Over Two weeks after it was widely reported by those watching the BP live oil leak cam that a series of explosions may have Gulf of Mexico sea floor to collapse the Government is now investigating those reports.
I first reported here that a series of those explosion of oil and debris continued and caused topkill to fail although there was no immediate mention of the event in the media, until now.
Last night on Countdown Keith Olberman said their is now evidence that an underground blowout may be happening causing oil to seep out of BP’s leaking well through in various places on the ocean floor.
Could this be one of many possible leaks on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico?
Olbermann reported that BP discovered during the topkill procedure that the well was broken beneath the subsurface and that the mud being shot into the well was making it out of the sides of the casing and leaking into the rock surrounding the well.
Rob Cavner, an oil industry expert, called directly on BP to be transparent about the explosions that caused top-kill to fail and address the reports of the massive subsurface leaks on the internet that have been by the underground blowout.
Keith Olberman Addresses Seafloor Leaks Calling The Situation Worse Than Doomsday
The Wall Street Journal also reported that BP concluded that its “top-kill” attempt may have failed due to a blown disk inside the well about 1,000 feet below the ocean floor which may have allowed drilling mud to escape from the well into the rock formation outside of the wellbore.
Senator Bill Nelson has also reported, which has now been confirmed by multiple sources, that the well casing itself may have been pierced telling MSNBC that this indicates the “problem could be just enormous”.
How enormous? Well as Keith Olberman says “What’s worse than doomsday? This is it.”
These reports of the new leaks in the well casing are in addition to well casing blowout that an an internal White House investigation fingers for causing the leaking oil rig to explode in the first place.
These new leaks we are now facing, if confirmed, would mean that there is oil gushing up in multiple disparate places on the Gulf sea floor
Oil could begin leaking from any crack or crevice in the surrounding sea floor and the entire area could be leaking like a sponge.
Is there two leaks in this video? Notice the main leak and what appears to be a second leak coming from the sea floor on the right.
During the top kill oil and mud shoots from under the BOP indicating there could be a separate leak coming from the seafloor
Even if a relief well will work it could take until Christmas
The ultimate solution that BP has been touting almost since the disaster began has been “relief wells.”
But these additional leak indicate that the relief well that BP is counting on to cap the Gulf oil spill won’t be the final solution to stop the leaking oil well.
Company CEO Tony Hayward has repeatedly told the public that the strategy is a sure thing.
However Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor and oil industry expert, says that these leaks in the well casing may cause problems with BP’s plan to cap the oil leak using a relief well .
Bloomberg also reports, additional leaks aside, that the normal hiccups involved in a worse case scenario of the relief well could mean that BP may not be able to cap the the leak until Christmas.
In fact last year’s Montara oil leak in the Timor Sea took 5 passes before the relief well actually hit the leaking well casing.
To make matters worse the BP Gulf oil spill relief wells are further complicated by a much higher leak rate, are being dug twice the distance under the seafloor, face hurricanes, dense rock and other problems.
As I have already reported, experts have also warned that if the relief well blows an additional 240,000 barrels of oil per day could begin spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.
How likely is it that the relief well might blow?
We can’t be sure but nola.com reports that a relief well exploded just last year destroying a second well and destroying another rig which further set back the relief well operations.
Matt Simons says short of blowing the well with an explosive this may leak for years
The picture that prominent oil industry insider Matt Simmons paints is even worse.
Matt Simmons believes that the well casing may have been destroyed when the oil rig exploded and says that oil is leaking from the seafloor up to 7 miles away because of the explosion.
Simmons was an energy adviser to President George W. Bush, is an adviser to the Oil Depletion Analysis Center, and is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations.
On May 27th, Simmons addressed this issue on MSNBC:
On May 26th, Simmons referred to this again on a second appearance on MSNBC warning this could last for years:
Matt Simmons referred to it again on Bloomberg on May 28th:
Matt Simmons reiterated those statements again on MSNBC yesterday:
Matt Simons Again on MSNBC saying there is a second whole and BP will not be a publicly traded company by the end of summer.
Even if the oil well is capped in accordance to BP’s August time frame the results will still be catastrophic.
Take for example NOAA current 72 hour forecast for the area of uncertainty which contains the “hundreds of thousands of smaller spills” that the BP Gulf oil spill has split up into.
Consider the Current BP Gulf oil spill 72 Hour Uncertainty Trajectory 6/08/2010.
Here is the BP Gulf Oil Spill over Pittsburgh, PA.
The BP Gulf Oil Spill over Sacramento, California.
The BP Gulf Oil Spill over Great Britain.
The BP Gulf Oil Spill over Paris France.
The BP Gulf Oil Spill Over Rome, Italy.
Compare your city or country to the size of the BP Gulf oil spill.
Further reading about the well casing blowout:
Diagram of the 16″ rupture burst disks that may have blown and caused topkill to fail according the the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
PDF Presentation of possible oil well casing blowout scenarios.
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