Eco Terrorism Conspiracy

Those of us in the oil business have seen the insanity of the Rainbow Warriors, the Greenpeace ships manned by ecoJihadists that are so dangerous they even caused France to take military action against them...

These Fundamentalist Greenies, Mean Green lets call them, willing to kill to protect whatever non-human things need protecting from man's evil ways, caused the near decapitation of an acquaintance of mine and the destruction of millions in property several years ago in the Gulf of Mexico when one of the Rainbow Warriors speed boats shot in front of the Veritas seismic vessel he was on and came to a complete stop, forcing the large seismic vessel to full reverse while towing an extensive array of seismic data collectors that extended for miles behind called geophones and hydrophones.  The  booms towing this array swung uncontrollably, snapping and losing equipment, and nearly killing two people via decapitation as a result.

Nice.

No sane person tolerates that kind of behavior.... no different than the ironically monikered pro-lifers bombing abortion clinics. Right?

This verifiable event was followed by a "Might Have Been" incident.  A friend, whose business it was to actually knows about such things, claims that the Rainbow Warrior II entered the Gulf of Mexico immediately prior to Hurricane Dennis in 2005, and against myriad Coast Guard warnings and during the time platforms were being evacuated.  After the hurricane passed, BP's Thunder Horse platform was found listing and ready to sink.  Somehow, the ballast valves were open.  Officially, it was reported later to be "incorrectly plumbed", with a 6" pipe connecting the various ballast tanks, but the real problem was that the ballast tanks had been opened during a friggin' hurricane!  Sorry, that just doesn't happen in the evacuation of a billion dollar infrastructure.  The aforementioned Rainbow Warrior II showed up 3 days after the incident in Corpus Christi, having apparently ridden out the Hurricane around the area of Thunder Horse.

These real and "might have been" incidents lead to todays news and the full-on conspiracy theory being floated around that eco-terrorists had something to do with the recent BP/Transocean rig tragedy the day before Earth Day, and thus why Obama has involved Department of Homeland Security.  Franky, from the details I have heard, I don't think it is believable.  Why?

1.  The Transocean rig clearly had a blow out, caused by accessing a pressured pocket of hydrocarbons at depth.  The massive oil slick and continued flow is proof positive of this fact.

2.  Observers on the scene reported drill mud and formation water spitting out of the drill string prior to the hydrocarbons coming, all consistent with a natural blow out, and NOT some subsea sabotage of the drill string.

3.  This means that sabotage would necessarily have to have been an opportunistic inside job where the blow-out preventers were disabled shortly thereafter the off-chance they took an uncontrollable kick.  This is highly unlikely with lots of people REALLY interested in these particular tools at that particular moment.

4.  If these yahoos could predict that BP would hit an overpressured zone the day before Earth Day, I want to hire them asap.  Money no object. 

Too many things would have had to happen just right, and that just isn't compatible withthe skill sets of the eco-terrorist lot.  They know how to drive boats badly.  They know how to propogandize.  Theyare excellent at vidography and editing .  They are just not very big machinery and demolition device capable.  They really aren't "Nine Monkeys" types at all, more like iPhone loving jabbering snake wavers.

Of course, this is classically how Conspiracies begin.  A verifiable and bona fide idiot or criminally motivated disaster, followed by a "sure could have been the evil cabal" disaster, followed by a major disaster that is highly unlikely to have been anything BUT a plain old freak occurrence.  Our brains find huge comfort in fitting facts conspiratorially to random events, even when it is clear upon examination it is hugely unlikely.

Comments

[Tesla_X]

Mr. Choke,

Good fact and Numbers based website.

Have you seen this:

At the very least, it is what Shakespeare meant by "Bad Form" http://tinyurl.com/23zkev8 (Link 2 GS Oil Short gaff) At worst: Foreknowledge?

Where do you think they got the tip?

Or was it dumb luck...?

Tesla

[Open Choke]

Wow. I wonder how much the bet was for? A single trader?Goldman has lots of positions at any one time, I think, so really don't know what to read into it. Also, I don't know how you short the Gulf of Mexico. Short oil? Sure. Natural gas? Sure. How do you short the Gulf?

[Orlon DePitts]

Choke,
After commenting about this GS bet to my wife, she pointed out that the article is under the "comedy" tab at Huff Post.

[Mr. Choke]

It would be nice to have your take on this too:

Define "SWAT-Team" in the context of Obama's recent comments on reacting to the oil spill.

How many military organizations do we have deployed to the area anyway?

Air Force, Coast Guard (more or less), ?

Just looking at the cast of characters to see if it fits how past similar events have been responded to in a similar manner or not.

Thanks,

Tesla

[Papeleras]

An all around amazing piece!!!

[cara mengecilkan perut]

I could not think you are more right.