GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[cycloneye]

The oil has reached the coast.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns ... vironment/


MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER - An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and started washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.

The spill was bigger than imagined -- five times more than first estimated -- and closer. Fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.

"It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."

[attallaman]

From my ABC TV affilliate here in Biloxi, WLOX TV-13 is now reporting:


http://www.wlox.com/global/story.asp?s=12401868

[attallaman]

New update on the oil slick from WLOX TV-13, Biloxi.


http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=12379728

[attallaman]

Expert analysis video on the oil slick which has now started to make landfall in coastal LA, the video is from NBC TV affilliate WDSU TV-6 in NOLA.


http://www.wdsu.com/video/23312719/index.html

[Terry]

Thank you Cycloneye and attallaman.

If anyone knows of an "all call" to help the wildlife, please post. I am ready to help as needed.

[attallaman]

Thank you Cycloneye and attallaman.

If anyone knows of an "all call" to help the wildlife, please post. I am ready to help as needed.

I got this off of a blog on WDSU TV-6's website located in NOLA, there is another number which was posted on CNN yesterday, if I find it I'll come back and post. I agree with you that this board needs to give more attention to this unfolding man made environmental disaster. Below is the information listed on WDSU TV-6's blog discussing this.

Alabama information:
To report oiled wildlife, please call 1-866-557-1401
To discuss oil related damage, please call 1-800-440-0858
To report oiled shoreline or request volunteer information, please call 1-866-448-5816

Here's the link to the WDSU TV-6 blog discussing this:

http://livewire.wdsu.com/Event/Oil_Clea ... ulf?Page=0

[attallaman]

Here's a link from the company that owned the damaged oil rig, they provide a few phone numbers to call for volunteer assistance which are posted at the bottom of their webpage.


http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/

[Dionne]

I keep hearing references to the Exxon Valdez spill. I am a former Trans-Alaska pipeline worker. The Trans-Alaska pipeline is operated by the Alyeska Consortium. The consortium consists of 7 oil companies. The major holder is BP at 47%. Everyone always associates the spill with Exxon. The Exxon Valdez was owned by Exxon shipping and employed by Alyeska. It was BP crude that spilled into Prince William Sound. To this day, crude from the spill can still be found. BP blamed Capt Hazelwood for the spill.

The spill in the GOM is BP crude. BP owns the well. TransOcean owned the rig. BP is blaming TransOcean for a faulty BOP.

Seems ironic that BP owns all the crude and points fingers at every else but themselves.

[cycloneye]

Dr Jeff Masters of Weatherunderground made a discussion about the long range forecasts for Oil to expand beyond the Gulf of Mexico and is not good at all.

Oil a long-range threat to southwest and southeast Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas

The surface ocean currents that transport the oil are driven by the wind and by the large scale ocean current structure of the Gulf of Mexico. The latest surface ocean current forecast (Figure 3) from NOAA's RTOFS model shows a complicated current structure along the Gulf Coast over the next seven days. By Tuesday night, when the winds shift to northwesterly (offshore), the forecast calls for surface currents of about 1 m/s (roughly 2 mph) to transport oil to the southeast from the site of the blowout. There is a danger that the oil thus transported could make it all the way south to the Loop Current, since offshore winds are now expected to last Tuesday through Friday of next week. The warm Loop Current enters the Gulf from the south and loops around to the southeast to exit through the Florida Keys, where it becomes the Gulf Stream. Oil caught in the Loop Current would move relatively rapidly at 2 - 4 mph to the southeast and then eastwards through the Keys, potentially fouling beaches in the Keys, northwest Cuba, the southwest and southeast coasts of Florida, and the western Bahamas. I don't think the spill will be able to make it into the Loop Current next week, since it has to travel about 120 miles south-southeast from the blowout location to reach the Loop Current. The duration and strength of next week's offshore winds are probably capable of pushing the oil slick only half way to the Loop Current. However, that may be close enough so that the oil will reach the Loop Current the following week, unless strong onshore winds develop again. The long range wind forecast is too uncertain to put odds on the possibilities at this point. If the oil keeps spewing from the ocean floor for many months, though, eventually a wind pattern will set up that will take the oil into the Loop Current. This would most likely happen if a persistent trough of low pressure settles over the East Coast in May, or if a tropical storm makes landfall along the Florida Panhandle this summer. We're fortunate that there are no hurricanes to worry about right now, as the strong winds and storm surge of a hurricane would be able to drive the oil far inland along a wide swath of coast.

