Oil slick spreads from sunken rig

DRC Archive Environmental and Other Science Discussion
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(CNN) – A 1-by-5-mile sheen of crude oil mix has spread across the Gulf of Mexico’s surface around the area where an oil rig exploded and sank, according to the Coast Guard.

“This is a rainbow sheen with a dark center,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry told reporters.

Officials do not know whether oil or fuel are leaking from the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig and the well below, but BP Vice President David Rainey said “it certainly has the potential to be a major spill.”

A remotely operated vehicle is surveying the area and cleanup efforts are under way, Landry said. The sheen “probably is residual from the fire and the activity that was going on on this rig before it sank below the surface,” she said.

Video: Losing hope for missing rig workers

Video: Coast Guard: No crude oil leaks

Video: Exec: No indication of problems

Location of oil rig blast RELATED TOPICS
Gulf of Mexico
Accidents and Disasters
Oil Production and Refining
U.S. Coast Guard
Louisiana
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard has searched more than 3,400 square miles for 11 people missing since Tuesday’s explosion set the rig ablaze. Officials are still unsure what caused the blast.

Aerial search efforts were scheduled to resume at first light Friday, said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O’Berry.

Adrian Rose, a vice president for rig owner Transocean Ltd., told reporters that the missing workers may not have been able to get off the rig.

“Based upon our reports from crew workers we met as they came in last night, they believe that they [the missing workers] may have been on board the rig and not able to evacuate. We have not confirmed that yet,” he said.

The company is still investigating the incident, but Rose said conversations with evacuated workers when they arrived onshore revealed “really quite heroic stories of how people looked after each other.”

The mobile rig was about 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, when the explosion occurred. There were no indications it was a terrorist incident, the Coast Guard said.

Officials said 126 people were on board at the time of the explosion. Of the 115 accounted-for workers, 17 injured were evacuated by helicopter from the rig. An additional 94 people were taken to shore with no major injuries, and four more were transferred to another vessel, according to the Coast Guard.

It was not known whether the missing workers were able to make it to one of the rig’s lifeboats – fully enclosed, fire-resistant vessels designed to evacuate people quickly.

The Coast Guard said calm weather conditions and warm Gulf waters increase the likelihood of survival for the missing workers.

“We’re still searching, and there’s still a probability that those crew members are alive,” O’Berry said.

Carrol Moss told CNN affiliate WWL that her husband had been rescued from the rig. But before she got the call, there were some anxious moments, she said.

“The only thing I was thinking is how am I going to tell my kids that their dad is not coming home,” Moss told the affiliate. “The worst goes through your mind. We were just blessed we got the call.”

As rescue crews continued searching for survivors, a federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday on behalf of one of the 11 missing workers.

The lawsuit claims negligence by companies connected to the oil rigs that caused the explosion. Transocean Ltd., which owns the rig, and BP PLC, which operates the license on which the rig was drilling, are named as defendants.

BP spokesman Tom Mueller declined to comment on the suit, and a spokesman for Transocean did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

The suit does not provide specific details about the blast, but says one man, Shane Roshto of Amite County, Mississippi, “was thrown overboard as a result of the drilling explosion, and his body has not yet been located.” His wife, Natalie Roshto, is also named as a plaintiff.

Rose, the Transocean vice president, said Thursday that the company was “deeply saddened” by the incident. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the family members and our employees.”

Transocean’s website describes the company as the “world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and the leading provider of drilling management services worldwide” with 140 offshore drilling units.

The rig involved in the explosion – a mobile unit that moves to different locations in the Gulf of Mexico – had been drilling for oil in its current location since January, said Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for Minerals Management Service, the agency that regulates the oil industry in federal waters.

BP spokesman Mueller said dozens of vessels and aircraft were on the way to the scene Thursday afternoon, including equipment to minimize the environmental impact of any spilled oil.

BP says if necessary, it will drill a relief well in the area to help fight against any environmental damage.

“This is the kind of thing we drill for every year and plan for it, but hope we never have to use it. Today is the day we are going to use it. We are prepared and are moving,” he said.

Jindal called for a Friday morning meeting to assess the potential impact of the spill, with input from state police, emergency responders and fish and wildlife officials.

“Obviously, our first priority remains the health and safety of our people,” Jindal said. “We will work aggressively to mitigate any negative impact this incident could have on our land, air and water.”

Up to 336,000 gallons could spill into the Gulf, based on the amount of oil the rig pulled out daily, O’Berry said. And up to 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel could also leak, Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashley Butler said.

