Ireland

Ireland

Thursday, July 8, 2010

On site

Ok, so I've recently written some posts attacking BP because of the oil spill, which is still spilling by the way, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thank goodness there are no BP execs who are followers of my blog, because I am presently sitting in Port Fourchon, Louisiana aboard my tug, waiting while BP and others retrofit our barge so it can carry 8 of Kevin Costner's oil skimmers out into the fouled waters of the Gulf to help in the cleanup.

It seems BP is throwing some money at my company, and in return will get to use some of our barges in the clean up. The barges need a tug boat to tow them.
I work on a tug.
So, yep, essentially I am now working for BP.
Gulp!

Port Fouchon, located on Louisiana's south coast, is a stones throw away from the Gulf, which is why this little swampy area has been transformed into a very busy land base for the oil rigs working in the Gulf of Mexico. Anything you would possibly need to build or operate an oil rig, gets to the rigs, which can be hundreds of miles from land, via supply boats from this bustling Port in the middle of nowhere. Below is a picture of one of my company's supply boats that went by today.



The Ports business has exploded since the relative recent opening of the deepwater of the Gulf for oil exploration. This project, "Deepwater Gulf of Mexico" is why the rig Deepwater Horizon, was where it was before it experienced the catastrophe that caused this massive oil spill.

When I was told to fly to New Orleans and meet the boat in Fourchon because we were going to be involved, somehow, in the clean up, I was anxious to see what was going on. I expected to arrive at my boat to see people flying around doing all that has to be done to get the barge equipped to provide a service we normally don't deal with.

Kevin Costners oil separators?
New living quarters on the barge for the additional 16 people that will live there while operating all this equipment while we're out at sea?
On charter with BP?

Man, I thought, this is going to be intense.
But if what I've seen is any indication, then there is a serious lack of urgency by BP concerning this disaster.
Our tug and barge have been tied to the dock for the last 10 days. We've had visits from BP representitives and meetings out the wazoo. But absolutely nothing has been done physically to change our barge into a state of the art oil recovery unit.

I hear Kevin's machines might be here next week.
Meanwhile we sit, doing nothing, while our company gets paid by BP, for doing nothing.
The oil still gushes.
Is there something wrong with this picture?

I'll keep you posted.

7 comments:

Sueann said...

Totally insane!! Here we are in the middle of a serious tragedy and urgency is called for. And nothing??? That is sick!!! Somebody smack them...please! Let's get the lead out and move people!!
Sheesh!
I too have noticed the lack of serious movement among the clean up crews. Everyone is always waiting for someone to show up and give permission and no one comes! Unbelievable!!!
Hope you get to work soon Mark!
Hugs
SueAnn

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

OMG, Mark.... it's almost comedic. 10 days you sit there, ten more days the oil spill spreads, no urgency, KC's oil seperators taking so long to get to you... seems ridiculous. And pathetic.

BUT, if you've got to work (sort of) for BP.. atleast it's to clean up their mess.

Great photos, as always, thanks for taking us along.

nacherluver said...

Damn. Not surprising, but still infuriating. Will be watching for updates. Thanks

beth said...

there is something totally wrong with picture !....but i'm thrilled that you are there to document the happenings for us...even if what's happening right now is a bunch of sitting....WHICH I TOTALLY DON'T FREAKIN GET AT ALL !

arrghhh.....why does this have to be so hard ?

Jerral Miles said...

Mark,
Keep an eye on things down there. The world is watching... and waiting. If anybody can give us a good sense of what's happening, it's you. Keep us posted.
Jerral

Unknown said...

I'm going to head down with a barge-full of paper towels, pretty soon. It can't be any slower of a process than what BP has going on.

Dan Kent said...

I am so angry and disgusted I could spit. And today they've removed the cover to full gusher status for approx. a week!