Project Katrina

According to the relevant Federal agencies the response would seem to be yes, well yes it is:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in consultation with the Food and Drug Administration, announced the re-opening of 5,130 square miles of the Gulf for commercial and recreational fishing. “This is a significant area of importance to fishing and tourism,” said NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco in announcing the decision. “The gulf seafood taken from these waters is safe to eat, and today’s reopening announcement is another signal to tourists that the northern gulf is open for business.”

I sure hope it is safe. I love seafood more then just about any food and this would be equally good news for the fishermen and shrimpers in the Gulf region. But as Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, has noted, the data used to decide whether to reopen the area included only 12 samples of shrimp, for a total of 73 individual shrimp.

Solomon goes on to note that the FDA has currently only released data on 42 shrimp samples from Louisiana, 12 from Florida, 7 from Alabama, and 6 from Mississippi. I clearly have no idea if seafood (shrimp specifically) from the Gulf is safe. It very well could be. The problem is this sample size is so small if you attempted to use a similar data set in a Statistics 101 course you wouldn’t be getting a passing grade.

You got to be shitting me. According to the New York Times BP is starting to float the idea that if Congress keeps them from drilling new wells in the Gulf of Mexico, it might not be able to fulfill its commitment to “make this right.”

[A]s state and federal officials, individuals and businesses continue to seek additional funds beyond the minimum fines and compensation that BP must pay under the law, the company has signaled its reluctance to cooperate unless it can continue to operate in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now it needs to be clear at this point BP says it will honor its pledge for a $20 billion fund for damages and fines, $100 million for rig workers idled by the moratorium, and $500 million to research the effects of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But it is equally as clear they are going to attempt to scare lawmakers, with velied threats they won’t be able to honor their comittments, if they are not allowed to continue to drill whereever and whenever they want.

What is so important to note here is that in the last Fortune 500 rankings BP was the fourth largest corporation in the world, with profits—profits, not revenue—of $16,578,000,000. So it is laughable that not allowing BP to drill any new wells would even remotely hinder their ability to pay.

The Washington Post reports:

The “blowout preventer” from BP’s Macondo well—which infamously failed to prevent this summer’s spill—has begun its transition from sub-sea equipment to federal evidence.

The 450-ton device was removed Friday afternoon from the Gulf of Mexico floor and attached to a long section of pipe that will be used to haul it 5,000 feet to the surface, according to a statement from retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad W. Allen, the federal government’s point man on the BP oil spill.

The FBI and multiple other Federal investigators are waiting on the shore for the device to arrive, where it will undergo the mechanical equivalent of an autopsy. The results should be interested.

I’ve always felt months and years later as we look back on this we’re going to find it was a cluster fuck beyond comprehension. This makes me think I am correct at levels I’ve not even considered:

In hindsight, if BP had removed the 5,000-foot-long tangle of riser pipe from its damaged Gulf well in the early days of the spill, a new blowout preventer or cap could have been installed, shutting down the well perhaps within weeks instead of months, according to both the federal incident commander and petroleum engineers.

“I think that is one thing we will look at,” retired U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said during a recent interview with the Press-Register editorial board. “Obviously what finally worked was cutting the riser pipe. [....] If we had elected to cut the riser pipe we might have been able to do it much quicker.”

Recently today news broke of another fire on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. This one on the Vermilion Oil Platform. Details are not clear and the information is sketchy at best. But as of now major media outlets are reporting:

• Vermilion Oil Platform 380 is anchored approximately 100 miles off the Louisiana coast.  It sites in  340 feet of water, Bureau of Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz told the the AP.
• Coast Guard Petty Officer Matthew Masaschi told ABC News that Mariner Energy, the owner of the platform, had reported evidence of a “slight oil sheen” near the platform measuring “one nautical mile by 100 feet.”
• The AP is reporting that a clean-up operation would be comparatively easy since shallow-water spills do not require the use of “remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor” that were required for the Deepwater Horizon.
• The Vermilion had 13 crew members, all of whom are accounted for. There is one reported injury.
• Schwartz, the Bureau of Energy Management spokeswoman, told the AP that there were “maintenance activities underway” on the oil platform and that the platform was not producing oil or gas at the time of the explosion.
• A press release from platform owner Mariner Energy said Vermilion was producing both oil and gas as recently as last week. The press release said, “During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate.”

UPDATE: In an about face from what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said earlier today, Gov. Bobby Jindal is now saying that there were “seven active production wells on the platform,” according to a AP story. Jindal said all the wells have now been shut down successfully.

UPDATE II: As of 5:30 p.m. ET, the Coast Guard is backing away from earlier reports of a mile-long oil slick near the site of the Vermilion platform. Mariner Energy told the Washington Post there is no slick, and the Coast Guard said it has not been able to confirm its earlier claim that there was a sheen on the water.