Dr. Petrolove or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Oil Part 4: Looking at an August End for the Oil

Yep, that's about when they're thinking the hole in the Gulf will get plugged--August.

Check out this cutting from a CSMonitor.com article that went up today:

With the failure of the BP “top kill” maneuver, the effort to combat the BP oil spill is increasingly becoming an attempt to manage expectations.

A month ago, when the spill was barely a week old, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNN that the “ultimate relief” – drilling a relief well – was still “90 days out.”

Now, that pronouncement is looking like the most realistic target. BP managing director Bob Dudley said Sunday that the the company's best hope was not in capping the well but in containing and collecting the oil at the source until a relief well is ready in August.

So, the plan now is to drill (baby, drill) another hole in the Gulf in (I guess) the hope that it will relieve pressure on the first hole in the Gulf.

So, that's where we stand. Seems pretty damn pitiful, to this observer, that BP didn't have a plan for dealing with an accident like this.

I'm just glad we have strong leaders who can guide us through this--OH WAIT...

Posted via web from thepete's posterous