Louisiana deep oil drilling disaster

[Peter Lemkin]

I understand what you are saying, Peter. (The Derrick Jensen themes are still valid....) But of course the sense of an inter-related string of business and economy built around the oil industry is also valid; there are many on he Gulf Coast clambering for more drilling, and there was a court ruling on it today giving a green light (or overturning) Obama's temporary ban... What the issue is from my POV is that the nation has failed to address peak oil along with the corporate electioneering and person-hood issues and the larger issues of fascist Wall Street/Chamber of Commerce influence on national policy. We still endorse companies eating mountains for clean coal, so seas, fish, cultures and beaches are not going to stop them from satisfying their voracious appetite. Now, too, we have to have that lithium in Afghanistan.

I don't argue with what you are saying, I object to the cooptation of our language by the corporations/elites/PR folks turning words and concepts for living organisms and their interaction into boardroom terms; which, sadly, the MSM and the 'average Joe and Jane' swallow without blinking. An ecosystem of businesses is an oxymoronic term that demeans the word, the concept behind the word and philosophy that all life is important - not just those at the power peak of humankind - something lost on most of the society [and in my opinion, exactly the kind of hubris and shortsightedness, unnaturalness that which will kill human society and take along much of the other species, fairly soon!] hot:

[Ed Jewett]

I hear you, Peter, and don't disagree. We are going to have to reconfigure "how to go about business" in so many ways, but the games continue with the McChrystalline gambit, the politics of the Mexican border situation, and oh so much more.

Meanwhile..., though I cannot vouch in any way for anything here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1cC8stYR...r_embedded

[Ed Jewett]

It's raining oil?! ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un8co1d4zb4&feature=player_embedded#!

[Peter Lemkin]

Amazing.....and OH SO AMERICAN....the Judge involved has EXTENSIVE stock holdings in BP and BP connected corporations...he was appointed by Reagan...say no more....:damnmate:

A federal judge has struck down the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The White House imposed the ban last month as the BP oil spill spiraled into what many have called the worst environmental disaster in US history. But on Tuesday, US District Judge Martin Feldman called the suspension "heavy-handed" and "overbearing." A Reagan appointee, Feldman has extensive stock holdings in energy companies, including Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig where the explosion occurred, and Halliburton, which also performed work at the site. Feldman also owns stock in two of BP’s largest shareholders, BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration will appeal the ruling.

So much for 'blinded Justice' when one can make a decision based on one's own portfolio!.....:puke: (and class interests) :banghead:

Sickening that someone so biased would not have recused himself, or been challenged and removed! To say the judiciary is packed is an understatement....it is chock-a-block with the Corporatists and Ultra-Conservatives!hot:

[Keith Millea]

http://www.rense.com/general91/mill.htm

How The BP Disaster Could Kill Millions
By Terrence Aym

6-18-10
Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico-something far worse than theBP oil gusher. Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizondisaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous. What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

The same methane that makes coal mining operations hazardous and leads to horrendous mining accidents deep under the earth also can present a high level of danger to certain oil exploration ventures. Location of Deepwater Horizon oil rig was criticized More than 12 months ago some geologists rang the warning bell that the Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig might have been erected directly over a huge underground reservoir of methane.

Documents from several years ago indicate that the subterranean geologic formation may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit. None other than the engineer who helped lead the team to snuff the Gulf oilfires set by Saddam Hussein to slow the advance of American troops has stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas-compressed by a pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)-could be released by BP's drilling effort to obtain the oil deposit. Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi.

By some geologists' estimates the methane could be a massive 15 to 20 mile toxic and explosive bubble trapped for eons under the Gulf sea floor. In their opinion, the explosive destruction of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead was an accident just waiting to happen. Yet the disaster that followed the loss of the rig pales by comparison to the apocalyptic disaster that may come.

A cascading catastrophe According to worried geologists, the first signs that the methane may burst its way through the bottom of the ocean would be fissures or cracks appearing on the ocean floor near the damaged well head. Evidence of fissures opening up on the seabed have been captured by the robotic submersibles working to repair and contain the ruptured well.

