Oil pollution fears after blazing rig sinks

Associated Press

Friday, 23 April 2010

A crew member from an oil platform that sank off the Louisiana coast last night reported an initial explosion three hours before the rig went up in flames in a second, larger explosion, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O'Berry told The Associated Press that according to their internal reports, the first blast was reported at 7 p.m. CDT Tuesday. Three hours later, the rig sent an emergency signal that's "like a panic button," he said.

At the same time, a nearby rig called to report the Deepwater Horizon was engulfed in flames, O'Berry said. The rig did not ask for help during the initial call, but the Coast Guard sent crews after the emergency signal came.

The Coast Guard is investigating what happened during that span.

"That three-hour window is obviously stuff being investigated — what happened during that time," O'Berry said.

The company that owns the rig also was looking into it.

"Any events that were logged are part of the ongoing investigation, and we are not commenting on them at this time," Guy Cantwell, spokesman for Transocean Ltd. wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The Deepwater Horizon, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, burned for more than a day before sinking late Thursday morning. Of the crew of 126, 11 were reported missing and 17 were injured, four critically. More than 100 escaped.

The sinking of the rig could unleash more than 300,000 gallons (1,135,600 liters) of crude a day into the water. The environmental hazards would be greatest if the spill were to reach the Louisiana coast.

Crews searched by air and water for the missing workers, hoping they had managed to reach a lifeboat, but one relative said family members have been told it's unlikely any of the missing survived the blast. The Coast Guard found two lifeboats but no one was inside.

Carolyn Kemp said her grandson, 27-year-old Roy Wyatt Kemp was among the missing. She said he would have been on the drilling platform when it exploded.

"They're assuming all those men who were on the platform are dead," Kemp said. "That's the last we've heard."

Jed Kersey said his 33-year-old son, John, had finished his shift on the rig floor and was sleeping when the explosion happened. He said his son told him that all 11 missing workers were on the rig floor.

"He said it was like a war zone," said Jed Kersey, a former offshore oil worker.

An alarm sounded and the electricity went out, sending John Kersey and other workers scurrying to a lifeboat that took them to a nearby service boat, his father said.

"They waited for as many people as they could," Jed Kersey said. He said his son wasn't ready to talk publicly about his experience.

As the rig burned, supply vessels shot water into it to try to keep it afloat and avoid an oil spill, but there were additional explosions Thursday. Officials had previously said the environmental damage appeared minimal, but new challenges have arisen now that the platform has sunk.

The well could be spilling up to 336,000 gallons (1,271,860 liters) of crude oil a day, Coast Guard Petty Officer Katherine McNamara said. She said she didn't know whether the crude oil was spilling into the gulf. The rig also carried 700,000 gallons (2,649,700 liters) of diesel fuel, but that would likely evaporate if the fire didn't consume it

Oil pollution fears after blazing rig sinks - Americas, World - The Independent

Surely this would be "expectations" rather than "fears".

Quote:

The well could be spilling up to 336,000 gallons (1,271,860 liters) of crude oil a day, Coast Guard Petty Officer Katherine McNamara said. She said she didn't know whether the crude oil was spilling into the gulf.

Other possibilities are?

Wide spread disaster now that the oil has leaked and the supposedly fail-safe methods to keep oil from escaping have failed. Welcome to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill of 2010.

Originally Posted by Araknid Tel Aviv

Wide spread disaster now that the oil has leaked.

It is still leaking, and it may do so for months. This disaster hasn't happened yet (past tense) ... it is happening as we speak.

What effects this will have on other off-shore oil drilling activities, current and future, remains to be seen.

New permits for constructing nuclear power plants came to a grinding halt after Chernobyl. Something similar may happen to future permits for off-shore oil drilling.

According to The Washington Post a few hours ago:

Underwater robots are working around the clock to try to shut off the valve at the opening to the well on the sea floor. The oil could harm ocean life and coastal environments. But the robots haven't been successful yet, and the oil slick on the surface of the water is spreading. Luckily, the wind has been pushing the oil away from the coast.

Meanwhile, lots of specially designed ships are skimming oil from the surface of the water. They have picked up more than 48,000 gallons so far.

Well, there's good news, isn't it. At least the oil is not being lost. It is floating to the surface instead of having to be pumped to the surface and much of it is being picked up and channeled to fuel America's might.

Pity about the oil that's not getting picked up.

Quote:

Something similar may happen to future permits for off-shore oil drilling.

Obama just recently loosened restrictions on near-shore drilling. What will he do?

Originally Posted by roadkill

Well, there's good news, isn't it. At least the oil is not being lost. It is floating to the surface instead of having to be pumped to the surface and much of it is being picked up and channeled to fuel America's might.

Yeah, those bastards. Working as hard as they can to reduce the environmental impact.

Is there anything you can't turn into a snide remark about how shit the US is?

