Hello? It’s not really killed yet and there’s still Oil in the Gulf! (Oh, and U.S. troops in the other Gulf)

The real headlines are still out there. Why is no one covering them? Just look at the lack of attention paid to the Gulf Oil Gusher. It’s still not killed yet but you wouldn’t know that reading the newspapers or watching the news any where but down here. They’re talking September now.

It now looks like BP’s blown well in the Gulf of Mexico won’t be completely killed until September. BP engineers are conducting a series of tests in preparation for a procedure called a bottom kill to ensure the well can withstand the pressure from the operation.

No oil has leaked from the well since it was capped with a static kill procedure last month. But the bottom kill is needed to make sure the well stays sealed. Before the well was capped on July 15, 4.9 barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf. The worst oil spill in US history was set off by an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20.

The folks at The Oil Drum find this curiouser and curiouser.

from Rock man:

“Thad Allen, appearing on CNN, said under the latest timeline agreed with BP, the operation to kill the well by injecting mud and cement into the bottom through a relief well should be conducted the week after the U.S. Labor Day holiday, which is on Monday, September 6”

What I find curious is that once they replace the BOP they still currently plan to do the bottom kill/cmt with RW1. With the new BOP in place it’s a rather standard procedure to go in hole with drill pipe. Not only can they tag the top of the top cmt job and confirm exactly where it is they can do a leak off test (LOT) and confirm exactly what its limit is. They can also pull out the DP and run a variety of logs to tell where the cmt is in the annulus. They can also perforate a shallow section of the production csg and pump cmt into the annulus and permanently seal it. Likewise they can perf the csg at the planned RW intersect and pump cmt into the annulus there. After that it would be a simple matter to set the MMS required cmt plugs in the csg and complete the P&A process.

Once the BOP has been replaced making the RW intersect won’t be exceptionally dangerous. OTOH, it isn’t neccesary. Finishing the kill and P&A with drill pipe would be the safest approach IMHO. I wonder if that isn’t what they’re thinking about but don’t want to put it on the table until the replace the BOP and run logs.

response by MoonofA:

I think you are correct Rockman, but the BP and the politicians think, rightly, that the public has heard so much about “Relief Well” that it now expects that relief well process to be finished to its end. Not doing so would again raise lots of conspiracy stories.

Even if they totally kill the well form above, which they may well do, the “Relief Well” success shown and commented on CNNFOXMSNBC is what everybody has invested in and wants to see.

We’re also getting conflicting reports about how much oil is actually still out there. The University of Georgia just released a study that conflicts with what NOAA and the government are telling us.

Most of the oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year is still there and poses a sizable risk to the marine ecosystem, according to a report issued yesterday by a group of independent marine scientists.

Of the 4.1 million barrels of oil spilled during the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the researchers estimate between 70 and 79 percent remains in the water. The new calculations are markedly different from a government report issued on Aug. 4 which argued that just 26 percent of the oil was “residual” in the water.

Media reports quickly picked up on this figure, and made it sound as though the vast majority of oil had simply disappeared. Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, appeared to be hedging her bets when she said, “At least 50 percent of the oil that was released is now completely gone from the system, and most of the remainder is degrading rapidly or is being removed from the beaches.”

The new report, authored by a mix of oceanographers at the University of Georgia and the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, called such characterizations “largely inaccurate and misleading.”

Another story that is obviously largely inaccurate and misleading is that of the “last combat troops being pulled from Iraq”. At least MSNBC was a bit more clear: ‘Last full U.S. combat brigade leaves Iraq; Final fighting force rolls into Kuwait; 50,000 Americans to remain’. This seems a bit of a ‘mission accomplished banner’ moment to me. FIFTY THOUSAND remain? Notice how it also says “full” U.S. combat brigade. Isn’t ‘full’ a bit of a triangulation? Notice, also, that all they really did was cross the border to Kuwait. Is that really an end?

So, how about this from “Civilians to Take U.S. Lead as Military Leaves Iraq”? Or, more aptly, when is a withdrawal not really a withdrawal?

The array of tasks for which American troops are likely to be needed, military experts and some Iraqi officials say, include training Iraqi forces to operate and logistically support new M-1 tanks, artillery and F-16s they intend to acquire from the Americans; protecting Iraq’s airspace until the country can rebuild its air force; and perhaps assisting Iraq’s special operations units in carrying out counterterrorism operations.

Such an arrangement would need to be negotiated with Iraqi officials, who insisted on the 2011 deadline in the agreement with the Bush administration for removing American forces. With the Obama administration in campaign mode for the coming midterm elections and Iraqi politicians yet to form a government, the question of what future military presence might be needed has been all but banished from public discussion.

“The administration does not want to touch this question right now,” said one administration official involved in Iraq issues, adding that military officers had suggested that 5,000 to 10,000 troops might be needed. “It runs counter to their political argument that we are getting out of these messy places,” the official, speaking only on condition of anonymity, added. “And it would be quite counterproductive to talk this way in front of the Iraqis. If the Iraqis want us, they should be the demandeur.”

Oh, and we’re in the “recovery summer”. Did you catch this headline today? “Weekly Jobless Claims Post Surprise Jump, Hit 500,000”.