Smaller, independent plumes have also appeared outside the nearby radius of the bore hole itself. According to some geological experts, BP's operations set into motion a series of events that may be irreversible. Step-by-step the drilling team committed one error after another. Congressmen Henry Waxman, D-CA, and Bart Stupak, D-MI, in a letter sent to BP CEO Tony Hayward, identified 5 missteps made by BP during the period culminating with the explosion.

Waxman, chair of the Congressional energy panel and Stupak, the head of the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said, "The common feature of these five decisions is that they posed a trade-off between cost and well safety." The two Representatives also stated in the 14-page letter to Hayward that "Time after time, it appears that BP made decisions that increased the risk of a blowout to save the company time or expense."

Called by some insiders investigating the ongoing disaster a "perfect storm of catastrophe," the wellhead blew on the sea floor catapulting a stream of mud, oil and gas upwards at the speed of sound. In describing the events-that transpired in a matter of seconds-they note that immediately following the rupture the borehole pipe's casing blew away exposing a straight line 8 miles deep for the pressurized gas to escape.

The result was cavitation, an irregular pressure variance sometimes experience by deep diving vessels such as nuclear submarines. This cavitation created a supersonic bubble of explosive methane gas that resulted in a supersonic explosion killing 11 men and completely annihilating the drilling platform. Death from the depths With the emerging evidence of fissures, the quiet fear now is the methane bubble rupturing the seabed and exploding into the Gulf waters.

If the bubble escapes, every ship, drilling rig and structure within the region of the bubble will instantaneously sink. All the workers, engineers, Coast Guard personnel and marine biologists measuring the oil plumes' advance will instantly perish.

As horrible as that is, what would follow is an event so potentially horrific that it equals in its fury the Indonesian tsunami that killed more than 600,000, or the destruction of Pompeii by Mt. Vesuvius.

The ultimate Gulf disaster, however, would make even those historical horrors pale by comparison. If the huge methane bubble breaches the seabed, it will erupt with an explosive fury similar to that experienced during the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in the Pacific Northwest.

A gas gusher will surge upwards through miles of ancient sedimentary rock-layer after layer-past the oil reservoir. It will explode upwards propelled by 50 tons psi, burst through the cracks and fissures of the compromised sea floor, and rupture miles of ocean bottom with one titanic explosion.

The burgeoning methane gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour. While the entire Gulf coastline is vulnerable, the state most exposed to the fury of a supersonic wave towering 100 feet or more is Florida.

The Sunshine State only averages about 6 inches above sea level. A supersonic tsunami would literally sweep away everything from Miami to the panhandle in a matter of minutes.

Loss of human life would be virtually instantaneous and measured in the millions. Of course the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and southern region of Georgia-a state with no Gulf coastline-would also experience tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Loss of property is virtually incalculable and the days of the US position as the world's superpower would be literally gone in a flash...of detonating methane.

http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-...l-millions

[Peter Lemkin]

This methane hydrate nightmare scenario might seem far fetched. It is NOT! Some believe that past similar events [natural, not BP-induced] caused some of the past extinction events in Paleo-history. Now that BP has possibly punctured a large methane hydrate deposit, it might just find a way 'up and out' and would very likely spontaneously ignite and explode. The 'event' could be any size - but it would NOT be hard to imagine an event damaging or destroying the coast of the entire Gulf. It would also put so much CO2 into the atmosphere, along with water and heat energy so quickly, it could well cause months or years of climate change......worldwide. Thank you BP.

[Ed Jewett]

You may not have to go back to paleo days. In the rush of text I've read recently, I remember some oblique reference to a recent event involving the mysterious deaths of a large number of people in a Third World country which, if my brain is working correctly, was Cameroon. See http://www.tvthrong.co.uk/nature-shock/n...-death-fog

[Peter Presland]

This whole thing has the makings of THE defining event of an epoch well past its sell-by date. I recall using that expression about 9/11, and game-changing though that was/is, it was calculated and in planned furtherance of an agenda; The unfolding GOM catastrophe has the potential to dwarf 9/11 in terms of its effects on the Anglo American Imperial project and its sancrosanct creed of globalised growth controlled by the West. I'm stumbling on all manner of disturbing stuff that has a bearing on it too. Take this from the Henry Markov site for example. From an certain occult perspective, the GOM catastrophe too is claimed to be deliberate:

In 1903, Austrian banker, writer and occultist Gustav Meyrink (left, 1868-1932) wrote a novella, "Petroleum, Petroleum", part of a collection of short stories, which featured this Preface:

"To assure priority of this prophecy, I state that the following novella has been written in 1903. Gustav Meyrink".

