Levin: SWAT Team Response To Oil Spill Is Government Takeover Plot

Levin: SWAT Team Response To Oil Spill Is Government Takeover Plot

www.infowars.com

In a move that has shocked and dumbfounded political observers in equal measure, Obama said yesterday the “Department of Interior has announced that they will be sending SWAT teams to the Gulf to inspect all platforms and rigs.”

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Was the Deepwater Horizon Fire/Spill Intentional?

Was the Deepwater Horizon Fire/Spill Intentional? Could be why the SWAT teams could be needed .... Can you say Cover up!

First off all Drilling Operations must use the Two Barrier rule:


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The two barrier rule is a policy of safety for work on piping carrying high pressure and/or high temperature fluids. It is commonly used by oil companies such as BP. The rule simply states that for any work that must be done on a section of piping, which involves breaking containment, there must be at least two barriers separating the fluids from the broken area. The purpose behind specifying two barriers is to ensure redundancy. The risk of a total loss of containment is reduced if there are two independent isolations as it is highly improbable they would both fail at the same time.

For example, if a section of pipe from a production line leading from a Xmas tree to the process plant, were to need replacement, this area of the piping would need isolation before the offending section was removed or oil would be able to flow freely out of the piping into the environment, causing environmental damage, a health and safety hazard and waste of a precious resource. Under the two barrier rule, there must be two separate isolations between the oil flowing from the well to this area of the piping. The logical barriers in this case would be the production wing valve and the upper master valve.

Uncontrolled release of pressure has been the cause of many accidents in the oilfield and so the two barrier rule is considered very important for increasing safety.




The X-Mas Tree:


Tree complexity has increased over the last few decades. They are frequently manufactured from blocks of steel containing multiple valves rather than made from multiple flanged valves. This is especially true in subsea applications where the resemblance to Christmas Trees no longer exists given the frame and support systems into which the main valve block is integrated.

It is common to identify the type of tree as either "subsea tree" or "surface tree". Each of these classifications has a number or varieties within them. Examples of subsea include conventional, dual bore, mono bore, TFL (through flow line), horizontal, mudline, mudline horizontal, side valve, and TBT (through bore tree) trees.

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow into or out of the well, usually oil or gas. A tree often provides numerous additional functions including chemical injection points, well intervention means, pressure relief means (such as annulus vent), tree and well monitoring points (such as pressure, temperature, corrosion, erosion, sand detection, flow rate, flow composition, valve and choke position feedback, connection points for devices such as down hole pressure and temperature transducer (DHPT).



The Valves:


Subsea and Surface Trees have a large variety of valve configurations and combinations of manual and/or actuated (hydraulic or pneumatic) valves. Examples are identified in API Specifications 6A and 17D.

A basic surface tree consists of two or three manual valves (usually gate valves because of their strength).

A typical sophisticated surface tree will have at least four or five valves, normally arranged in a crucifix type pattern (hence the endurance of the term "Christmas tree"). The two lower valves are called the master valves (upper and lower respectively) because they lie in the flow path, which well fluids must take to get to surface. The lower master valve will normally be manually operated, while the upper master valve is often hydraulically actuated, allowing it to be a means of well control while an actuated wing valve is normally the primary well remotely (from control room or control panel) controlled valve. Hydraulic tree wing valves are usually built to be fail safe closed, meaning they require active hydraulic pressure to stay open.

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing valve, because it is in the flowpath the hydrocarbons take to production facilities (or the path water or gas will take from production to the well in the case of injection wells).

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve. It is primarily used for injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate formation. In the North Sea, it is called the non-active side arm (NASA). It is typically manually operated.

The valve at the top is called the swab valve and lies in the path used for well interventions like wireline and coiled tubing. For such operations, a lubricator is rigged up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered through the lubricator, past the swab valve and into the well. This valve is typically manually operated.

Some trees have a second swab valve, the two arranged one on top of the other. The intention is to allow rigging down equipment from the top of the tree with the well flowing while still preserving the Two barrier rule. With only a single swab valve, the upper master valve is usually closed to act as the second barrier, forcing the well to be shut in for a day during rig down operations. However, avoiding delaying production for a day is usually too small a gain to be worth the extra expense of a having a Xmas tree with a second swab valve.

