"Abandoned wells pose leak threat; Some sealing jobs may be failing, analysis shows" by Jeff Donn and Mitch Weiss, Associated Press | July 7, 2010
NEW YORK — 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. And neither the industry nor the federal government is checking to see whether 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 could be failing....
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....
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. Yesterday, officials said oil sheens and tar balls were now washing up in Lake Pontchartrain, which is up the Mississippi River from the gulf and next to New Orleans.
Unfortunately, the BLOGS REPORTED that a WEEK AGO, MSM!
Yup, OIL is going UP the MISSISSIPPI now!
Maybe that will kill the Asian carps.
There’s ample reason for worry about all permanently and temporarily abandoned wells — history shows that, like those on land, they can leak. Plus, 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 concrete and pipes to corrode and weaken....
Oh, like what has happened to the BP well?
"BP SPILL: IS THE BORE HOLE ERODING?
I am looking at cameras 8 and 9 in this display and it seems pretty obvious that the amount of oil leaking out from the top of the blowout preventer is increasing.
We now know that both the drill pipes and the well casing were destroyed in the original "kick", and debris from the drill pipe blown up into the BOP is what kept the pincher system from working. We knew that the well casing was breached from the failure of the top kill and the seepage coming up from cracks in the surrounding sea floor.
So, it appears that the oil is blasting up through the drilled bore hole without the protection of the drill pipe or the well casing. Inevitably the flow has to be eroding the sides of the bore. Which means the hole is enlarging, slowly, but still enlarging."
Of course, AmeriKa's MSM will NOT TELL US THAT!
Despite the likelihood of leaks large and small, abandoned wells are typically not inspected by industry or government.
Then WHAT GOOD ARE THEY!?
Your TAX MONEY is being WASTED, America!!!
Oil company representatives insist that the seal on a correctly plugged offshore well will last virtually forever....
Sorry, NOTHING last FOREVER, you lying f***s!!!!!!!!!!!
Officials at the US Interior Department, which oversees the agency that regulates federal leases in the gulf and elsewhere, did not answer repeated questions regarding why there are no inspections of abandoned wells....
What, you think this government is accountable to you, Americans?
The US Minerals Management Service — the regulatory agency recently renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement — relies on rules that have few real teeth.
Related:
"inspections usually consist of helicopter visits to offshore rigs to sift through company reports of self-administered tests."
Also see:
"an inspector for the Minerals Management Service, which oversees drilling, admitted using crystal methamphetamine and said he might have been under the influence of the drug at work.... pornography on their government computers"
And here the MSM is MAKING EXCUSES for PERVERTED DRUG ADDICTS that STOLE TAX LOOT!!!
Once an oil company says it will permanently abandon a well, it has one year to complete the job. The service mandates that work plans be submitted and a report filed afterward.
The agency does not typically inspect the job, instead relying on the paperwork.
So basically the Gulf was OPEN to ANY OPERATION at all courtesy of YOUR GOVERNMENT, America.
You know, the SAME ONE that is "protecting you" from false-flagging, government created, funded, and directed terrorists and the fraudulent global warming.
The fact there are so many wells that have been classified for decades as temporarily abandoned suggests that paperwork can be shuffled at MMS without any real change beneath the water.
Especially when their employees are whacked out of their minds and beating off to pornography.
With its weak system of enforcement, MMS imposed fines in a relative handful of cases....
Yeah, KEEP APOLOGIZING for them, MSM!!
After all, YOUR CREDIBILITY is COVERED in OIL and at the BOTTOM of the GULF just like the GOVERNMENT and INDUSTRY!
A DIABOLICAL TRINITY!
Yeah, all those things I mentioned were COVERED UP and CONCEALED by the MSM!