[Dionne]

"BP Steps Up Shoreline Protection Plans on US Gulf Coast. BP announced today it has launched the next phase of its effort to contain and clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, with a significant expansion of onshore preparations in case spilled oil should reach the coast."


This is from the BP website. A question of semantics......"in case spilled oil should reach the coast"...!

[Ivanhater]

Florida Governor declares state of emergency for Panhandle counties. Oil could reach our beaches by Monday.

http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/top_stor ... 8109.shtml

[cycloneye]

Air Force planes to dump chemicals

http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/Air-For ... 14569.html

WASHINGTON - Two Air Force planes have been sent to Mississippi and are awaiting orders to start dumping chemicals on the oil spill threatening the Gulf Coast.

Master Sgt. Bob Barko Jr. said Friday that two C-130s specially modified for aerial spraying were sent Thursday from the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Ohio.

Air Force spokesman Maj. David Faggard at the Pentagon says the planes stand ready in case they're needed to spray oil-dispersing chemicals.

The C-130 flights are out of Stennis International Airport, and officials say they are likely to be the only military activity we see today.

The Navy also has sent equipment for the cleanup. Pentagon officials are talking with the Department of Homeland Security to figure out what other help the military can provide.

[DIwestender]

This doesn't sound promising:

Government fears Deepwater Horizon well will become unchecked gusherBy Ben Raines April 30, 2010, 2:18PM

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could be on the verge of becoming an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

"The following is not public," reads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Emergency Ops document dated April 28. "Two additional release points were found today. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought."

In scientific circles, an order of magnitude means something is ten times larger. In this case, an order of magnitude higher would mean the volume of oil coming from the well could be 10 times higher than the 5,000 barrels a day coming out now. That would mean 50,000 barrels a day, or 2.1 million gallons a day. It appears the new leaks mentioned in the Wednesday release are the leaks reported to the public late Wednesday night.

"There is no official change in the volume released but the Coast Guard is preparing for a worst case release," continues the document.

The emergency document also states that the spill has grown in size so quickly that only 1 to 2 percent of it has been sprayed with dispersants.

The Press-Register obtained the emergency report from a government official. The White House, NOAA, the Coast Guard and BP Plc did not immediately return calls for comment made early this morning.

The worst case scenario for the broken and leaking well pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico would be the loss of the wellhead and kinked piping currently restricting the flow to 5,000 barrels -- or 210,000 gallons -- per day.

If the wellhead is lost, oil could leave the well at a much greater rate.

"Typically, a very good well in the Gulf can produce 30,000 barrels a day, but that's under control. I have no idea what an uncontrolled release could be," said Stephen Sears, chairman of the petroleum engineering department at Louisiana State University.

Minerals Management Service data indicates that the deepwater Thunderhorse production platform, also owned by BP, has produced up to 150,000 barrels per day.

Thursday, federal officials said they were preparing for the worst case scenario but didn't elaborate.

Kinks in the piping created as the rig sank to the seafloor may be all that is preventing the Deepwater Horizon well from releasing its maximum flow. BP is now drilling a relief well as the ultimate fix. The company said Thursday that process would take up to three months.

"I'm not sure what's happening down there right now. I have heard there is a kink in what's called the riser. The riser is a long pipe that connects the wellhead to the rig. I really don't know if that kink is a big restriction. Is that really a big restriction? There could be another restriction further down," said LSU's Sears. "An analogy would be if you have a kink in a garden hose. You suspect that kink is restricting the flow, but there could be another restriction or kink somewhere else closer to the faucet.

