BP Oil Leak Update: Gasket Fragments Found Before Explosion

I watched the Washington Journal this morning. The guest was John Hufmeister, ex-president of Shell Oil Company. John Hufmeister is also a member of the Department of Energy.

John Hufmeister had some interesting comment concerning President Obama's response to the BP oil leak. He stated that President Obama preferred to respond to the BP oil leak crisis from a distance.

John Hufmeister also made a suggestion that the government should use supertankers or barges to suck up the oil. He said he made this suggestion to the Obama administration.

John Hufmeister questioned whether the problem was too much regulation, too little regulation, too much paperwork, or whether the problem was the actual implementation of any plan i.e. operation inefficiencies.

Too much oil drilling regulations will discourage oil companies from installing new oil rigs. Too few oil drilling regulations will allow for another major oil leak. Has anyone addressed the actual operation after the government agency got passed all the preliminary paperwork? Has anyone addressed government agency operation? Are operational requirements a high priority in a crisis like the current BP oil leak crisis? Did inability to operate efficiently botch up the Katrina response? Should there be a government operation standard that must be met by all government agencies? Creation of agencies is not enough. Efficient operation is mandatory.

John Hufmeister stated that all major oil firms are helping BP find a way to stop the oil leak.
He also mentioned the dangers of imploding the hole where the oil is leaking. He said that there are "soft wells" above the actual well the oil is being pumped from. If the implosion disturbs these soft wells, that will result in a major oil leak from the ocean floor that we will not be able to stop. He stated that the Obama administration and experts are carefully studying the risks and how to negate them if possible. He stated that an implosion should be a desperate last resort.

John Hufmeister stated that we have a hydro-carbon based economy. 94% of our economy depends on the use of diesel of turbine engines. During the Nixon administration, one third of our oil was imported. Today, two thirds of our oil is imported. Instead of becoming less dependent on OPEC, we became more dependent on OPEC.

Deep sea oil drilling is risky. So why do oil companies perform deep sea oil drilling? They preform deep sea oil drilling because government regulations prevent them from doing shallow water oil drilling. The advantage of shallow water oil drilling is that it would be much easier to work on a oil leak. The disadvantage is the potential threat to our ecology.

However, John Hufmeister advocated international standards be applied to all oil companies.

Government must govern in the interest of the whole society, not just one segment of society.
The problems regarding government agencies mentioned above are not new problems. The problems have existed for decades. It is high time the government addressed these problems.

Environmentalists are trying to protect what God gave us. Some of the best environmental experts work for oil companies. A problem exists when environment protection becomes an ideology and starts interfering with or blocking operations instead of improving the safety of operations. To shut down all oil drilling rigs is an extreme ecology practice. We must find a balance between environmental concerns and the need for hydro-carbon fuels.

John Hufmeister stated that gasket fragments were found on the ocean floor prior to the explosion and questioned why an investigation of where the gasket fragments came from did not occur. If no investigation occurred after finding the gasket fragments, that might be grounds for criminal neglect charges against BP. However, I was not able to confirm the existence of gasket fragments via an Internet search.

In other news, Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commissioner stated that an analysis of hydro carbon content at different depths in the water are in progress at this time.

He stated that BP is going to start pumping oil at a maximum rate to minimize pressure on the cap that was installed.