Falling to Pieces

Shell ex-CEO Says Well Casing Deteriorated

Here's the latest news from the Gulf, at least the latest the media picked up on. Lindsey Williams announced this weeks ago, as have others. The well casing is damaged in multiple places underground, i.e. beneath the ocean floor, where the ROVs can't see. With BP, the whole media cover up has been about keeping as much out-of-sight/out-of-mind as possible. That's one reason they're using dispersant, because it allows the oil to sink beneath the surface of the water instead of floating on top for all to see. That's why they've been using private security forces and, in at least one case, local police to prevent media and average citizens away from the beaches and the oil slicks in the water.

The well casing is compromised, and that is why I wrote many days ago that oil has been seeping from additional vents in the ocean floor up to 20 miles away from the well, forcing its way up through the floor, blowing new holes in the floor due to the tremendous pressure involved. Why should you care? First off, I must make it a point that BP chose to use a thinner casing than even they should have in a normal well, much less a "super deep" well, as they creatively call this one. This was obviously on purpose, not to save money. The money for an extra inch or two of steel, even the 4800 or so feet of it needed to go from Deepwater Horizon down to the wellhead and then underground would probably have cost only tens of thousands of dollars more, maybe hundreds. chicken change for a trillion dollar company. Compare that to the billions they're going to lose and it's obvious why this was done against the warnings of their own engineers. If anything they would have used a much thicker than normal casing to ensure integrity could be maintained in the even of a blowout.

The problem is that they are keeping the media and people pacified by claiming that the relief wells they're currently drilling will be complete in late August and that will be the answer, the end to this nightmare. It cannot. Because of the damage to the well casing, the relief wells will be ineffectual. The oil will simply begin to leak out from the damaged sections and then on up through the seabed out from new vents. In other words, the whole relief well operation is a lie, a false promise as to the end of their responsibility. BP says that will fix everything, so sit down and shut up until the end of August, at which time tens of millions of additional gallons of oil and Corexit will be in the water.

BP and Barry Soetoro have something in common -- everything they say is a lie or an obfuscation, or spin. The relief wells will fail, and I'm putting that on the record now. Everyone with inside knowledge of BP's operations at the site of Deepwater Horizon's demise say the same thing, the casing is cracked, the new wells will do nothing, BP is lying and they're dragging this out as long as possible.