The novella tells the story of Dr. Jessegrim who has made a fortune in the mescaline business.

He decides to go into oil.

All of Mexico was standing on caves which were partly at least filled with petroleum, and connected with each other. Jessegrim resolves to blast away the separations between the caves. After the last detonation, the oil was to flow from the underground deposit in Mexico into the ocean and form a glass surface, which continues to grow, taken by the gulf stream, soon covering the entire Atlantic surface. The coasts were barren and the population retreated into the interior of the land.
Instead of being arrested, in Meyrink's story, Jessegrim is hired as a consultant. He says: "If the oil continues to spill as it does, it will have covered the oceans of the world in 27 to 29 weeks and there will be no more rains, ever, as water can not evaporate anymore. At best, it will rain petroleum."

First widely criticized, this prophecy (of Dr. Jessegrim) becomes increasingly plausible as the hidden flow does not stop, and when it increases dramatically, panic grips humanity.
Cable from USA to EU: "Oil leaks increase constantly. Situation extremely dangerous. Advise immediately whether stink there is also unbearable". In Meyrink's occult circles, they were fantasizing about oil reserves gushing into the ocean, from the Gulf of Mexico, covering the oceans.

They postulated that an oil reservoir released into the oceans would be an apocalypse and possibly destroy the entire earth. It would start with a huge explosion. The culprit (a Dr. No figure, "Dr. Jessegrim") is motivated by blind hate of humanity. He destroys humanity via a "wrath of god" - the oil catastrophe.

Unlike dystopian stories like "1984" by George Orwell or "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, who made no such claims, Mayrink called his story a "Prophecy". At the beginning of the story, he states quasi in notary fashion:

"To assure priority of this prophecy, I state that the following novella has been written in 1903. Gustav Meyrink".

With the discovery of his prophecy concerning the oil catastrophe in the Mexican Gulf, Meyrink could become posthumously famous in 2010. The best-known story of Meyrink is "The Golem" (1915), one of the Cabalistic treatments of the golem-saga where rabbis breathe life into a clay monster who vanquishes their enemies.

Meyrink ran a banking house between 1889 and 1902 and circulated his entire life in the occult world of Christian and Jewish mysticism, theosophy and alchemy.

He was a member of the very influential Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a British secret society active at the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century. Its members included the Satanist, occultist, Cabalist, magician Aleister Crowley, a Freemason of the Old and Accepted Order of the Scottish Rite. He called himself "The Great Beast 666". It means that Meyrink was frequenting circles which welcomed the Apocalypse, which is exactly what he describes in "Petroleum, Petroleum": An apocalypse. And a planned apocalypse.

Around 1900, the "magician and mystic" Aleister Crowley, in reality a drug-addicted megalomaniac, traveled to Mexico. It has always been known that, due to the lack of real magic, one had always to help things along, which is why the only real background of magic is illusion - the representation of magic.

Until now, every magician was really an illusionist, who interprets a natural event as magical. Or, an illusion as a natural event (see the attacks of 9-11). And while some developed an honest and entertaining art form out of this, others insisted on selling their illusions as real magic or natural phenomena.

Meyrink was frequenting such circles. Not only the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, but also the "Germania" lodge, the first lodge of the Theosophist Society. It was founded by (widely regarded con-woman) Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who also founded the magazine "Lucifer".

Meyrink eventually realized that the so-called "séances" for contacting ghosts from the other side were "almost entirely relying on tricks or self-deception".