BP Plc executive Doug Suttles said Thursday the company was worried about "erosion" of the pipe at the wellhead.

Sand is an integral part of the formations that hold oil under the Gulf. That sand, carried in the oil as it shoots through the piping, is blamed for the ongoing erosion described by BP.

"The pipe could disintegrate. You've got sand getting into the pipe, it's eroding the pipe all the time, like a sandblaster," said Ron Gouget, a former oil spill response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"When the oil is removed normally, it comes out at a controlled rate. You can still have abrasive particles in that. Well, now, at this well, its coming out at fairly high velocity," Gouget continued. "Any erosive grains are abrading the inside of the pipe and all the steel that comes in contact with the liquid. It's essentially sanding away the pipe."

The formation that was being drilled by the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded and sank last week is reported to have tens of millions of barrels of oil. A barrel contains 42 gallons.

"The loss of a wellhead, this is totally unprecedented," said Gouget. "How bad it could get from that, you will have a tremendous volume of oil that is going to be offgassing on the coast. Depending on how much wind is there, and how those gases build up, that's a significant health concern

[attallaman]

"BP Steps Up Shoreline Protection Plans on US Gulf Coast. BP announced today it has launched the next phase of its effort to contain and clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, with a significant expansion of onshore preparations in case spilled oil should reach the coast."


This is from the BP website. A question of semantics......"in case spilled oil should reach the coast"...!

It's no longer a question of "if" the oil will reach the coast, it's when.

[attallaman]

An article from the Sun Herald.com posted today:

http://www.sunherald.com/2010/04/29/214 ... worst.html

[WeatherLovingDoc]

The Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico
http://www.mercator-ocean.fr/html/actualites/news/actu_loop_en.html

The Loop Current is part of the general surface circulation. It is an extension of the Caribbean Current, coming from northern South America then penetrating into the Caribbean Sea. It becomes the 'Loop Current' at the Yucatan Channel, between the Yucatan Peninsula and the island of Cuba. It penetrates with more or less strength into the Gulf of Mexico, flowing in a loop, then escapes through the Straits of Florida, flows along the coast of Florida where it becomes the Florida Current, and finally joins the Gulf Stream off Cape Hatteras.


Environmental and industrial issues

These eddies are of major concern to offshore industries in the area (mainly companies such as Exxon, Shell, BP). A few figures indicate how much is at stake: 25% of total U.S crude oil output and 33% of total natural gas production. The proportion of deep sea exploitation (at depths greater than 300 metres) has increased from 5% to 10% in ten years.

Such eddies make extraction operations more difficult and thus more dangerous, both for people and the environment. Firstly, on the surface, because deep offshore platforms are not secured to the sea bottom. Nowadays in deep waters, oil and gas are extracted by means of large vessels, called FPSOs (Floating Production, Storage and Offshore Loading), which are connected to the sea bottom with flexible pipelines. FPSOs do not have great storage capacities, so they need other vessels to dock with them to offload production. This involves delicate manoeuvres for which a detailed knowledge of the sea surface conditions is essential. It is also essential to have a good understanding of the deep sea conditions. From surface to bottom, the current velocity may change in intensity and direction, generating shearing currents which may damage, or even break the pipelines.

WLD

[DIwestender]

A second rig goes down--doesn't sound too serious but what is going on??

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36877722?gt1=43001

[Dionne]

A second rig goes down--doesn't sound too serious but what is going on??

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36877722?gt1=43001

Apples and oranges. Different events. I want to hear from the 115 survivors.....who was the driller on shift?

[attallaman]

A new article recently posted on WLOX TV.com about volunteer information for those wanting to volunteer to help with the oil cleanup:

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=12407331

[attallaman]

A good article by the NOLA Times Picayune newspaper posted on their website today about the safety record of the oil rig which went down in the GOM last week:

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill ... _hist.html