Protagoras,
I can't recall where I saw or heard this but I do recall information that ships transiting via Torres Strait & the entire Great Barrier Reef are allowed an oil leakage of up to 400 litres from their propeller shaft seals.

All
Yabby, You....you....You....you grafted on Conservative leaning LIBERAL You...So the only alternative to a bad extreme is the opposite bad extreme?

Why is it that to non Labor posters to web sites never seem to understand things like proportion and that there are MULTIPLE alternatives between a problem and Armageddon.
Neither are issues absolutely two dimensionally Linear (straight line) with Conservative heaven one extreme and Demonic Communism at the other.

I posit that it is fear of personal lossthat limits perspective stasis.

If my memory serves me correctly wasn't there a whoops up north of us and we had to wait for equiptment to come from Singapore

In proportion the Gulf oil leak is smaller that the Exxon Valdez .
The problem is that it's now visible and threatens Where people (voters) are.
Keep in mind that serious safety breaches in oil refineries in the US over a three year period show that BP had 702 whereas all the others had 1 or 2 each. On its own these figures prove little except BP has a culture of perhaps short cuts.
It is interesting to note the in the finger pointing Haliburton is the end of the line.

All this tells me that deep water drilling should be rethought, in that instead of waiting untill a disaster to experiment. What are we up to plan #7? It should be mandatory to drilling permission that sufficient *resources* to plug a leak like this should be area local.
If it means slightly higher costing oil so be it. It is preferable to the destruction that is now inevitable.

PS that doesn't mean regulation for the sake of legislation

PS
All,
Will it happen in our world corner? It isn't a matter of if but when and how big will the disaster be...unless, we implement better safe guards.

One only needs consider the oops in the mining arena here and by good ole Aussie Corporations.
The limited liability Company was invented to facilitate investment but along with that came inadequate controls over the excesses in lack of responsibility.
The problem as I see it responsibility in corporations has become optional. We need to realistically evaluate can we continue to be shielded from the real cost of resources to our ultimate detriment?

*Just saw on Tele that BP spent $50 million on a TV apology. if that ain't the clearest example to-date of how out of touch these people are with reality I'll have crude oil for breakfast.*

Individual, sounds like you'll have to have crude oil for breakfast :)

I saw an interview on Bloomberg TV this afternoon, with Joe Biden,
US vice prez, for those who forgot.

There is indeed a whole lot being thrown at this, mandated by the
US Govt where required and BP are not flinching, paying for the lot.
So far, it seems that they have thrown about a billion at it,
so the advertising is just to keep the public like yourself informed
and the 50 million is small change.

BP was paying 1 million a day to hire the rig. Only an investiagtion
can show what really happened and whose flawed judgement is
responsible.

Anyhow, the first thing that Obama did was organise 20'000 paid
individuals to start helping with the clean up. Something like
1700 boats are involved too, so fishermen etc have an income.
All initial claims up to 5000$ have been paid to keep people going,
the rest will be sorted out later.

BP agreed to build some islands that were required, which cost them
175 million. Then Obama insisted that 2 relief wells were drilled
rather then 1, in case something went wrong. Thats another 100 million. The list goes on.

Interestingly Obama organised 100 of America's best brains in these
matters, to look over BPs shoulder, observe what they are doing
and see if other solutions can be tried. Apparently BP is agreeing
to everything, so they are fully aware that this could bankrupt
the company.

Biden reckons they have been deepwater drilling in the gulf for
20 years, so far without a problem, so people clearly became
complacent. BP own all the subs being used, so they clearly thought
that plan b would be enough, which it now shows is not the case.

There are a few differences in geotechnical detail, the main one being the nature of the oil itself. Less volatile oil will be more persistent, and we are lucky to have more volatile oil than America.

The Marine Safety Authority... If you looked into the matter you would find they were not obliged to lift a single finger in the incident, as no EPIRB was triggered and it wasnt related to the ships' engineers' qualifications.

Julia Gillard jumped the gun and said AMSA was doing an investigation, without knowing its actual role.

Protagoras,

Thanks for the information, it has been depressingly enlightening. I have been trying to look into it and would love any reference links to assist me.

I found this enlightening clip

BP Hearing -- Congressional Hearing on BP Oil Spill - Markey Q&A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyFGFxvhcxk&feature=related

It begs the question - What assurances do miners give to our Government Departments that have never been tested but on which an approval has been given?

Here is another link which refers to the disaster as Cheney's Katrina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqs8Frb29Ek

This is also worth a watch although it starts a little weirdly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-OrFMLLqJg&feature=related

I found the Politicians questioning quite informative...