__________________
Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.

Quote:

Is there anything you can't turn into a snide remark about how shit the US is?

Certainly.

I can see no way to turn "Is there anything you can't turn into a snide remark about how shit the US is?" into a snide remark about how shit the US is.

But I think you are seriously out of order in likening the US to "how shit". I don't think any of us would have thought that until you brought it up.

From Bloomberg

Oil, Gas Drillers Brace for Lawmaker Grilling, Tougher Rules

By Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Jessica Resnick-Ault
Bloomberg
April 30, 2010, 2:18 AM EDT


April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Four weeks ago, oil company executives were celebrating an Obama administration decision to expand drilling off the U.S. East Coast. Now, after a rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, they face a grilling in Congress and tougher rules on how they do business.

Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, on Thursday told chief executives from five companies that they will be called to appear before his committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The companies include BP Plc, which leased the rig to drill the well that is now leaking 5,000 barrels a day into the waters off the coast of Louisiana.

The spill has created an oil slick 600 miles in circumference that is slowly moving ashore. Eleven members of the 126-member rig crew were killed in the explosion.

“There’s just really no way to sugarcoat this situation,” said Randall Luthi, president of the Washington-based National Ocean Industries Association. “It’s a tragic accident and it does have the potential for long-term political and policy implications.”

President Barack Obama on Thursday signaled that the incident may force changes to an offshore drilling plan unveiled March 31.

Obama last month proposed drilling for oil and natural gas off the U.S. East Coast in areas previously off limits, while scrapping development in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The initiative is part an effort he said will boost energy independence and protect the environment.


Proposal Welcomed

The president would permit exploration in the Atlantic Ocean from south of Delaware and, if a congressional moratorium is lifted, in the Gulf of Mexico 125 miles (201 kilometers) off the west coast of Florida. The proposal was welcomed by the industry.

On Thursday, Carol Browner, Obama’s advisor for energy and climate change said the incident “will be taken into consideration” as the administration advances its drilling plans.

The U.S. Interior Department announced immediate inspections of all deep-water drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The Minerals Management Service, or MMS, the agency within interior that manages energy production in federal waters, is moving forward on developing new rules opposed by BP and other drillers meant to reduce the risk of injuries and spills from offshore drilling, Eileen Angelico, an MMS spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

“I expect a knee-jerk reaction to this terrible, horrible incident,” Allen Verret, executive director of the Metairie, Louisiana-based Offshore Operators Committee, a trade group for rig operators. “What we in the industry would like to see is a fair airing of the facts.”


Trust Fund

After the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act in 1990, which expanded the government’s ability to respond to oil spills and created a trust fund to provide up to $1 billion per spill.

Representative Markey has asked CEO’s of BP, Exxon Mobil Corp, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. to testify, he said in an e-mailed statement. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will be questioned on the incident at a Senate Energy Committee hearing May 6, Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. She also expects company CEO’s will be called before the Senate Energy Committee.

BP Plc and Transocean Ltd., owner of the rig, were asked for inspection reports dating back to Jan. 1 by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat.


‘Absolute Tragedy’

“It is in the back of your mind that we could be dealing with something much larger,” Murkowski said in an interview, recalling the Exxon Valdez disaster. “We do know that we have lost 11 lives and that, in and of itself, is an absolute tragedy. We don’t know what the environmental consequences are, but we do have a very painful reminder of what the potential could be.”

At the current rate of leakage from the well, the spill will exceed the amount of oil dumped by the Valdez accident by the third week of June, making it the worst U.S. oil spill.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects winds to begin pushing oil ashore in Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi River as soon as today. Shrimp boats headed to fishing grounds east of the river yesterday after Louisiana opened an early season to bring in as much harvest as possible before oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill washes ashore.

From Bloomberg

BP Oil Leak May Prompt New Ship Rules

By Alaric Nightingale
Updated: New York, Apr 30 09:23


April 30 (Bloomberg) -- A BP Plc well leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico may trigger tighter regulation of supertankers shipping crude to the U.S., said Frontline Ltd., the largest operator of the vessels.

Rules may be tightened to ban single-hull tankers, forcing refineries to charter double-hull carriers that reduce the spill risk, said Jens Martin Jensen, chief executive officer of Frontline’s management unit.

“Unfortunately, you always have to have a disaster like this to have regulations tightened up,” Jensen said by phone from Singapore today.

Oil is escaping from the well at a rate of 5,000 barrels a day, five times faster than previously estimated, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in three days and would exceed the 1989 spill caused the Exxon Valdez in Alaska by the third week of June. The fuel is already washing up on the coast of Louisiana, forcing shipping restrictions on the Mississippi River.

The slick may cause tankers to be diverted, tying up ships, bolstering rates and spurring owners to seek compensation for having to clean their vessels, said Ben Goggin, a freight derivatives broker at SSY Futures Ltd., a unit of the world’s second-largest shipbroker.

