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BP Oil Spill Cam


spenac

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I don't see any oil leaking from this cam. Am I missing something, or is it fixed for now?

Check again, and remember its live, so you may not always see it. The view right now, I can see oil leaking, the one an hour ago I could not.

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Need an even edge to put a "cap" on ?

Basically, yes. I'm going to assume that capping an undersea well was a lot like capping the oil well fires after the Gulf War minus the fire and being on dry land. If you ever catch a documentary on the oil well fires on the History Channel, it's an interesting watch. Basically the fires were fought following the same procedure for every well. Remove the damaged rigging, cut off the top part of the well head, put out the fire (it was less disastrous to let it burn than let the oil coat everything. There was also a few interesting methods, like dynamite), then place a well head to stop the flow.

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Basically, yes. I'm going to assume that capping an undersea well was a lot like capping the oil well fires after the Gulf War minus the fire and being on dry land. If you ever catch a documentary on the oil well fires on the History Channel, it's an interesting watch. Basically the fires were fought following the same procedure for every well. Remove the damaged rigging, cut off the top part of the well head, put out the fire (it was less disastrous to let it burn than let the oil coat everything. There was also a few interesting methods, like dynamite), then place a well head to stop the flow.

JP, being raised by a design engineer for the oil/gas/chemical industry, this is the way that they deal with oil wells that have been damaged. On land, it's more cut and dried getting to it. The underwater wells have a lot more issues that have to be delt with that include the depth of the water and what happened to the rig above it.

Having seen drawings of offshore platforms and having had them explained to me, I know that there are a lot of safety checks in place. Something major had to have failed for this one to catch on fire like it did. It's a major loss for those who do that kind of work as well as for BP. The environmental issues are truely a major concern for those trying to stop this well. All around, it's a sad deal.

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