As cleanup efforts ramped up, government and company officials said they planned to get to the bottom of what caused the explosion.

“It’s in our national interest, obviously, to know exactly what went wrong and to make sure something like this never happens again,” Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes told reporters Thursday afternoon.

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i think this is a prime example of why we should not expand our offshore drilling no matter what the perceived economic benefits would be.

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even more reason why we should stop drilling for hydrocarbons off of our coastline.

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White House adviser David Axelrod tells ABC that all new drilling is on hold
The US administration has banned oil drilling in new areas of the US coast while the cause of the oil spill off Louisiana is investigated.

White House adviser David Axelrod told ABC TV it wanted to know exactly what led to last week’s explosion on the BP-operated rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Last month President Barack Obama eased a moratorium on new offshore drilling.

As many as 5,000 barrels of oil a day are thought to be spilling into the water, threatening US coastal areas.

The slick has begun to reach the Louisiana shore and the US Navy has been sent to help avert an economic and environmental disaster.

Mr Axelrod announced the ban on drilling in new areas in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America programme.

He also defended the administration’s response to the 20 April explosion that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig, saying “We had the coast guard in almost immediately.”

MAJOR OIL SPILLS
April 2010: Blast at BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig causes crude to spill at rate of up to 5,000 barrels (210,000 US gallons) a day
1991: 520m gallons deliberately released from Iraqi oil tankers to impede US invasion
1989: 11m gallons spilt into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in the Exxon Valdez disaster
1983: 80m gallons split off Iran over months after a tanker collides with drilling platform
1979: 140m gallons leak over nine months after a well explosion off Mexico’s coast
1979: 90m gallons leak from a Greek oil tanker after collision with another ship off Trinidad

BP in choppy waters after spill
In pictures: Efforts to contain leak
Send us your comments
Voices: Gulf coast braced
In pictures: Spill threatens wildlife
In a statement outside the White House, President Obama said he expected reports from the affected area later on Friday.

He said he believed oil exploration was an important part of the US economy but it had to be done responsibly.

“BP is ultimately responsible… for paying the costs of response and clean-up operations but we are fully prepared to meet our responsibilities in all affected communities,” he said.

He said five staging areas had been set up to protect sensitive shorelines and about 1,900 emergency workers and more than 300 ships and aircraft were on the scene.

He added that he had ordered a “thorough review” of what might be required “to prevent accidents like this from happening again”.

The US government has designated the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as an “incident of national significance”. This allows it to draw on resources from across the country.

The wetlands off the Louisiana coast sustain hundreds of wildlife species and a big seafood and fishing industry.

Governor Bobby Jindal has declared a state of emergency and asked for federal funds to deploy 6,000 National Guard soldiers to help with the clean-up.

The US Coast Guard said it had sent investigators to confirm whether crude oil had begun to wash up on parts of the Louisiana shoreline.

Cdr Mark McCadden, of the coast guard, told the BBC: “We’re putting everything forth in plans for a worst-case scenario,” he said.

“We can always ramp back on some of those resources but right now the priority is to bring as many resources as are available to attack this spill and try to minimise the effects to the coast and to the public.”

Two US Air Force planes have been sent to Mississippi in case they are needed to spray oil-dispersing chemicals over the slick.

Threat to fishing

The Louisiana coastline, with its rich shrimp and oyster beds, is the most threatened by the spill.

A group of Louisiana shrimpers has already filed a lawsuit against BP and the owners of the rig, Transocean.

In maps: Oil slick spread
Richard Arsenault, a lawyer for the group, told the BBC he was surprised that such a modern rig couldn’t prevent the spill.

“This is a rig that is valued at some $700m. It’s state of the art… and it is just incredible that with that kind of technology this kind of problem… was not prevented.”

He added: “The harm right now to the fishing industry and to the economic sector is just almost incalculable.”

There are also fears of severe damage to fisheries and wildlife in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida as oil continues to escape from the wreckage of the rig.

An emergency shrimping season was opened on Thursday to allow fishermen to bring in their catch before it was fouled by the advancing oil.

Navy vessels are helping to deploy booms to contain the spill.

President Obama has dispatched high-level administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to the area.

He said they would “ensure that BP and the entire US government is doing everything possible, not just to respond to this incident but also to determine its cause”.

Eleven workers are still missing, presumed dead, after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded.

BP’s chief operating officer of exploration and production, Doug Suttles, said the company was using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to try to find out how much oil was leaking into the sea.

Mr Suttles put the oil leakage at between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels a day.