Subsea trees are available in either vertical or horizontal configurations with further speciality available such as dual bore, monobore, concentric, drill-through, mudline, guidlineless or guideline. Subsea trees may range in size and weight from a few tons to approximately 70 tons for high pressure, deepwater (>3000 feet) guidelineless applications. Subsea trees contain many additional valves and accessories compared to Surface trees. Typically a subsea tree would have a choke (permits control of flow), a floline connection interface (hub, flange or other connection), subsea control interface (direct hydraulic, electro hydraulic, or electric) and sensors for gathering data such as pressure, temperature, sand flow, erosion, multiPhase flow, single phase flow such as water or gas.




The redundancy of the complex systems is amazing. How can All of them Fail?


www.infowars.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Check this out:

NOAA Held a drill 3 weeks before the spill.

It's A Drill! SONS 2010





On March 24 and 25, staff from NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) participated in the 2010 Spill of National Significance (SONS) full-scale exercise. SONS 2010 took place in Portland, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and in Washington, D.C.



A SONS is defined in 40 CFR 300.5 as, "a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge." This SONS exercise was intended to implement the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and test oil spill response plans at the local Unified Command (UC), Area Command, and National Incident Command (NIC) response organizations in accordance with the National Contingency Plan (NCP) and National Response Framework.


The Scenario

SONS 2010 featured a collision between two vessels (a car carrier and an oil tanker) approximately 16 miles off the coast in the Gulf of Maine. The collision occurred during a particularly strong winter storm with sub-freezing temperatures and restricted visibility. It resulted in a major coastal oil spill that exercised numerous other economic, environmental, and political challenges designed to stress all levels of the response organization. The oil spill exercise affected several states in the New England area, including Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.


NOAA's Role in SONS 2010

NOAA OR&R has over three decades of experience in supporting the U.S. Coast Guard and other response agencies with scientific coordination during exercises and real events. This support includes expertise in


predicting the fate and behavior of spilled pollutants;

identifying resources at risk;

conducting environmental chemistry;

assessing chemical hazards;

recommending cleanup strategies and priorities;

assessing shorelines;

managing response information;

developing and implementing monitoring plans;

coordinating with other Federal, State and local agencies, as well as industry, on science-related issues;

coordinating Natural Resource Trustee issues.
As part of the SONS 2010 exercise, OR&R field-tested a newly developed situational awareness tool, ERMA®. The Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA) is a web-based open source mapping tool designed to capture and share geographic information used in science decision-making, both on-scene and remotely.

Source: response.restoration.noaa.gov...

Could it have been a test for the GOM spill?

After talking to my father-in-law, a petrolium engineer, I am beginning to think there may be a conspiracy involved here. Federal inspectors were on the rig days before. One of my old Shipmates works for Edison Chouest Offshore on the Vessel that worked the Deepwater Horizon.

He called me the day after the fire and told me that a few hours before the Fire there was a small explosion. I don't have any other accounts so I am skeptical about it.

now the rig had a BOP:

A blowout preventer (BOP) is a large valve that can seal off at the surface wellhead a well being drilled or worked over. During drilling or well interventions, the valve may be closed if overpressure from an underground zone causes formation fluids such as oil or natural gas to enter the wellbore and threaten the rig. By closing this valve (usually operated remotely via hydraulic actuators), the drilling crew can prevent explosive pressure release, thus regaining control of the downhole pressure. Once this is accomplished, often the drilling mud density within the hole can be increased until adequate fluid pressure is being placed on the influx zone, and the BOP can be opened for operations to resume. The invention and use of BOPs were instrumental in the end of oil gushers, which were dangerous and costly.

now even the BOP has redundacy. I don't understand how the BOP had multiple falures.

The major safety mechanism would be on the sea floor the BOP ( Blow Out Preventor ) With a pressure increase ( a Hit ) or a Decrease a Leak, The device would automaticaly close. It also has a manual back up that can be triped by an ROV. So far the ROV cannot trip the BOP. This is unheard of. the BOP system alone has 3 or 4 independant valves some manual some automatic.

I am almost to the point of calling it intentional...



[edit on 30-4-2010 by SWCCFAN]

www.swat-ab.ca...

Ease up or the trigger there, pardner...
When stuff like this happens, you need a level headed type who can asses the situation in a expert and professional manner.
A Canadian.
From inpenatrable German defence lines to oil feild watse management,
the talent pool is endless...

[edit on 30-4-2010 by firsttimecaller]

reply to post by firsttimecaller


Yeah I am over processing things. I have a friend who ws on that rigs Stand By Vessel. He told me a few hours before the Fire they had a small explosion on the rig. So far that is the only source I have on that so I haven't ran with it yet.

