Oil Spill

[Root beer]

I got questions for you guys in the gulf area. I was wondering if you guys can smell the oil yet and if the oil has reach your shores? How the tourism economy in your area regarding the oil spill?

I'm just curious.

[Steven Ladner]

I'm down in Biloxi and it hasn't reached us yet. Some people say they can smell it, but I think it's all in their heads right now. I'm sure it has hit some parts of Lousiana though. I haven't heard much of it affecting tourism yet, we still have our casinos either way.

News said this morning that BP most likely won't even have it capped off by August :

[fishinfiend]

  I have heard reports on the news and from boaters that the oil is 15miles south of Dauphin Island and is expected to be here tomorrow. I cannot comment on the smell because I have not been to the beach since the beginning of May. However, I have heard people say they can smell it.

While the beaches are busy because of the holiday weekend, there have been considerable cancellations at hotels and condos. This will in turn affect the rest of the local economy. Snapper season opens tomorrow but the water is closed to fishing, which will drive away even more visitors. If I was planning a vacation, I would certainly go elsewhere.

Hurricane season starts tomorrow too. Time for me to move to lake Guntersville.

[florida strain]

maybe i can find a deal on blackend grouper ;D

it really is a shame the leak cant be stopped, seems a billion dollar company would have that all figured out to begin with..what a waste.

[Bassin_Fin@tic]

maybe i can find a deal on blackend grouper ;D

it really is a shame the leak cant be stopped, seems a billion dollar company would have that all figured out to begin with..what a waste.[/quote]

It's called cheap shortcuts and lack of government oversight and regulations. This could of been prevented. :-X

[seyone]

It is just so unfortunate. Makes me sick every time I hear about it.

[Sfritr]

Only in America will we sit and watch the worst oil spill in history pour into the gulf and wait for the lowest bidder to try to fix it.    BP should be soley responsible for the cleanup bill.....  We all know that won't happen and the government will find some way to screw it up and make us pay for it.   

Unfortunately, money talks........

[grizzly1654]

I was in destin FL may 24-29 and there was no sign of oil. The beaches were full of people. The fishing boats were all booked up to. It doesnt look like it has hurt them yet.

[senile1]

It is logical that BP would try to stop the spill with the method that has the most probability of success first.  Having tried a few things now, I have no confidence that this will be corrected until the relief wells are completed. 

[slonezp]

maybe i can find a deal on blackend grouper ;D

it really is a shame the leak cant be stopped, seems a billion dollar company would have that all figured out to begin with..what a waste.[/quote]

It's called cheap shortcuts and lack of government oversight and regulations. This could of been prevented. :-X

It's called the leak is in 5000fow. Because of government regulations the rigs aren't in 500fow where it would be much easier to repair. This latest repair they are now talking about seems to make the most sense to me. Going to cut away a section and install a cap with piping off the top, to move the oil to some tanks on boats. The problem is once they cut the pipe there will be more oil flowing from the leak. If this solution does not work they would have made the leak worse :'(   

[Root beer]

Only in America will we sit and watch the worst oil spill in history pour into the gulf and wait for the lowest bidder to try to fix it. BP should be soley responsible for the cleanup bill..... We all know that won't happen and the government will find some way to screw it up and make us pay for it.

Unfortunately, money talks........

They made several attempt to fix it. I guess it pretty hard to plug a hole at 5,000 feet below the surface.

It's called cheap shortcuts and lack of government oversight and regulations. This could of been prevented.

Possible, however, it's human nature to screw things up the hard way then it becomes textbook standard of things to take into considerations. Have you ever had a plan for when things go wrong for every single thing you do? This spill will be come a lesson for every oil company and government in the world in the future.

On the other hand, the company that was operating the rig was Transocean. It was their equipments and employees. BP was using them to get the oil. BP and Transocean will split the bill:

http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Investor-Relations-272.html

Screw it, I'll just let them continue to attempt to fix it. I was just curious on whether if oil is reaching the gulf coast communities yet. I really like the Mobile/Gulf Shore area.

[Joe Boss]

Please don't let them stop drilling because of this, I like cheap gas  ;D

[South FLA]

Fact:

1. We still don't know what caused the rig to explode until investigations are completed. Was it gross negligence on the rigs owners, operators, BP, Transocean, etc. etc. or just an accident that could have happen to the rig lease by another oil company in the Gulf?