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Did you see the new plans…

Giant steel cages to hold the oil so it can be siphoned up. 7-8 days out.

if that fails, 2-3 months before they will be able to stop it.

And the flow is increasing. Right now something like 200,000 gallons per day, and if it fully breaks 1 million gallons …

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yes, they have been building three 40 foot tall, 14 foot square steel plate and concrete walled funnels that weigh 74 tons each. set the open end over the leak and hopefully the oil floats to the top of funnel where a hose or pipeline will take it up to a tanker ship. if it works, it will keep the oil slick from growing. and give them time to drill the relief wells. but its a long shot. theyve tried something like it before in shallow leaks, with some success. but if a hurricane blows in, the ship will have to leave, and the oil will resume leaking to the surface. but its better than nothing.

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ya, but under a mile of water pressure… I doubt this will work… Needless to say i am confident BP is gone. They racking up a huge bill, billions, not to mention lawsuits, and their Insurance will find someway to hold up the case or get out of it due to fallacies.

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[quote=“kaptken, post:6, topic:2888”]
yes, they have been building three 40 foot tall, 14 foot square steel plate and concrete walled funnels that weigh 74 tons each. set the open end over the leak and hopefully the oil floats to the top of funnel where a hose or pipeline will take it up to a tanker ship. if it works, it will keep the oil slick from growing. and give them time to drill the relief wells. but its a long shot. theyve tried something like it before in shallow leaks, with some success. but if a hurricane blows in, the ship will have to leave, and the oil will resume leaking to the surface. but its better than nothing.[/quote]

interesting, i hope the government can figure out a solution soon. this is really going to be exacerbated by the projected above average hurricane season.

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[quote=“Marchingbandjs, post:7, topic:2888”]
ya, but under a mile of water pressure… I doubt this will work… Needless to say i am confident BP is gone. They racking up a huge bill, billions, not to mention lawsuits, and their Insurance will find someway to hold up the case or get out of it due to fallacies.[/quote]

have you seen this yet?

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heres a better story with links to more details on the various operations.

basically, since the blow out preventer seems to be damaged and inoperable, the only way to stop the flow is drill more wells to the oil formation very near the bottom end ofthe leaking drill pipe and pump boat loads of cement into the rock structure feeding the deep horizon well pipe and plug the rock structure up. then fill the pipelines with concrete.

Oil still floats and will rise to the top of the funnel. but getting it positioned right on top of the leaks will be dificult, and then getting the hose to the ship. its got to stand up to a miles worth of currents dragging it. thats a lot of load.

If the leak continues unabated for very long, it wount be long before the gulf stream current picks it up and drags oil all the way up here to Delaware beaches this summer.

they said today the slick is maybe a day away from coming in contact with the current which will drag it around the keys and up the east coast.

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Wow, thats pretty scary. And there is nothing anyone can do at this point except for hope that these funnels work. If not, we are, for lack of a better term, screwed.

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let’s drill, baby, drill!

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Sarcasm, or not… You seem much more leftist…

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i am so left that i’m right, john.

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New Estimates Double Rate of Oil That Flowed Into Gulf

By JUSTIN GILLIS and HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: June 10, 2010

A government panel on Thursday essentially doubled its estimate of how much oil has been spewing from the out-of-control BP well, with the new calculation suggesting that an amount equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every 8 to 10 days.
The new estimate is 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day. That range, still preliminary, is far above the previous estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day.

These new calculations came as the public wrangling between BP and the White House was reaching new heights, with President Obama asking for a meeting with BP executives next week and his Congressional allies intensifying their pressure on the oil giant to withhold dividend payments to shareholders until it makes clear it can and will pay all its obligations from the spill.

The higher estimates will affect not only assessments of how much environmental damage the spill has done but also how much BP might eventually pay to clean up the mess — and it will most likely increase suspicion among skeptics about how honest and forthcoming the oil company has been throughout the catastrophe.

The new estimate is based on information that was gathered before BP cut a pipe called a riser on the ocean floor last week to install a new capture device, an operation that some scientists have said may have sharply increased the rate of flow.

The government panel, called the Flow Rate Technical Group, is preparing yet another estimate that will cover the period after the riser was cut.

The new estimate appears to be a far better match than earlier ones for the reality that Americans can see every day on their televisions. Even though the new capture device is funneling 15,000 barrels of oil a day to a ship at the surface, a robust flow of oil is still gushing from the well a mile beneath the waves.

The question of how much oil is gushing into the gulf has been a nagging one for weeks, especially since early estimates from BP and the government proved woefully low. And the new estimates come as the company, after weeks of failed efforts, is enjoying its first substantial success at preventing a significant volume of oil from entering the gulf.