One needs to point out that back then, people apparently fantasized about oil reserves spilling into the oceans, and doing so in the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, they believed this would become an apocalypse and could destroy the entire earth.

In Meyrink's story, the perpetrator is motivated by blind hatred of humanity: The destruction of the "crowd" was seen by Meyrink/Jessegrim as possible only through a "god-given scourge" - meaning, the oil apocalypse.

-----
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF 'PETROLEUM PETROLEUM'

Makow Note: I posted this information because it is pertinent that Occultists have been considering this form of attack for over a hundred years. I don't know what, if anything, is going to happen.

[Peter Lemkin]

The Well from Hell
http://www.petroleumworld.com/sf10062001.htm

By Christian A. DeHaemer

The Dwarves dug too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum... shadow and flame.

— Saruman, The Lord of the Rings

There is something primordial about BP's quest for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. It's an Icarus-like story of super-ambition; of reaching too far, delving too deep.

I don't know if you've stopped to contemplate what BP was trying to do...

The well itself started 5,000 feet below the surface. That's the depth of the Grand Canyon from the rim.

And then the company attempted to drill more than 30,000 feet below that — Mt. Everest would give 972 feet to spare.

Furthermore, the company sought oil in a dangerous area of the seabed.

It was unstable and many think BP sought it out because seismic data showed huge pools of methane gas — the very gas that blew the top off Deepwater Horizon and killed 11 people.

More than a year ago, geologists criticized Transocean for putting their exploratory rig directly over a massive underground reservoir of methane.

According to the New York Times , BP's internal "documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of 'well control.' And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer.”

The problem is that this methane, located deep in the bowels of the earth, is under tremendous pressure...

Some speculate as much as 100,000 psi — far too much for current technology to contain. The shutoff vales and safety measures were built for only 1,000 psi.

It was an accident waiting to happen... And there are many that say it could get worse — much worse.

Geologists are pointing to other fissures and cracks that are appearing on the ocean floor around the damaged wellhead.

According to CNN:

The University of South Florida recently discovered a second oil plume in the northeastern Gulf. The first plume was found by Mississippi universities in early May.

And there have been other plumes discovered by submersibles...

Some geologists say that BP's arrogance has set off a series of events that may be irreversible. There are some that think that BP has drilled into an deep-core oil volcano that cannot be stopped, regardless of the horizontal drills the company claims will stop the oil plume in August.

Need the mudlogs

Geologist, Chris Landau, for instance, has called for a showing of the mudlogs. A mudlog is a schematic cross sectional drawing of the lithology (rock type) of the well that has been bored.

So far, no one has seen them... BP keeps them hidden.

Mr. Landau claims:

It is a dangerous game drilling into high pressure oil and gas zones because you risk having a blowout if your mud weight is not heavy enough. If you weight up your mud with barium sulfate to a very high level, you risk BLOWING OUT THE FORMATION.

What does that mean? It means you crack the rock deep underground; as the mudweight is now denser than the rock, it escapes into the rock in the pore spaces and the fractures. The well empties of mud. If you have not hit high pressure oil or gas at this stage, you are lucky.

But if you have, the oil and gas come flying up the well and you have a blowout, because you have no mud in the well to suppress the oil and gas. You shut down the well with the blowout preventer. If you do not have a blowout preventer, you are in trouble as we have all seen and you can only hope that the oil and gas pressure will naturally fall off with time, otherwise you have to try and put a new blowout preventer in place with oil and gas coming out as you work.

Obviously, the oil and gas pressure hasn't fallen off

In fact... it's increased.

The problem is that BP may not only have hit the mother of high-pressure wells, but there is also a vast amount of methane down there that could come exploding out like an underwater volcano.

I recently heard a recording of Richard Hoagland who was interviewed on Coast to Coast AM.

Mr. Hoagland has suggested that there are cracks in the ocean floor, and that pressure at the base of the wellhead is approximately 100,000 psi.

Furthermore, geologists believe there are another 4-5 cracks or fissions in the well. Upon using a GPS and Depth finder system, experts have discovered a large gas bubble, 15-20 miles across and tens of feet high, under the ocean floor.