2.  BP owns 65% of the blown well and is its operator. Anadarko owns 25%. Mitsui owns 10%

3. Laws govern how much BP is responsible for

Read this:

http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Articles/Oil-Spill/Federal/how-much-will-bp-have-to-pay-damage-caps-for-.html

4. Environmental and fiscal impact to the local community is sickening and some may never recover.

5.  The world's infrastructure is built on oil, until we have a significant shift to other energy supplies, don't complain about the dangers of using oil unless you don't depend on it yourself.

[Glenn]

Available oil supplies has nothing to do with gas prices.  The stock market controls price per barrel for oil, not supply/demand as it should.  Stock brokers buy commodities (such as oil) when the outlook of traditional stocks doesn't look as good.

Note that gas prices have been falling lately, even though this leak has been occurring for awhile now. This is because investors are pulling out of oil and buying other stocks.  In fact, oil supply reserves have been stuffed full for several years now, yet it has no impact on gas prices.  Ergo, pumping more oil will not affect gas prices as you might think*.

There's no connection.

I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, but I do understand the concept that more oil doesn't equate to lower gas prices.  Otherwise we would have had lower prices a long time ago.

*Caveat - If OPEC decides to scale WAY back on oil production, then it could have a negative impact at the gas pump over time, but even that wouldn't be as significant as you might believe, since there's a lot of other sources of oil available now.  OPEC doesn't have the power it used to have, but it can still influence the market to a degree.

[Root beer]

Available oil supplies has nothing to do with gas prices. The stock market controls price per barrel for oil, not supply/demand as it should. Stock brokers buy commodities (such as oil) when the outlook of traditional stocks doesn't look as good.

It goes both ways. I've seen it myself. Pretty simple to explain when news release such as: "OPEC cuts productions" sends price up. I've also seen "oil supply is stocked" sending the price of crude down. The tanking U.S. dollars sends price of crude up. Tanking stock market has seen oil go up or down depending on few things. The crisis in Greece (which sent stock market down) has sent barrel of oil down, but this mostly due to strengthen of the U.S. dollars with selling of Euro and buying dollars.

Hint: the U.S. dollar is used to priced oil..If dollar goes down, oil goes up. If dollar goes up, oil goes down.

Anyhoo, to get back on topic, I hope communities in gulf coast region get over this oil spill soon.

[Ky_Lake_Dude]

Please don't let them stop drilling because of this, I like cheap gas ;D

Agreed

[=Matt 5.0=]

Please don't let them stop drilling because of this, I like cheap gas ;D

Please tell me this was sarcasm.

[SoFlaBassAddict]

Agreed, we can't stop them from drilling. We are FAR to dependent on oil. What needs to happen is the regulations that are in place actually need to be enforced. The inspections can't be filled out in pencil by some dude on the rig only to be written over in pen back in Washington by the inspector. BP had warning this was going to happen and did nothing about it. The department handling oil related stuff (I forgot the name inside the Interior), needs to be overhauled big time. There are people that worked for the oil companies in government positions that decide how to help out the oil companies. Too much bribery and corruption in the senior members of a department that really can't have that anywhere inside of it.

[Joe Boss]

Please don't let them stop drilling because of this, I like cheap gas ;D

Please tell me this was sarcasm.

Nope.

[Steven Ladner]

Now it's affecting us, our seafood industry will take a beating from this:

http://www.sunherald.com/2010/06/02/2226433/dmr-tells-fishermen-to-dump-catches.html

[llPa1nll]

What I cant wrap my head around is there was no worst case scenario plan. That if all the fail safes failed to work this is how the problem would be solved, in a reasonable amount of time. This spill is going to have a huge negative impact environmentally. I think everyone can agree on that.

A large population of peoples livelihoods depends on a quick and successful clean up, from commercial seafood, guide fishing, and tourism. If they dont clean this up properly and in a timely manner this could have a huge impact on our fragile economy. At some point you know that the US taxpayer will be looked at to help pay for the cleanup.

Its a bad deal all around, Id hate to see my community to have to go through that and just watch fishing spots and peoples livelihoods suffer.

> :(

[brushhoggin]

if these freaks with their crummy agendas would let us operate in shallower waters it would be easier to manage

[unageo09]

Oil has washed ashore at Gulf Shores, Alabama on the beach. Also, tar balls have been spotted in Mobile Bay. They have issued a warning for people to stay out of the coastal waters and Governor Riley said he would close the beaches when the oil became a health problem. 

[1inStripes]

I had read somewhere there was a large oil spill from a rig owned by a mexican organization in the 70s, and was quite large.   I have done some searching trying to find more details about it, and how it effected the Gulf at that time.  If anyone else has reada about this and can provide a link it would be appreciated.

[=Matt 5.0=]