I must be the only one in the country that Knew you could not cut a pipe flowing 5000psi + with a saw blade !...They will bind...EVERY TIME...Thats Pipefitting 101 and yet...Nobody at BP or the Gov. knew this ?????????

And then to pinch it ???!!!..WTF????!!!!
Diamond wire saw and A valve ass....

once they plug it , it will leak though the sea bed and be unstopable. It oil hits our beaches, I am moving.

How the frick am I supposed to know? I'm not an engineer. Are you defending BP's/Haliburton/TransOcean's business decisions? What I stated is more than a catch phrase...it's profit driven enterprise cutting corners, business decisions and bad ones at that. Is there anyone here defending that? Really? It's egos unchecked, ill defined responsibilities, differing perspectives and strategic decisions, and a huge lesson on the lack of well defined checks and balances.

Some businesses pull it off competently, GE, P&W and Boeing...we fly in their machines all the times with incredible safety records, bad business decisions would have these complicated machines crashing all the time. BP pulled a big one here with no regard to the potential calamity. A clash of conflicting business interests caused this, not an engineering decision. I can't think of an engineer in the world who'd recommend the procedures that were taken, their actions were driven by business types. It's also complacency...the fact that most businesses pull off this type of activity successfully created an atmosphere of neglect as far as proven repair techniques as it comes to this type of disaster.

You state the following "If not Politicians or business professionals, which encompass oil companies, who is left to solve the problem?"
You left out the engineers. Politicians screw up everything they touch, business directives caused this, the only people that can solve this are the engineers but they have one problem...this disaster is a new event, there is no solution in place. The checks and balances in place failed and now they're in uncharted territory. They're now beta testing in the midst of a disaster. That scenario is a short sighted business decision also.

Absolutely phuckin pathetic ,what a mess :angry-smiley-038:

Well said.

The scary thing, for me, was something I heard on AM radio news st yesterday, in which another oil industry executive was quoted as saying his company's plans for managing a disaster like this were—get ready for this—the same as BP's. He even admitted they'd be about as effective.

In other words ... there was no real plan. There is no real plan. Smart engineers are coming up mostly blank, and it's hard to blame them. They're being asked to come up with a plan—right now—to fix a disaster no one planned for.

So why wasn't there a plan? I'm guessing these guys are just arrogant or greedy (take your pick) enough to believe it would never happen.

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press Writer – 12 mins ago 6/16/2010

WASHINGTON – BP will set aside $20 billion to pay the victims of the massive oil spill in the Gulf, senior administration officials said Wednesday, a move made under pressure by the White House as the company copes with causing the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

The independent fund will be led by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw payments to families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In his current role, Feinberg is known as Obama's "pay czar," setting salary limits for companies getting the most aid from a $700 billion government bailout fund.

Obama was to announce the deal in a Rose Garden statement later Wednesday after wrapping up a meeting with BP executives at the White House.

The officials familiar with the details spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity before the announcement.

The still-unfolding disaster in the Gulf, as tens of thousands of gallons of oil continue to pour from the broken well daily, is jeopardizing the environment and ecosystems along with the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people across the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Those affected ranged from fishermen to restaurateurs to oil rig workers idled by Obama's temporary halt to new deep-sea oil drilling.

BP spokesman Toby Odone declined to comment on the fund.

Several big questions remain unanswered, including when BP would start processing claims and paying people out of the fund; who and what would exactly be covered under the plan; how the White House and BP came up with a figure of $20 billion; and whether other involved companies will be required to chip in.

At $20 billion, the size of the fund is the same that was recommended by congressional Democrats.

BP has taken the brunt of criticism about the oil spill because it was the operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig that sunk. It also is a majority owner of the undersea well that has been spewing oil since the explosion.

But when the day of reckoning finally comes, it may not be the only one having to pay up. That's because Swiss-based Transocean Ltd. owned a majority interest in the rig. Anadarko Petroleum, based in The Woodlands, Texas, has a 25 percent non-operating interest in the well.

Feinberg ran the unprecedented $7 billion government compensation program for the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. It was a job that lasted nearly three years as he decided how much compensation families of the victims should get, largely based on how much income they would have earned in a lifetime.

As pay czar, Feinberg has capped cash salaries at $500,000 this year for the vast majority of the top executives at the five major companies that received bailout funding: American International Group, GMAC Financial Services, Chrysler Financial, Chrysler and General Motors.