The new numbers are certain to ratchet up the already intense political pressure on BP.

For days Mr. Obama and his advisers have fended off questions about why he has not spoken with the chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward. The president’s commander for the spill response, Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, wrote on Thursday to the chairman of the BP board, Carl-Henric Svanberg, requesting that he and “any appropriate officials from BP” meet with administration officials next Wednesday. Mr. Obama will participate in part of the meeting, he wrote.

Administration officials suggested that they had no immediate plans to directly block BP from paying the dividend, even as the White House and its allies made clear that they would pressure the company to ensure that it made paying spill-related claims its top financial priority. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, told reporters that BP should withhold dividends to shareholders until it paid small-business owners along the gulf for their loss claims. Representative Edward J. Markey, who is chairman of one committee investigating the spill, suggested that the government would take action to block the payments if necessary.

“This company, I think, will stay solvent,” said Mr. Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “And we’re going to make sure that the shareholders wait until the victims are paid first.”

Andrew Gowers, a BP spokesman, said “there is no change in the position” of retaining the dividend. “We intend to meet all our obligations to all our stakeholders,” he said. “We are a very financially strong company.”

In coming weeks, BP hopes to start capturing the vast bulk of the oil emerging from the well. The new high estimate of 30,000 barrels, however, would exceed BP’s current processing capacity, which is expected to reach 25,000 barrels a day by next week. The company plans to move an additional ship into position by early July to improve its ability to manage the flow.

Mr. Gowers said that the flow-rate group was doing “appropriate” work and that the new estimate would not affect the company’s planned containment efforts.

Mr. Gowers noted that BP had supplied the information that allowed the technical group to make its calculation. “It’s their job to produce the estimate, and we have nothing to add,” he said.

As investors have fled BP stock over uncertainties about the company’s future and its ability to pay what it will end up owing, BP has lost nearly half its market capitalization since April, and its bonds are now trading at junk levels.

Credit Suisse estimates the cleanup costs could end up at $15 billion to $23 billion, plus an additional $14 billion of claims. But analysts make much of BP’s financial flexibility: it had net profit of $17 billion last year alone.

Mr. Gowers said the company did not have an estimate of what its potential liability costs would be. But he said that as of Thursday morning, the company had already spent $1.43 billion, including claims payments, the costs of trying to plug and cap the leak, and payments of block grants to gulf states.

On the new estimates of the flow rate, Marcia McNutt, director of the United States Geological Survey and chairwoman of the technical panel, said the new figures were based on a more detailed analysis of information like video of the gushing well. The new range was also based on the first direct measurement of the flow rate, using sonar equipment lowered to the ocean floor.

Two scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Richard Camilli and Andy Bowen, made that measurement on May 31, Mr. Bowen said.

As with the government’s previous estimate, Dr. McNutt said subgroups of the panel applied various analytical techniques to come up with estimates. The best overlap among the techniques was the range of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day, she said, and that became the new official estimate.

Dr. McNutt added, however, that the range of estimates the technical panel considered plausible was actually wider, more like 20,000 to 40,000 barrels a day.

A barrel is 42 gallons, so 30,000 barrels would equate to nearly 1.3 million gallons a day. The Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 is estimated to have spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska.

Ira Leifer, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a member of the flow-rate group, said the new figures confirmed a suspicion he had developed, based on looking at satellite data, that the rate of flow for the well was increasing even before BP cut the riser pipe.

“The situation is growing worse,” Dr. Leifer said.

the plot thickens …(no pun intended)

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BP Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales - YouTube!

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well, all we have to do is stop driving gas guzzling cars, and burning nat gas for electricity and using plastics for everything and we wont need to drill for oil . or we can insist on top shelf safety equipment and procedures for producing oil and stuff. it will cost a bit more but worth it. Its a shame that our own narrow water discharge regs kept us from accepting help from overseas. they have lots of advanced equipment on standby for spills like this. and would have lent it for free. we need to put the emergency back into our emergency response teams.

all those failed efforts to plug the well were just hail mary passes. they never worked before on other leaks. but kept the 6 oclock news rolling while they drilled the relief wells. heres a good explanation of the relief wells. this is the best shot at stopping the leak. they are getting close with the wells. just drilling to the best depth to make the turn and drill through the leaking pipe and plug it . first with heavy mud from the bottom up to counteract the well pressure, then with concrete from the top down, to seal it.

Relief well overview and ranging animation with Kent Wells - 27 June 2010

its BPs infomercial. but factual. this is the technology.