ( or should want) to save the environment.
These are cross purposes.
The resolution, unless the Gov’t takes over will not be good.