By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writers Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press Writers – 8 mins ago



WASHINGTON – The federal government's spill chief is considering whether to pump heavy mud and cement through BP's experimental well cap that's keeping oil from the Gulf of Mexico.



Retired U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says Tuesday that the procedure would make it easier to complete the permanent fix of plugging the oil from the bottom of the blown out well because the oil would be smashed in from two directions.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill



Mud may be pumped in well cap to help contain oil



By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writers Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press Writers – 8 mins ago



No oil would be released.



The mechanical cap has stopped the oil since Thursday. But several leaks had caused mounting concern that the cap was displacing pressure and causing leaks deep underground.



The mechanical cap has stopped the oil since Thursday. But several leaks had caused mounting concern that the cap was displacing pressure and causing leaks deep underground.



THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.



Seepage near BP cap coming from another well



By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writers Frederic J. Frommer, Associated Press Writers – 19 mins ago



WASHINGTON – The federal government's oil spill chief said Tuesday that seepage detected two miles from BP's oil cap is coming from another well.



There are two wells within two miles of BP's blowout, one that has been abandoned and another that is not in production.



"It's actually closer to that facility than it is to the Macondo well," the one that blew out, Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said at a Tuesday afternoon briefing. "The combination of that and the fact that it's not uncommon to have seepage around these" abandoned wells is what convinced engineers that BP's well wasn't the source of the seepage, he said.



There around 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf, and an Associated Press investigation showed this month that they're not checked for leaks.



Allen also says five leaks in and around the broken well are more like 'drips' and don't mean the well is unstable. He's extended testing of the experimental cap by another day, which means the oil will remain shut in.ahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill

............................



Hopefully it is finally over.

.

I take back what I said about not demonising the oil industry, they are disgusting.





The Niger River Delta is one of most oil-rich places in the world and home to 20 million people. It is also an extremely rich ecosystem, which contains one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet.



The all too frequent oil spills have poisoned the water and destroyed vegetation and agricultural lands.



http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/oil-and-gas/news-drill-and-kill-oil-crimes-nigeria

I have seen in the past the actual problems with oil wells in particular. It seems that when compared to the thousands of oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico, problems are a small number. My problem is that I can't seem to find that study right now. The problem percentage was way down in the single digit range. It is not a big issue at all.

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I find it difficult to believe that anyone knows the number of problems seeing as abandoned wells are not checked.



[i] More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.



The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.



The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells — those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."



Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s — even though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.



As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.



There's ample reason for worry about all permanently and temporarily abandoned wells — history shows that at least on land, they often leak. Wells are sealed underwater much as they are on land. And wells on land and in water face similar risk of failure. Plus, records reviewed by the AP show that some offshore wells have failed.



Experts say such wells can repressurize, much like a dormant volcano can awaken. And years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode and weaken.



Despite the likelihood of leaks large and small, though, abandoned wells are typically not inspected by industry or government.



The fact there are so many wells that have been classified for decades as temporarily abandoned suggests that paperwork can be shuffled at U.S. Minerals Management Service without any real change beneath the water.[/i]



Extract from [url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38113914/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf]here[/url]

All that is possibly true. It generally shows just how inept our bureaucrats and government people really are. Never trust a government agency to do its job if there is a way to sit around and collect wages much higher than the civilian equivalent wages are. Governments are not to be trusted for honesty, just ways to get re elected and favor those that give big gifts;



On the map it looked like most of the wells are in the shallow waters and would be much easier to fix if necessary. Not in the deeper depths like the BP well is. That is because our government and environmentalist of today insist on only drilling in the deep waters and not on land or in shallow waters. Stupidity in our government once again. Forcing the oil companies to work in the most difficult areas and then blaming them for the disaster that occurred.



Back to my original post. Just forget all the 'maybes', 'concerns', 'possibilities', and the other concerns and reread my post. I was talking of major failures such as the BP well. Of all the thousands of wells in the gulf there have not been any that have cause such damage. Occasionally some spills that get corrected quickly,or from ships spilling, or from the natural oozing of oil from the bottom. I post some information on natural oil leakage in the ocean a few weeks back.



Oil is part of the earths makeup and it will make itself known in whatever ways it may decide. Look up La Brea Tar Pits for example.

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Will this sorry saga end, or are we going to end before it does?

Apparently similar thing has happened millions of years ago with bursting forth of methane which killed huge slice of population; scientist are afraid we may be for a repeat.

End of the world as we know it?/ maybe not all doomsday perhaps something is cooking...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code;=AYM20100714&articleId;=20131

Poor birds - so sad. Thank goodness there are people

out there able and willing to help them but so many must die.

.

Good to see you Mara. Was wondering how you are going as not

seen you for awhile.

All the best

Phyl.

I really believe that this will be a devastation for many many decades to come--many generations

What is amazing is that with todays' technology and the advancement in human intelligence (?) we should know better how to respect our environment etc etc. Mother Nature is going to teach us the hard way....

From the movie Wall Street



Gordon Gekko:



"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market. And you're a part of it. You've got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you."



and this



"I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much."

Greed is good; I suppose that means walking over other people

and making money from their misery as has happened only recently*

I haven't seen --Wall Street--but what you have quoted is and always has been the way the world is run, the little person are treated like mushrooms

I haven't seen --Wall Street--but what you have quoted is and always has been the way the world is run, the little person are treated like mushrooms



How right you are PlanB. There is no record of any Utopian culture that I have ever heard of. Always a leader that controls the money and who gets it. There are the elite ones, the business folks, the workers, the soldiers, and those that just lay around hoping for a handout.



I did not see Wall Street either but from the comments it sounds like something that the little rat likes to put out. Michael Moore likes to put down the rich and business folks with lots of distortions and even lies. Yet he is actually using his business skills to become very rich with his activities and movies. If this is really a Michael Moore movie he is making a lie of his preachings. He is laughing all the way to the bank as folks, not many of course by percentage of the population, that are paying good money to see his films. He draws enough income to live very well and be able to produce another film.



So he then it a business like person that is making millions while telling the mushroom types all kinds of confused information.

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Wall Street wasn't a Moore film--it was a movie and I really must get it out--not that I watch many movies at all

Wall Street was a smash hit movie made in 1987 with Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko and one I'll never forget. It made me sad because it woke me up to the world.



Plot:

A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider whom takes the youth under his wing.