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Eat your vegetables
Super Moderator
Location: Arabidopsis-ville
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Wish that were accurate, Tully.
They've found 2 leaks, totaling 42,000 gallons/day.
42,000 Gallons Per Day May Be Gushing Out of Well - NYTimes.com
Quote:
Plans to Battle Oil Spill in Gulf
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and LESLIE KAUFMAN
NEW ORLEANS — Officials outlined plans Sunday to try to stop oil leaks coming from the deep-water well drilled by a rig that sank last week in the Gulf of Mexico.
The leaks were discovered on Saturday in the riser, the 5,000-foot-long pipe that extended from the wellhead to the drilling platform. The riser detached from the platform after it exploded and sank, and is now leaking in two places, both at the sea floor. About 42,000 gallons of oil a day are estimated to be emanating from the well through the leaks in the riser.
The response team — including Coast Guard officers, officials from the federal Mineral Management Service and officials from BP — has approved a plan that would use remote-controlled vehicles to activate the blowout preventer, a large valve at the wellhead 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. The blowout preventer can seal off the well, and is designed to do just that to prevent sudden pressure releases that possibly led to the first explosion on the oil rig on Tuesday night.
If successful, the engaging of the blowout preventer could have the well sealed within days. The other effort described by officials Sunday — drilling relief wells nearby — would take months.
BP, which was leasing the drilling platform and is responsible for the cleanup under federal law, was also mobilizing two rigs that could drill the relief wells, which could send heavy mud and concrete into the cavity of oil and gas that drilling apparently punctured by accident.
Officials are also working on putting a dome over the end of the riser that would catch the oil and route it up to the surface where it could be collected. If the blowout preventer is successfully activated, though, this may be unnecessary.
The drilling of relief wells, however, would go forward even if the more immediate options work, a BP spokesman said.
At the current rate of 42,000 gallons of oil per day, the leak would have to continue for 262 days to match the 11 million gallon spill from the Exxon Valdez in 1989, the worst oil spill in United States history.
Rough weather has continued to hinder efforts to clean the sheen of crude oil and water mixture, which has spread to 400 square miles. As of Sunday morning, 48,000 gallons of oil-water mix had been collected, the Coast Guard said.
Doug Helton, a fisheries biologist who coordinates oil spill responses for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the oil emanating from the riser was taking the shape of a giant ice cream cone as it drifted toward the surface. He said there were no reports of dead animals yet, although that was expected to change soon if the leaks were not sealed.
Mr. Helton added that wind data allowed officials to predict that the spill would not hit shore within three days, but that it was moving in a northern trajectory.
“Louisiana is the closest area,” he said. “There is a potential for other Gulf states if the release continues unabated, but we have no indication in our trajectories that shorefall will happen in the next three days.”
Officials had expressed cautious optimism Friday when it appeared that no oil was leaking from the well. But two leaks were discovered Saturday morning by a remotely operated device that scanned the riser, said Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, commander of the Coast Guard’s Eighth District.
On Saturday, the sheen of oil on the surface had spread to a 20-by-20-mile area, Coast Guard officials said.
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