Tube Catches ‘Some’ Oil From Leak

[Are_grits_groceries]

NEW ORLEANS, La. — An experimental attempt to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico experienced some limited success over the weekend, BP announced Sunday afternoon.

Engineers successfully inserted a tube into the damaged riser pipe from which some of the oil is spewing, capturing “some amounts of oil and gas” before the tube was dislodged, the announcement said. The tube was inspected and reinserted, BP said.

“While not collecting all of the leaking oil, this tool is an important step in reducing the amount of oil being released into Gulf waters,” the announcement said. It did not say why the tube had come dislodged or how much oil and gas were taken aboard the Discover Enterprise, the drill ship waiting to separate the oil, gas and water as it is siphoned off. The gas that reached the ship was burned using a flare system on board.

The tube is one of several proposed methods of stanching the flow of at least 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf, threatening marine life and sensitive wetlands and beaches in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. BP officials have emphasized that none of the techniques has been previously attempted at the depth of this leak, 5,000 feet below the surface.

Efforts to insert the tube, a five-foot section of pipe with a rubber seal designed to keep seawater out, into the broken riser pipe from which the majority of the oil is gushing, began on Friday using robotic submarines.

But the initial attempt to connect the mile-long pipe leading from the drill ship to the tube failed, and the device had to be brought back to the surface for adjustments.

“This is all part of reinventing technology,” said Tom Mueller, a BP spokesman, on Saturday. “It’s not what I’d call a problem — it’s what I’d call learning, reconfiguring, doing it again.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/us/17spill.html?hp

“It’s not what I’d call a problem — it’s what I’d call learning, reconfiguring, doing it again.” (about the whatever inserting the pipe.)

I'd call it a problem at the very least. Spinning isn't going to help them.

[Generic Other]

1. Can I have ten minutes in a room alone with this spokesperson

I would like to teach him how a slightly smaller pipe is inserted into a slightly larger orifice. Not a problem. Learning about pain perhaps.

[malaise]

2. Knowing BP they're probably trying to save

some oil for their own profits.

[Lasher]

6. That is their first priority. Just look what they're doing, not what anyone is saying.

They're trying to recover the oil and BP is not interested in sealing the well if that means they won't be able to get oil out of that same hole.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. oddly it is a near perfect metaphor for what has happened to the Gulf...

too bad they couldn't have done some "learning, reconfiguring, doing it again" before the disaster so they could have been prepared for it...

sP

[jimshoes]

4. Would it be a problem if you were going in front of a

firing squad?

[damntexdem]

5. Goo Tube?

;-)

[Turbineguy]

7. If they fail,

we can gloat.

Sometimes I wonder if we are not the other side of the same coin as freerepublic.