Cleaning up the oil spill, enlightenment by hillbillies!

[PQ]

Originally Posted by RedJewel2SS

that means BP is making over $10 million a day by collecting the oil, minus the cost to rent the skimmers which is probably $1 million a day combined.

I haven't heard that this oil is even useable at the normal rate of refinement/profit. Which I doubt.

AND, if you use hay, you won't be refining it at all.

I'm just saying, that cost effectiveness is important here.

[5thGenCamaroChick]

You're not alone in your thinking, PQ, my hubby agrees with you. He thinks BP will cut and run too.

[RedJewel2SS]

Originally Posted by PQ

I haven't heard that this oil is even useable at the normal rate of refinement/profit. Which I doubt.

AND, if you use hay, you won't be refining it at all.

I'm just saying, that cost effectiveness is important here.

any crude oil is usable. that is what the refineries are for.

MOST oil reservoirs have some water saturation in them which is WAY more salinated than normal sea water. also oil separates from water very easily so getting the water separated is no big deal, they do it all the time all over the world. the skimmers they are using to collect the oil are also collecting sea water, when they pump it up the oil and water separates in the tanks and they dump the sea water back in the gulf to save room to collect more oil.

now using the hay would not be smart on their part because it would be more difficult to use the oil. BP isn't going to collect the oil with hay just to burn it, they are going to want to sell it at as little cost to them as possible.

some might wonder where i get all this info... well i'm a petroleum engineer, and a smart one at that b/c i got a job offer with BP last year before i graduated and i declined it immediately.

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by RedJewel2SS

any crude oil is usable. that is what the refineries are for.

MOST oil reservoirs have some water saturation in them which is WAY more salinated than normal sea water. also oil separates from water very easily so getting the water separated is no big deal, they do it all the time all over the world. the skimmers they are using to collect the oil are also collecting sea water, when they pump it up the oil and water separates in the tanks and they dump the sea water back in the gulf to save room to collect more oil.

now using the hay would not be smart on their part because it would be more difficult to use the oil. BP isn't going to collect the oil with hay just to burn it, they are going to want to sell it at as little cost to them as possible.

some might wonder where i get all this info... well i'm a petroleum engineer, and a smart one at that b/c i got a job offer with BP last year before i graduated and i declined it immediately.

Good move! So question: What all does a petroleum engineer do? How many years of college does that take? Just curious

[RedJewel2SS]

Originally Posted by Brokinarrow

Good move! So question: What all does a petroleum engineer do? How many years of college does that take? Just curious

4 years to get a bachelor's degree, some take 5 cuz they had to repeat math or chemistry the first time around. you can also go and get a master's or Phd but only international and the major companies like those for R&D (pretty boring). but the extra year's in college does not really payout in the long run. i'm only 22 and been out of school for just over a year and i'm already making 6 figures

basically there are 3 sides to the oil industry: service companies, exploration/production companies, and downstream companies.

service companies like Halliburton or Schlumberger provide a service for the E&P companies to work on wells or for consulting. the petroleum engineer either designs cement jobs, frac jobs, and other stuff and goes to the wellsite to perform that job.

the E&P companies like my Company, Apache, or Devon, Oxy, etc... we are the ones that obtain leases on land or sea and figure out where the best place to drill a well and develop a field. a petroleum engineer can either be a drilling engineer who is in charge of drilling the well, a reservoir engineer (like me) who teams with a geologist and figures out where we want to drill and develop a field and then book oil/gas reserves for it, and then there are production engineers that pretty much maintain the wells while they are producing. E&P companies only produce oil then pipe it to the refineries where they sell it.

then there is the downstream side like oil refineries. a petroleum engineer here is more of a chemical engineer and they pretty much just take the crude and turn it into usable products like gasoline and plastic, etc... then send it off to gas stations and other companies that use it.

and finally you got the major companies like Exxon, BP, Shell, Chevron who are an E&P company but own the refineries and gas stations as well.



in one sentence you could say we help find the oil, figure out how much is there, produce it, and turn it into usable products.

[PQ]

Originally Posted by RedJewel2SS

any crude oil is usable. that is what the refineries are for.