Also Look at the Federal Response or lack there of. The NAVY has tons of assets for spills. Just Today they are being dispatched to Assist.

Looks like this could be Obama's Katrina.

Good thread. Now they are deploying 6000 troops. For what? Martial law?

reply to post by SWCCFAN


I have a question, why would they use a western Canadian spill clean up company?

What, the US does not have any companies anymore?

I think the use of the company was probably purposeful.

Do not know about the explosion though. Oh well, just another thingy, nothing to see here. Move along.

reply to post by endisnighe


Well Obama said: "We are Sending a SWAT Team of Inspectors" I don't think they are sending a Canaidan Company. We have Several here on the Gulf Coast.

But if they Want to assist Come On we are going to need all the help we can get!

reply to post by SWCCFAN


Well, that is what I am kind of getting at. Why would they send a Canadian Company to a clean up in the Gulf?

Does not make sense for the explanation that people have come up with.

Originally posted by endisnighe
reply to post by SWCCFAN

 

Well, that is what I am kind of getting at. Why would they send a Canadian Company to a clean up in the Gulf?

Does not make sense for the explanation that people have come up with.

Which Canadian company? Maybe they have a certain type of nano cleanup called SAMS.

reply to post by 911stinks


SWAT

SWAT home site

This entire disaster and the additional oil rig incident happening after it stink. Im not convinced it is all a bunch of accidents happening.
yeah.

Originally posted by 911stinks
Good thread. Now they are deploying 6000 troops. For what? Martial law?

What intrested me was the LA Governors press confrence about 1600 today. Govornor Jindal said he had to ask Permission from the DOD to use the LANG. ( LA National Guard )

If the state had control over the national guard why did Governor Jindal have to ask permission to use them? ( Oh yeah they are Federalized thats right and the state has to ask permision. )

Why use them?
What are Boots on the Ground going to do?
What experence do the NG have at cleaning up Oil Spills?

So many Questions ...

I can See using LA ANG air assets to spread dispersants other than that its the Coast Guards job.

Originally posted by Unplugged
This entire disaster and the additional oil rig incident happening after it stink. Im not convinced it is all a bunch of accidents happening.
yeah.

You have heard that the actual spill did not start until 36 Hours after sinking of the rig right?

for crying out loud people

they are NOT sending a SWAT team [ as in paramilitary unit ]

they are sending a " swat team " of inspectors

this basic research took seconds to uncovere thge REAL story

so why is ATS listinening to idiots who are purposley spewing disinfo ?

edit to add :

Federal regulators sent a SWAT team of inspectors into the Gulf of Mexico area to ensure compliance with safety rules on deep water drilling rigs.

source

there - the REAL quote from a bona fide news outlet - not the paranoid fantasies of people claiming military takeover

[edit on 30-4-2010 by ignorant_ape]

Looks like this could be Obama's Katrina.

Looks like the media may agree with that statement.

blogs.reuters.com...

Maybe we should just call it “Katrina-slick-gate”

Pundits have been waiting for ”Obama’s Katrina” almost since he took office in 2009.

This week, the White House is facing critics who say that a massive BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico deserves the title. The White House dismissed the thought, and denied it was slow to respond to the spill, which took place after an explosion on a drilling platform that left 11 workers missing and presumed dead.

(just a side note: I hate all the "gate" and "water" names.....the MSM really lacks imagination.)

reply to post by endisnighe


Interesting development, I wounder also, with all the billions of dollars that the oil companies reap a year, where are the sophisticated damage control teams, underwater experts and so on.

Incredible, it seems that our all for profit big oil cartel have not money to invest in keeping the oil production safe for the environment and human safety.

I have nothing to back me up, but this all feels to me like another part of the gradual disintegration of the US. From the neglect of our bridges and roads to the porous borders to the downward spiral of our educational system to the theft of peoples' retirement money and sending of manufacturing jobs overseas. They're slowly getting us used to living in a third world country.

reply to post by marg6043


Well, BP said they will pay ALL damages immediately to everyone that can verify their damages.

I hope this does not become another reason to Nationalize another industry.

reply to post by warpcrafter


Everything you mentioned, was run by the government. Including the companies leaving the US. You have heard of NAFTA and the other FREE TRADE treaties, right?

Yep, keep demonizing business. Pretty soon everyone will work for the government. With huge checks and retirement packages.

Oh wait, the government is in debt to the tune of over 120 Trillion.

[edit on 4/30/2010 by endisnighe]