60 Minutes BP Video: A Tale of Two Wells
Guest post submitted by attorney Don Smith.
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“Where’s Fluffy?” – BP’s attempt to switch out America’s dead hamster.
I will admit to not following the spill as closely as some. I would see the live feed of the endless stream of oil, and laugh as the Daily Show mocked BP’s now-former CEO for his political tone-deafedness, and change the channel quickly when the parade of oil-soaked birds and turtles came on.
But all of that came to a screeching halt Friday night. I saw a short video (above) that has had me truly shocked. In “Tale of Two Wells,” the filmmaker shows that there are two wells; therefore, it’s very possible that the capping the world witnessed on July 15, 2010 was fake and the well that was leaking 100,000 barrels a day into the gulf is in fact still an uncontrolled torrent.
The video is not clearly edited and the soundtrack is a bit overly dramatic, but as I processed the twist at the end, I found myself staring blankly at my monitor. Having seen videos posted by truthers and birthers and various other conspiracy theorists, I am quick to dismiss radical claims. But the claim made in this video is that there is still an unchecked torrent of oil flowing into the gulf but we think it’s stopped because BP is showing us a capped well that is 314 feet away from the well that blew out.
Eager to vet the claims, I googled a few terms and found a few pieces of information. First was the drilling application and lease filed by BP with MMR. http://www.gomr.mms.gov/PI/PDFImages/PLANS/29/29977.pdf On page 3, the map of proposed exploration shows the coordinates of the two wells. Well A had an East coordinate ending in 803. These coordinates are feet. Well B is at 514 East. A little Pythagorean calculation shows that these proposed wellheads are 314 feet apart.
After that, I found a 4-part YouTube series by tvryb that starts here. Each part is 5-10 minutes long, and he lays out a painstakingly deliberate explanation of what he found. For a great overview, watch those.
I had watched the 60 Minutes interview a week or so ago and when I saw the clips in the “Tale” video, it came rushing back. 60 Minutes never referenced a second well head. And in fact, in March, BP was before the House Energy and Commerce Commission talking about the trouble they were having drilling the well. That well was capped off at that time. A search on the House website turns up many emails related to this issue. BP capped Well A on March 12, from the emails.
As I got to the end of his series, I decided to try to find some youtube videos of the live feeds from the ROVs back before July and then after BP said the wells were capped. That was easy, as there are tons. What I found verified the claims being made. You can see them here yourself.
From before Tropical Storm Bonnie –
This ROV feed was on May 30, 2010. Oil plumes into the Gulf and the coordinates are above – 512 – two feet from the drill site of Well B, the one that so violently blew out in April during drilling operations. Remember, Well A had been capped, and there were no drilling operations at the time. A blowout on that wellhead would have had no effect on the drilling rig, though it would have had the same devastating environmental impact that the blowout on Well B had.
After Bonnie –
This image is from July 11, and shows BP sliding the cap over the well head to seal it off. However, you’ll notice that the coordinates of this site are at 783. There are many feeds showing this capping process and all have coordinates from 770-820. All are within 30 feet of Well A. A quick youtube or google news search for feeds will provide more of these mismatched coordinates.
So the question is – which well is BP showing us? On BP’s homepage, they only reference “The MC252 Well”. Why is that? Why are they not specifying A or B?
So, here I am, just a guy with an internet connection, hoping that we can all bring enough pressure to bear on BP to have them first acknowledge the fact that there are two wells, second, train the cameras on Well B, and third, fix whatever else is going wrong down there. I would say call your congressman or write your paper, but also, forward it on to your friends. Post it on Facebook or Twitter. Or, someone show me why this glaringly obvious conflicting evidence is not at all out of the ordinary.
And if there isn’t a good explanation, then once again, sharpen your pitchforks, because it’s angry mob time.
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