MOST oil reservoirs have some water saturation in them which is WAY more salinated than normal sea water. also oil separates from water very easily so getting the water separated is no big deal, they do it all the time all over the world. the skimmers they are using to collect the oil are also collecting sea water, when they pump it up the oil and water separates in the tanks and they dump the sea water back in the gulf to save room to collect more oil.

now using the hay would not be smart on their part because it would be more difficult to use the oil. BP isn't going to collect the oil with hay just to burn it, they are going to want to sell it at as little cost to them as possible.

some might wonder where i get all this info... well i'm a petroleum engineer, and a smart one at that b/c i got a job offer with BP last year before i graduated and i declined it immediately.

Wouldn't this oil be finders keepers?

Hmmmm............ I wonder if that's the reason they have declined to allow it to be done by the offers that have come in? THAT would really piss me off.

[RedJewel2SS]

Originally Posted by PQ

Wouldn't this oil be finders keepers?

Hmmmm............ I wonder if that's the reason they have declined to allow it to be done by the offers that have come in? THAT would really piss me off.

well if BP hired someone to clean it up, it is BP's oil, not whoever cleans it up.

it gets really sticky with laws and oil spills.

technically if it touches the ground surface, it is the surface owner's oil and since the coast is owned by the gov't then that oil will be unusable, especially if the sand soaks it up. but it is still BP's responsibility to clean up the beaches.

[PQ]

Originally Posted by RedJewel2SS

well if BP hired someone to clean it up, it is BP's oil, not whoever cleans it up.

it gets really sticky with laws and oil spills.

technically if it touches the ground surface, it is the surface owner's oil and since the coast is owned by the gov't then that oil will be unusable, especially if the sand soaks it up. but it is still BP's responsibility to clean up the beaches.

So then why did they turn down the offer from the skimmer boats. And why are they not doing this? They should have every skimmer available and offered. Right?

[SSE 4 2SS]

Originally Posted by RedJewel2SS

4 years to get a bachelor's degree, some take 5 cuz they had to repeat math or chemistry the first time around. you can also go and get a master's or Phd but only international and the major companies like those for R&D (pretty boring). but the extra year's in college does not really payout in the long run. i'm only 22 and been out of school for just over a year and i'm already making 6 figures

basically there are 3 sides to the oil industry: service companies, exploration/production companies, and downstream companies.

service companies like Halliburton or Schlumberger provide a service for the E&P companies to work on wells or for consulting. the petroleum engineer either designs cement jobs, frac jobs, and other stuff and goes to the wellsite to perform that job.

the E&P companies like my Company, Apache, or Devon, Oxy, etc... we are the ones that obtain leases on land or sea and figure out where the best place to drill a well and develop a field. a petroleum engineer can either be a drilling engineer who is in charge of drilling the well, a reservoir engineer (like me) who teams with a geologist and figures out where we want to drill and develop a field and then book oil/gas reserves for it, and then there are production engineers that pretty much maintain the wells while they are producing. E&P companies only produce oil then pipe it to the refineries where they sell it.

then there is the downstream side like oil refineries. a petroleum engineer here is more of a chemical engineer and they pretty much just take the crude and turn it into usable products like gasoline and plastic, etc... then send it off to gas stations and other companies that use it.

and finally you got the major companies like Exxon, BP, Shell, Chevron who are an E&P company but own the refineries and gas stations as well.



in one sentence you could say we help find the oil, figure out how much is there,(_???_) produce it, and turn it into usable products.

Congratulations on your education, as you are set for life by obtaining that onion skin...

I also understand the implications of working out here financially.... and I'm way over the basic 6 figure income.

You forgot the little guy though... figuratively speaking of course...
"basically there are 3 sides to the oil industry: service companies, exploration/production companies, and downstream companies.
There are the E&P companies, Shell, B.P. Exxon Chevron etc...
There are the service companies, that work directly for the oil companies, in someone elses back yard... Halliburton, Schlumberger, etc...
There are also the drilling companies.... my line of work... Diamond Offshore, Transocean, Noble, Pride etc...

We are the ones that do the physical part of getting the product out of the ground... You can't go straight from finding it to producing it without us...

Many years ago, drilling contractors were hired and a company man was put on the rig to make sure that the oil company was getting value for the dollar work... There has been an unfortunate trend that came about over many years of the co-men becoming micro-managers in the day to day operations at the base levels... This is unfortunate and in my opinion has a very great deal to do with the recent explosion on the Horizon..