The development came as Obama was meeting on his turf with top BP leaders to press the London-based oil giant to pay giant claims.

BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO Tony Hayward, and other officials walked slowly as a group from the Southwest Gate of the White House, climbing the steps leading to the West Wing.

Joining the president in the room were Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the secretaries of energy, interior, commerce, homeland security and labor.

The meeting came the morning after Obama vowed to an angry nation that "we will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused."

The crisis began with a deep water well that blew out on April 20, killing 11 rig workers and triggering the spill.

Obama in his speech to the nation on Tuesday night backed creation of a fund administered by an independent trustee to pay damages and clean up costs associated with the spill.

For the president, the tough diplomacy with a few officials behind closed doors is a bookend to his attempt to reach millions at once. Using a delivery in which even the harshest words were uttered in subdued tones, Obama did not offer much in the way of new ideas or details in his speech. He mainly recapped the government's efforts, insisted once again that BP will be held to account and tried to tap the resilience of a nation in promising that "something better awaits."

Obama's forceful tone about BP's behavior shows how far matters have deteriorated. The White House once had described BP as an essential partner in plugging the crude oil spewing from the broken well beneath nearly a mile of water. Now Obama says BP has threatened to destroy a whole way of life.

An Associated Press-GfK poll released Tuesday showed 52 percent now disapprove of Obama's handling of the oil spill, up significantly from last month. Most people — 56 percent — think the government's actions in response to the disaster really haven't had any impact on the situation.

Whoa there big fella. Nowhere did I defend anyone. And if you read my post, I said "no bash". I agree with you regarding this whole debacle. It is a travesty that it has continued this long. The difficulty capping this thing is that it is such new territory no one has an answer. The oil companies retain engineers when these scenarios play out. I would assume BP has retained some of the best in the business at this point to cap this blow out. That is where I was curious as to where one would look for closure to such an event. My bad if it was not communicated clearly.

The bottom line, things happened that should not have. At this point all attention needs to be on a solution, not on what should have and what could have. Let that be another day. Yes, there needs to be compensation for the actions of BP, and they need to be held accountable. But now, focus on the problem at hand.



Sam

Sorry...I guess I took it the wrong way. :ernaehrung004:

I spent years as a subcontractor at one of our countries premier aerospace corporations and have seen first hand how diligent they are to prevent these type of communications and business disasters. I can say that it is the foremost directive in this company to the point of annoyance at times that things like this don't happen. It's engineering applied to management and it's effective and it is drilled every day from the chariman down the the lowest level employees. I got a real appreciation and understanding how some companies that have tremendous responsibilities engineer their processes to eliminate errors or turnbacks to incredibly low levels. These processes are out there, there's no excuse when a company foregoes these initiatives. It's clear that BP's business motives are not in line with the level of impact their business can have. I don't think any of the other oil companies are any different either.

Wonder what the total estimated volume of this reserve is and how much of it is estimated to have to bleed off before the pressure of the oil/gas and the sea water equalize? Scary to think that the final solution is for nature to run its course. I'm just sick for everything and everyone affected by the spill. I've vacationed in the panhandle region many times since '78.

In some industries, execs listen, others, not so much. There was fairly widespread support in the Gulf states every time Bush 41's offshore drilling ban came up for renewal. Yes, #41 signed the ban for 3-100 miles out for new exploration and drilling. Limited gains for higher risks. Jeb, for obvious reasons, supported it. Magically, in 2008, they started to think about lifting the ban. Political pressure due to high oil prices. More than one Gulf State Governor knew full well what would happen should a major spill occur.

As it turns out, the industry isn't equipped to handle much of anything beyond a simple little spill. The contracts they entered into were supported by nonsense about safety and environmental concerns, and filled with a pack of lies. It's taken this long and longer, because they haven't a clue as to what to do. I think they always realized this was going to hurt more than their financial positions, once the records were visible, and events leading up to the negligence.

I suppose this time it will be far easier to not only reorganize the MMS, but come out with verifiable and enforceable rules and restrictions to ensure that what is needed is actually done and implemented. I agree that currently producing wells should remain producing, no sense adding to the despair. But the first rig I would check out thoroughly is Atlantis. Probably anything else run by BP as well.