[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')orry about the grammar error guys, but we've got bigger fish to fry. Literally. #bpcares

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')espite its role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, energy giant BP remains a key supplier of fuel to the Pentagon, The Washington Post reported.
Citing data from the Defense Logistics Agency, the newspaper said BP had contracts with the US Defense Department worth at least 980 million dollars in the current fiscal year.
In fiscal 2009, BP was the Pentagon's largest single supplier of fuel, providing 11.7 percent of the total purchased, and in 2010, its contracts amount to roughly the same percentage, the report said.

[Plantagenet]

There were some flame wars over at "theoildrum.com" today when a poster asked if the site was getting money from BP.

poster gets flamed at "theoilddrum.com" for asking if the site is taking BP money

I like the oildrum site and it is filled with great information, but seems like a reasonable question to ask if "theoildrumcom" is getting BP money, given the fact that the site has a decidedly optimistic tilt towards BP's efforts to cap the well and drill the relief wells that seems ...curiously positive...given the pattern of incompetence that BP has so far displayed.

[efarmer]

I have been going to TOD every day lately Plantagenet. They have had some of the best content on technical issues and debates related to such issues and it is not a secret they have a core of people who are employed in the industry. I think it is natural that people from inside a particular industry have the most knowledge about it as well as the most real inertia to have a bias for the industry itself, without getting extra wampum from any industry chiefs.

They are getting a bunch of people who like their content kicking in donations to support it lately.

So for a question on a question: Would BP give them money to discredit them by accepting it or to influence their content?

[Pops]

As Phooba Emeritus of PO.com I gladly accept some BP moola to make our server run a little faster.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', '
')
So for a question on a question:

Would BP give them money to discredit them by accepting it or to influence their content?

[americandream]

The web of interconnected interests is so deep, it's almost impossible to fathom out whose warming up whom. A bit like the judiciary and corporations. Just a fact of life in everyday capitalism.

[Armageddon]

TOD are a bunch of shills. They don't have a clue (or maybe they do) as to the extent of the damage. I remember them saying it was only leaking about 5-10 thousand bpd early on, when it was obvious is was MUCH more.

[Sixstrings]

All I know is trying to read that forum gives me a headache.. the content is good, but hard on the eyes. Little quote boxes one after the other, with lines connecting boxes like a chart or something, the whole thing is just a massive wall of text.

[dissident]

BP doesn't have to give them money. The "staff" are biased. The one called "Heading Out" has been the pro-BP maestro with a string of optimistic crap about every scrap of BP diversionary propaganda (siphoning through the riser, top kill, junk shot, BOP cap, ad nauseam). At the same time a load of BP groupies moved in to spew pro-BP drivel and attack anyone who dares claim the emperor has no clothes.

For the longest time the notion that the leak could be in the 30,000+ bpd range was dismissed outright by "experts". The university professors that estimated volumes based on the slick growth were attacked as idiots without qualifications. Of course the profs were right and the BP shills and aplogists at TOD were dead wrong (less than 5,000 bpd LOL). That the oil-gas mixture exiting the BOP at high pressure and undergoing turbulent separation would produce a multi-grade emulsion leading to slowly rising, massive underwater plumes was also laughed at.

The groupies could not grasp the fact that the top kill was a total waste of time. The only way it would work was if there was a pressure seal that would allow the mud to force its way into the well. Instead it was rapidly mixed by turbulence in the oil-gas flow in the BOP and ejected. BP gave up much earlier than they claimed would be required to see if the procedure was working. Leakage below the BOP only makes this an even more futile effort.

The whole song and dance routine is a diversion from the basic fact that the well is damaged below the sea bed (around 1000 feet I believe and maybe elsewhere). So there is no point, for example, in properly removing the riser from the BOP and attaching a new valve at the flange. Closing the flow at the BOP would not stop the leak below the seabed and could even result in the well bursting completely below the BOP. The TOD BP groupie chorus claimed it was impossible to cut the riser bolts...real experts these clowns.

Of course there are some serious posters, like ROCKMAN, so not everyone hanging out at the TOD threads is a BP groupie. Let's hope the current optimism about the relief wells is on target, they were the only solution in the first place.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', ' ')I think it is natural that people from inside a particular industry have the most knowledge about it as well as the most real inertia to have a bias for the industry itself, without getting extra wampum from any industry chiefs.

[Roy]

One thing is if you go by the amount of cheerleading and blind optimism, I don't think you'll find more than here (ie they must be getting paid; only better than TOD ) :

http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/default.asp?b=22 LSU Oil Rig Disaster Forum.

Initially, it was like TOD, ridiculing people saying that more than 5k barrels per day were coming out, ridiculing anyone and everyone who wasn't talking unicorns and rainbows. Quotes, back in May, like "in 6 months no one will remember it", and today "=

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut IMO, the bigger damages will come from the media saturating the country with the "horrors" and inept government response than the actual spill.

Again, IMO, I think that come next year, the fishing supply catch would be back to normal or near normal levels. The only real reminder is the fact that you'll see the occasional tarball wash up somewhere.

[Michelle]

Let's hope this is not a 2-fer. Can BP drill this one in Alaska without technical difficulties? Shouldn't all BP efforts in US jurisdiction be under special scrutiny? If you really want to scare yourself, click on the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater link and see how many leases they currently have - download the map to pdf -2nd link.

http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle ... Id=7043986

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_interne ... co_map.pdf

[mcgowanjm]

I thank you, Roy, for the above post.

Due to lack of input this AM. Everyone is in 'wait
mode' it seems. I perused the latest over there.

Exactly as you stated above.

'We can do great things now'. 'We could do great things
before'. The 'In Between' causes Ecocide to the GoM.

[Carlhole]

AmericaBlog



$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '.')..Anyone who has ever used Photoshop knows that this is an incredibly amateur job. I can do far better than this, and I tend to play with Photoshop for fun. We're to believe that a professional photographer did this poor a job, for pay, for a huge corporate client? Really? No one would hire this photographer again if this is true. Oh, and the photographer added the fake screens to the photo, what, without BP's permission? That's what they're implying, "the photographer did it."

3) Why does the meta data show that the photo was actually taken on March 6, 2001? Or is BP next going to tell us that their professional photographer has never set the time and date stamp on his multi-thousand dollar camera? Because then all of his photos for all of his clients will be screwed up. Really?

[mcgowanjm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')eds: Seepage near BP cap coming from another well

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER (AP) – 3 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The federal government's oil spill chief says seepage detected two miles from BP's oil cap is coming from another well.

[mcgowanjm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', '
') 3) Why does the meta data show that the photo was actually taken on March 6, 2001? Or is BP next going to tell us that their professional photographer has never set the time and date stamp on his multi-thousand dollar camera? Because then all of his photos for all of his clients will be screwed up. Really?

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mcgowanjm', '
')Sepulvado noted in a March 13 BP daily operation report that the control pod was leaking as much as a gallon per minute of hydraulic fluid.

"It had problems off and on with these shuttle valves," he said, explaining the valves had to be put in a neutral position to keep fluid from venting."