bp

[haunted]

'BP has stopped skimming for oil in the ocean because it’s having trouble finding crude on the surface, said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production. About 74 percent of the oil that flowed from Macondo evaporated, dissolved or biodegraded, or was burned, skimmed or captured, the government said in a report on Aug. 4. '

-wash. post

Kind of ridiculous. My bro, past poster here 'metal', is a field engineer tech in venice, louisiana atm. The job is dredging islands to absorb the oil somewhat before mainland. My father happens to be on a job as well, in mobile alabama.... They talk to these guys that run the skimmer boats, ALL the time. They haven't been picking up shit off the surface for weeks before august 4th.. and everyone down there is saying that it's from BP spraying chemicals(think of it as dawn except legal to spray everywhere in the ocean) that break it up the oil, making it's way to the bottom much faster. Kind of like those aerial photos that we'd see of the oil spill visibly shrinking in size tenfold, all the while oil is still gushing into the gulf.

My first thought of reading the statement in bold above was WHAT THE ****. The skimmers haven't been getting shit. Nearly EVERY person that my bro or dad has EVER talked to that works on one of these skimmer boats, say that haven't scooped up one DROP since they started the job. Burned/captured? Whatever. Biodegrade? What kind of organic compounds are in oil, which has to be VASTLY made up of hydrocarbons?..... DISSOLVE? Aren't hydrocarbons hydrophobic due to their non-polar nature??? Molecules must be polar to be miscible with water.. which leaves us with EVAPORATION. Yes, lighter hydrocarbons evaporate fast, which I already knew. But is evaporation solely responsible for '74% of the oil that's gone'? If so, they're saying that the rate of evaporation of crude oil is VASTLY greater than the rate that it was broken up into smaller hydrocarbons and sinking to the bottom?(They say that 3/4 of the oil that's flowed from the spill is now gone).... so this evaporation thing intrigued me so I did a little research:

http://www.boemre.gov/tarprojects/120/120BG.PDF

It was interesting to read that 74% is a completely realistic, but high, evaporation% for light crude oil.. 10% being a 'high' % for heavier oil. So it finally made sense to me, this is the bogus logic they're using to feed this undoubtedly false statistic. I was just talking to someone about all of this at work, and he replied 'well didn't they burn most of it?'... how are they even finding oil to burn though if 3/4 of the oil has evaporated? NOT to mention the skimmers aren't pulling up shit.

Bottom line, I don't see the water surface evaporation rate even holding a candle to the rate in which oil has collected at the bottom. I remember seeing aerial photos from 1 day to the next and the oil spill decreasing 15x in size.... 95% evaporation rate? Sure hah. All it will take is one good hurricane and we'll see some of that oil(all over new orleans)

[Slayer :D]

The oil from "Deep Horizon" is not light crude (like some of the stuff they pull out of the ground in Saudi Arabia). Light oil flows relatively easily at room temperature, and commonly looks like apple juice. Heavy oil is thick and gloppy (including the stuff in the gulf).

[|iR|Focalor]

You didn't expect them to be completely honest with the public about everything did you? People should view oil companies the same way they view cigarette companies. They will say whatever they can to get by with as few regulations and government intervention as possible because they know their product is a carcinogen. Gasoline vapors cause cancer. People were shocked and outraged by the appearance of the oil slick forming topwater. Naturally they will use a chemical dispersant to lessen the appearance of oil. And of course they aren't going to test the long term effects of that chemical on wildlife. Oil does sometimes appear naturally in oceans. Anyone who lives on or near a beach has probably seen a few washed up tar balls in their time. There are plenty of off-shore protected and managed reef systems with endangered fish. It'll be interesting to see BP's excuse for why coral and other underwater living and non-living objects end up dying off or changing color once all this shit starts flowing up the eastern coast.

[The Happy Friar]

the current white house admin approved of all this stuff too.....

Next time you hear "all natural ingredients", remember: so was the stuff floating on the gulf water.   

[haunted]

Additionally, I forgot to add that the they're adding all the dispersants at the site of the oil leak, 1 mile deep, in 30 degree water.

 

[ReCycled]

They've estimated that approx half has been physically removed by skimmers, beach duties, dispersants and misc other methods. The other half has disappeared into deeper water. Or maybe not. Unlike the Exxon Valdez which was in figid water, this oil has a chance of being completely neutralized by bacteria, sun, existing dispersants and spreading thinner and thinner into the vast oceans via the Gulf Stream. I guess it was a "good" thing it happened in open tropical water. Time will tell on what happens to the aquatic population, but so far the dead birds etc has all but stopped. It's a bit of a mystery how such a large pool of crude oil could vanish but maybe we'll get lucky.

[haunted]

I have to disagree with you recycled, thinking of it as 'open tropical water' is really misleading. It's 1 mile deep and 30 degrees... so they added the dispersants below freezing temperature with extreme pressure, right at the mississippi canyon. I manage a marina/motel, and when someone spills oil in the water(or any kind of hydrocarbon), then you put a dispersant on it(illegal) it breaks it up and makes it sink to the bottom _immediately_ and visibly... so it never really goes away(hence why it's illegal to do so, even with dawn). Doing this a mile underwater means the sun is going to have little to no affects and bacteria aren't going to be thriving exactly at this depth @ 30 degrees either. If I had to guess there's probably a tarball the size of rhode island rolling around in the mississippi canyon right now.

[ReCycled]

Well I was thinking more of water circulation and ocean currents. Here's a picture of where Deepwater Horizon is, and below the direction of the Gulf Stream. I'm not sure if the stream is only a shallow water flow or it goes deeper. But it appears water doesn't just stagnate in one spot forever - even if it is deep. There must be some movement.