These bubbles are common. Many believe they have caused the sinking of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle.

That said, a bubble this large — if able to escape from under the ocean floor through a crack — would cause a gas explosion that Mr. Hoagland likens to Mt. St. Helens... only under water.

The BP well is 50 miles from Louisiana. Its release would send a toxic cloud over populated areas. The explosion would also sink any ships and oil structures in the vicinity and create a tsunami which would head toward Florida at 600 mph.

Now, many people have called Hoagland a fringe thinker and a conspiracy theorist. And they may be right... But that doesn't mean he isn't on to something.

EPA finds high concentrations of gases in the area

The escape of other poison gases associated with an underground methane bubble (such as hydrogen sulfide, benzene, and methylene chloride) have been found.

Last Thursday, the EPA measured hydrogen sulfide at 1,000 parts per billion — well above the normal 5 to 10 ppb. Some benzene levels were measured near the Gulf of Mexico in the range of 3,000 – 4,000 ppb — up from the normal 0-4 ppb.

More speculation of doom

The Oil Drum , an industry sheet, recently ran an article about the sequence of events that tried to stop the oil spill.

The upshot of industry insiders was that after trying a number of ways to close off the leak, the well was compromised, creating other leaks due to the high pressure. BP then cut the well open and tried to capture the oil.

In other words: BP shifted from stopping the gusher to opening it up and catching what oil it could.

The only reason sane oil men would do this is if they wanted to relieve pressure at the leak hidden down below the seabed... And that sort of leak — known as a “down hole” leak — is one of the most dangerous kind.

No stopping it

It means that BP can't stop if from above; it can only relieve the pressure.

So, more oil is leaking out while BP hopes it can drill new wells before the current one completely erodes.

BP is in a race against time... It just won't admit this fact.

According to the Oil Drum:

There are abrasives still present, a swirling flow will create hot spots of wear and this erosion is relentless and will always be present until eventually it wears away enough material to break it's way out. It will slowly eat the bop away especially at the now pinched off riser head and it will flow more and more. Perhaps BP can outrun or keep up with that out flow with various suckage methods for a period of time, but eventually the well will win that race, just how long that race will be?

... No one really knows...

Which leads us back to Mr. Landau's point about the mudlogs and why BP won't release them.

I don't know... Maybe I'm wearing my tinfoil hat too tight this morning... But this stuff seems possible — if it's only a worst case scenario.

What strikes me as odd is the way the leadership of BP and the Obama administration is acting.

BP is running around apologizing to everyone they can find. Obama says give us $20 billion in escrow and $100 million for the people Obama put out of work on the oil rigs due to his six month ban — and BP says, "Sure thing mate, no problem."

And all of this in a 20-minute meeting?

I've been dealing with oil companies for a long time and it just doesn't add up...

Contrast it, for instance, with the Exxon situation in Alaska or the Union Carbide disaster in India.

Exxon fought tooth and nail for its shareholders; it appealed court rulings for 19 years. Union Carbide wasn't settled for 25 years.

BP is rolling over like a simpering dog. Why?

The only reason I can think of is that the company knows — better if not as well as the Obama administration does — that it will get worse.

Much worse.

I've put together a list of oil cleanup stocks for the readers of my Crisis & Opportunity . Many are running, and one has pulled back into a solid buy range. Three more are on my buy list.

All I know is that this spill isn't even half over.

Oil in the Gulf will lead the news-cycle for the foreseeable future.

And the companies that make products that stop, absorb, or disperse oil have an endless supply of work.

Their share prices have nowhere to go but up. :wavey:

[Peter Lemkin]

After Earlier Troubles, BP Says It Restored Cap [so, relax...everything is just fine!:bandit:]:bird:

BP’s effort to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico suffered another setback on Wednesday when a discharge of liquid and gases forced the company to remove the containment cap that for three weeks had been able to capture much of the oil gushing from its damaged well.

Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, at a briefing in Washington, said a remote-controlled submersible operating a mile beneath the surface had most likely bumped a vent and compromised the system. Live video from the sea floor showed oil and gas storming out of the well unrestricted.