To expand on this a little, if you Camaro is wrecked, it is taken to a body shop (drilling contractor)... There is an estimate done (service, geologists etc). The Insurance co. (E&P) is contacted for the money to fix it. The shop has a manger to make sure the work is done correctly, but as the owner, you are the final say in the finished product (co-man).

Are you going to tell the body man how to fix the car, how far to pull the frame, how much body putty to use, or how to mix the paint, or are you simply going to make sure the final product is correct and done in a timely fashion...

I had a 23 y/o co-man for the company we are working for tell me how to test my BOP's... Huh, sorry dude, but I follow my companies procedures and the original manufacturers guidelines... I do not follow the whimsical mandates of a co-man, regardless of his/her age...I kid you not, every single co-rep that comes out here has his own ideas for how things are to be done, and while most of them are sound and based in good information, many of them are so off the wall as to make me wonder if they got hired from a tiki hut on the beach the week before...

Again, congratulations on your education, and welcome to a lifetime of misery and great money...

[5thGenCamaroChick]

Great analogy SSE. I have been wondering since the beginning if Transocean somehow shares the liability for this. Any knowledge of that?

[RedJewel2SS]

your analogy is good.

i was trying to keep my description as simple as possible.

in a way you can categorize drilling companies along with service companies, because the E&P companies hire the drilling contractors to drill a well for them, which is a service they provide.

but to be more descriptive on my original post, there are:
E&P companies (own the well)
Drilling companies (drill the well)
Service companies (provide cement, frac jobs, wireline, logging, tools, etc. to complete and work on the well)
Midstream companies (own the pipelines & tankers that transport the oil from where ever it comes from)
Downstream companies (refineries, gas stations, etc. that process the oil into usable products then sell them to the consumer)

[Brokinarrow]

Very interesting all around, I think I may have actually learned something today Thanks for sharing guys!

[PQ]

So............. where does Harry Stamper fit in to all this?

[SSE 4 2SS]

Originally Posted by 5thGenCamaroChick

Great analogy SSE. I have been wondering since the beginning if Transocean somehow shares the liability for this. Any knowledge of that?

Some, but it remains to be seen... but we can chew on this... as for Safety.... THE ULTIMATE authority on any offshore oil drilling rig is the OIM... (offshore installation manager) If the co-rep is doing something considered unsafe practices, it is the responsibility of the OIM to prevent the unsafe work from occuring... There have in the past been OIM's that failed to do this, and personnel and rigs have suffered. here have also been OIM's that did stand up for what was right, and everything was fine. Then the OIM's that stood up, and got run off by the co-man, he was replaced, and someone else was put in place and did it the wway the co-man wanted it... and there have been OIM's that got hung out to dry by their companies... Personally, if they run me off, and the office doesn't support my decision in regards to safety, then I do not want to work there anyway... I have a beautiful wife and home to come back to... as well as my toys...

Originally Posted by RedJewel2SS

your analogy is good.

i was trying to keep my description as simple as possible.

in a way you can categorize drilling companies along with service companies, because the E&P companies hire the drilling contractors to drill a well for them, which is a service they provide.

but to be more descriptive on my original post, there are:
E&P companies (own the well)
Drilling companies (drill the well)
Service companies (provide cement, frac jobs, wireline, logging, tools, etc. to complete and work on the well)
Midstream companies (own the pipelines & tankers that transport the oil from where ever it comes from)
Downstream companies (refineries, gas stations, etc. that process the oil into usable products then sell them to the consumer)

True and Correct, except drilling companies are the Primary contractor and the others are service companies... The other work off of our rig and so are considered third party or service companies.

But obviously you studied well and are very well informed... you are gonna do well out here... Maybe some day I can work for on a drilling rig if you are on the drilling side...

Originally Posted by PQ

So............. where does Harry Stamper fit in to all this?

"No nukes, no nukes... ... I just wanted to feel the power between my legs... "

The rig that was used for that movie is actually a state of the art 5th+ Gen rig we own capable of drilling in 10,000 feet of water to around 40,000 feet deep... It was a cold stack rig no longer used when the movie was made. We bought it and had it refurbished for around half a billion dollars... or roughly half what a new build would cost...