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Top Kill Failed to Plug BP Oil Spill

Just after BP’s “Top Kill” procedure failed over the weekend, Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Tuesday that federal authorities have now begun both criminal and civil investigations into those involved in the BP oil spill.

 

No specifics were given as to who will be investigated, but it will obviously involve major players like Transocean, Halliberton, Cameron, and of course BP. Holder said, “If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response.”

Let’s not forget: In twenty years, when children in school are learning about this spill and the resulting historical repercussions, they will know it as “The BP Oil Spill.”

Over the weekend, the “Top Kill” procedure involving an injection of cement and rubber pieces to clog the well did not work to stop the flow of oil.

At this point, the U.S. Government estimates that 20 to 44 million gallons of oil have been released into the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding areas, according to the Huffington Post.

BP and the Obama Administration seem to refuse to accept the reality of the situation. Relief wells have been the surefire solution for months, but because they will take until August to implement, they have continued to make half-cocked attempts to get lucky and stop it earlier. It’s logical to want to stop the spill as quickly as possible, but not if the chances are 50/50 and failure means a bigger problem.

Not only have the solutions failed so far, but they have made the spill worse. On Tuesday, yet another attempt to quickly stop the flow of oil is being attempted. A saw is being used to cut through the riser and then, a rubber cap will be used to try and seal the open pipeline.

When they cut through the pipeline, the flow of oil will be increased about 20%. 

BP is hopeful that they can create enough weight to fight the flow of oil and seal the pipeline, but officials give it a 50% to 70% chance of working.

My question: What happens after BP cuts the riser open, increases the flow of oil by 20%, then realizes they can’t cap the new opening they just cut?


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8 Responses to Top Kill Failed to Plug BP Oil Spill

  • Brook Little says:

    Hi, Will you be posting a follow-up article? The partner and me have used up some time looking over your webpage and surprisingly enough you touched on one thing we were discussing only the other day with our son. We very often find ourselves quarrelling with the littlest of issues, isn’t it silly?

  • How could an enormous organization such as British Petroleum not have a backup plan to stop that oil flow. Sadly, I think they want to because they want the oil to sell and make money from.

  • DMOZ says:

    Cool stuff, but the posts don’t display properly on my iPad, perhaps you could check that out. Thanks, anyway. OH by the way, feel free to submit your blog to my free web directory. It will boost your visitors and backlinks!

    • Chris says:

      Hi, thank you for reading. When you say it doesn’t display correctly on your iPad, what do you mean? What actually happens to the page? Hopefully we can work to fix that for iPad users as soon as possible.

  • And the oil just keeps leaking and BP keeps on lying about the progress. Makes me so mad!

    • Chris says:

      Sometimes I feel like that is the worst part of the whole situation…nobody will accept blame for what has happened and, beyond that, they lie to try and ease public frustration.

      As if we are going to be happier when we find out the oil is spilling twice as fast as they told originally told us.

  • hi, thank you for this latest information. Therefore, I would like to ask for your allowance to add some of this information in my blog. Of course, I will provide a link to your blog, as a source of my mentioned information.

    • Chris says:

      Thank you for reading. Yeah, you can use 1stworldview to research your own blog as long as your posts don’t mirror the 1stworldview posts too closely. We would really appreciate having a link to our site on your blog, and we would love to know the URL for your blog as well.

      Thanks again.

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