By evening, the cap was back on, nestled in place on the eighth try after about 90 minutes of effort. Live video showed remote-controlled submersibles frequently moving hoses out of the way so that the cap could be lowered over the spewing oil.

The company said the funneling of oil and gas through a pipe to the drill ship Discoverer Enterprise began shortly after the cap was properly positioned. John Curry, a BP spokesman, said collection would return to full capacity “as conditions permit.”

Another system, connected to a drill rig, the Q4000, continued to operate throughout the day, siphoning oil through a separate pipe near the seabed.

The incident was yet another complication in BP’s two-month struggle to contain the tens of thousands of barrels of oil spewing into the gulf every day.

On Tuesday, BP said it had been able to capture 16,665 barrels of oil through its containment cap, two-thirds of the total recovery operation. But at 8:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday, workers noticed liquids escaping from a valve connected to the Discoverer Enterprise.

A technician with knowledge of the situation said that gas had apparently flowed up the part of the pipe containing warm water used to prevent the formation of icelike hydrates. Out of concern that more gas might come up, creating the potential for an explosion, the Discoverer Enterprise was moved about 50 feet away, taking the cap with it, said the technician, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the work.

Also Wednesday, Admiral Allen said that two people working with the overall response efforts had died. One was the operator of a vessel assisting the cleanup in Gulf Shores, Ala., who was found dead on his docked boat. The other person died in a swimming pool accident. Neither death appeared to be directly related to the people’s specific duties in the effort, Admiral Allen said.

Stan Vinson, the coroner in Baldwin County, Ala., said the man found dead on his boat was William A. Kruse, 55, of Foley, Ala. He was a charter boat captain hired by BP. “A single wound to the victim’s head appears to be self-inflicted,” said Edward Delmore, the police chief of Gulf Shores, Ala., in a statement.

As oil gushed fiercely from a mile under the surface on Wednesday, some beleaguered fishermen in the gulf received a reprieve. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said it opened a small portion — 8,000 square miles — of previously closed fishing area in the Gulf of Mexico because it had not observed oil in the area. One area, south of Mississippi, had only been closed since Monday.

Two-thirds of the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico are still open for fishing, and the oceanic agency said the closed area now represented 78,597 square miles.

Still, Florida residents directly experienced the effects of the oil: tar balls and oil mousse (with the consistency of sludge) washed up on the shore of Pensacola Beach and caused several areas for swimming to be closed, said a spokeswoman for the Incident Command in Mobile, Ala.

In Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday that he was preparing new evidence to support a six-month moratorium on deep-water oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and was prepared to vigorously challenge a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday that the drilling ban was unjustified.

Appearing before a Senate committee, Mr. Salazar said the “pause” in the drilling of 33 deepwater wells in the gulf was essential until the causes of the April 20 BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil leak were fully understood.

A federal judge in New Orleans ruled Tuesday that the moratorium Mr. Salazar imposed in May was not supported by the facts or law and was causing extreme economic distress throughout the Gulf Coast. The Obama administration quickly announced that it would appeal the ruling, and Mr. Salazar promised a new order within days to justify the drilling halt.

But Mr. Salazar left open the possibility that the moratorium could be revised or even lifted for certain types of wells in the gulf before the six months are up.

At the same hearing, the man whom Mr. Salazar and President Obama have designated to oversee reforms of offshore drilling said he planned to create an investigative unit to root out corruption and speed reorganization of the office.

The overseer, Michael R. Bromwich, who was appointed director of the Minerals Management Service last week, said in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee that the new investigations team would report directly to him and would work closely with the Interior Department’s inspector general’s office, which has issued several tough reports on misconduct at the minerals service in the last decade.

Mr. Bromwich, a former inspector general in the Justice Department, said the unit would quickly act on charges against agency officials or the companies they are supposed to regulate.

Also in Washington on Wednesday, the House voted to grant subpoena power to the commission appointed by President Obama to investigate the accident and recommend ways to make offshore drilling safer. The bill, sponsored by Representative Lois Capps, Democrat of California, passed by a vote of 420 to 1.