Oil tankers with single hulls are being phased out this year under an International Maritime Organization ban that takes full effect in 2015. The European Union called the ships “more accident prone” in 2003.


Global Fleet

Eleven percent of the global fleet of 522 supertankers, designed to haul 2 million-barrel cargoes, are fitted with single hulls, according to Lloyd’s Register-Fairplay data.

One single-hulled carrier has just left the Gulf of Mexico. Another is approaching the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, the largest U.S. crude-oil import facility, according to data from AISLive Ltd.

“There is a possibility that it could shut the ports around the Mississippi and possibly LOOP,” said Goggin.

Under the existing Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the U.S. will allow single-hull tankers to sail in its waters either to unload at LOOP or at dedicated unloading areas out at sea until 2015.

Stricter regulation of single-hull vessels would “contribute to removing more tonnage, limiting supply and positively affecting tanker rates,” Martin Sommerseth Jaer and Erik Nikolai Stavseth, analysts at Oslo-based Arctic Securities ASA, said today in a note.

Deepwater Horizon: US bans new drilling in Gulf of Mexico

Louisiana declares state of emergency as high winds push oil spill from wrecked rig towards mouth of Mississippi



* Adam Gabbatt, Chris McGreal in Washington, and Terry Macalister
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 April 2010 16.17 BST


The White House has placed an immediate ban on new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, as oil from the wrecked Deepwater Horizon rig begins to wash ashore in Louisiana.

Up to 5,000 barrels of oil are spewing into the Gulf from three leaks on the sea bed, 1,500m below the surface, and strong south-easterly winds have pushed the oil towards the mouth of the Mississippi, threatening wildlife along Louisiana's fragile islands and barrier marshes.

The US national weather service has predicted winds, high tides and waves throughout Sunday, which could push oil deep into the inlets, ponds and lakes that line the state's south-east.White House adviser David Axelrod said drilling in new areas would have to wait. "No additional drilling has been authorised and none will until we find out what happened here and whether there was something unique and preventable here," he said.

The Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teems with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. The spill threatens hundreds of species of fish, mammals and birds, with gulls, pelicans, roseate spoonbills, egrets, shore birds, terns and blue herons in the path of the oil.

Yesterday the coastguard said up to 5,000 barrels a day were flowing into the sea, five times the rate previously estimated after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.

Louisiana has declared a state of emergency, while the White House announced today that there would be no new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico until a full review had been conducted.

President Barack Obama, who said yesterday that BP was "ultimately responsible" for the spill, and the joint chiefs of staff are being briefed regularly on the situation.

Fingers of oil began reaching the Mississippi river delta late last night, lapping the shore in long, thin lines. Thicker oil was expected today. A spokesman confirmed the US coastguard had received reports of the oil washing ashore.

Last night the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said persistent south-easterly winds were forecast for the weekend, which would continue to push the oil ashore.

The organisation has declared the incident a spill of national significance, defined as: "A spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary co-ordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge."

The designation allows for a wider federal response, with funds and assets being used from around the country, particularly from other coastal areas.

"I am frightened for the country, for the environment," said David Kennedy, assistant chief of the national ocean service at NOAA. "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."

BP said today it was "ramping up preparations for a protection and cleaning effort" along the shorelines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. It has already installed 50,000 metres of protective boom along the coastline, and said an additional 90,000 metres was being deployed.

"We are doing absolutely everything in our power to eliminate the source of the leak and contain the environmental impact of the spill," said BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward.

BP has been using a mix of chemical dispersant, booms and burning to contain the spread. One method is to tow booms out to sea to surround parts of the spill and then set the oil on fire. Once the fire burns out, the remaining tar is removed by nets or skimmers. High winds prevented the final stage.

BP is also planning to cap the well and capture the leaking oil, but this will take four weeks to put in place, by which stage more than 150,000 barrels could have spilled out. If the steel cap does not work, BP will have to try drilling a relief well, which would take three months. By then, the spill could total more than 300,000 barrels (47m litres), greater than the 258,000 barrels leaked by the Exxon Valdez.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the well lacked a remote-control shutoff switch required by some oil producing countries, including Norway and Brazil. BP was at the forefront of recent lobbying of the US government against stronger safety controls for offshore drilling.

Fund managers and analysts in the City of London said they were deeply worried about the financial cost to BP of the kind of legal action that could be taken in the US by those damaged by the accident. More than £13bn has been knocked off the oil company's stock market value since the rig caught fire..

The incident is particularly damaging for BP because it is still recovering from the damage to its reputation caused by the Texas City fire, pipeline fractures in Alaska and a rig accident in the Gulf.

Deepwater Horizon: US bans new drilling in Gulf of Mexico | Environment | guardian.co.uk