http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-10-04/new-4-mile-long-oil-slick-near-bps-gulf-oil-well
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2012/10/coast_guard_investigating_sour.html
NEW 4-Mile Long Oil Slick Near BP's Gulf Oil Well
Submitted by George Washington on 10/04/2012 16:57 -0400
CNN reports:
An oil sheen about four miles long has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, a Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday.It was not immediately clear where the oil is coming from, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Tippets. [Although previous oil has been matched as a "dead ringer" to the BP well.]Coast Guardsmen went to the location after seeing the oil on a satellite image, Tippets said. The response team collected samples and sent them to the Coast Guard Marine Safety Lab in Connecticut for testing.***The sheen is near the spot where, on April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded over the Macondo well, killing 11 workers and spewing oil that spread across a huge portion of the Gulf.(And see this.)As we’ve noted for years, BP’s Macondo oil well is still leaking … and will leak for years.For example, we noted in March:In June of 2010, BP officials admitted to damage beneath the seafloor under BP’s Gulf Macondo well.Numerous scientists have speculated that the blowout and subsequent clumsy attempts by BP to plug the well could have created new seeps, and made pre-existing natural seeps bigger.***Washington’s Blog interviewed one of the world’s leading experts on oil leaks in 2010, Robert Bea. Dr. Bea noted that we may never be able to fully stop BP’s oil leak:Few people in the world know more about oil drilling disasters than Dr. Robert Bea.Bea teaches engineering at the University of California Berkeley, and has 55 years of experience in engineering and management of design, construction, maintenance, operation, and decommissioning of engineered systems including offshore platforms, pipelines and floating facilities. Bea has worked for many years in governmental and quasi-governmental roles, and has been a high-levelgovernmental adviser concerning disasters. He worked for 16 years as a top mechanical engineer and manager for Shell Oil, and has worked with Bechtel and the Army Corps of Engineers. One of the world’s top experts inoffshore drilling problems, Bea is a memberof the Deepwater Horizon Study Group, and has been interviewed by news media around the world concerning the BP oil disaster.WB: Is it possible that this fractured, subsea salt geology will make it difficult to permanently kill the oil leak using relief wells?Bea: Yes, it could. The Santa Barbara channel seeps are still leaking, decades after the oil well was supposedly capped. This well could keep leaking for years.Scripps mapped out seafloor seeps in the area of the well prior to the blowout. Some of the natural seeps penetrate 10,000 to 15,000 feet beneath the seafloor. The oil will follow lines of weakness in the geology. The leak can travel several horizontal miles from the location of the leak.[In other words, the geology beneath the seafloor is so fractured, with soft and unstable salt formations, that we may neverbe able to fully kill the well even with relief wells. Instead, the loss of containment of the oil reservoir caused by the drilling accident could cause oil to leak out through seeps for years to come. See this and thisfor further background].***WB: I have heard that BP is underestimatingthe size of the oil reservoir (and see this). Is it possible that the reservoir is bigger than BP is estimating, and so – if not completely killed – the leak could therefore go on for longer than most assume?Bea: That’s plausible.WB: The chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon said that the Macondo well was originally drilled in another location, but that “going faster caused the bottom of the well to split open, swallowing tools”, and that BP abandoned that well. You’ve spoken to that technician and looked into the incident, and concluded that “they damn near blew up the rig.” [See this andthis].Do you know where that abandoned well location is, and do you know if that well is still leaking?Bea: The abandoned well is very close to the current well location. BP had to file reports showing the location of the abandoned well and the new well [with the Minerals Management Service], so the location of the abandoned well is known.We don’t know if the abandoned well is leaking.WB: Matthew Simmons talked about a second leaking well. There are rumors on the Internet that the original well is still leaking. Do you have any information that can either disprove or confirm that allegation?Bea: There are two uncorroborated reports. One is that there is a leak 400 feet West of the present well’s surface location. There is another report that there is a leak several miles to the West.[Bea does not know whether either report is true at this time, because BP is not sharing information with the government, let alone the public.]
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2012/10/coast_guard_investigating_sour.html
Coast Guard investigating oil sheen at BP Deepwater Horizon disaster site
Published: Wednesday, October 03, 2012, 5:30 PM Updated: Wednesday, October 03, 2012, 6:07 PM
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating an oily sheen spotted in the Gulf of Mexico last month near the site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill 40 miles south of the Mississippi River, a spokesman said Wednesday. Samples of the sheen taken near the site of the failed BP Macondo oil well have been sent to the service's Marine Safety Lab in Groton, Conn., to determine whether the oil is from the BP spill, said Lt. Commander Michael Wolfe.
The Coast Guard's National Response Center was first notified of the sheen on Sept. 16 in a report that said it was spotted on satellite imagery, and had not been visually confirmed.
"Attempting to confirm presence of sheen via visual observation and further satellite data collection," said that first report. "BP intends to mobilize a helicopter overflight of the area as soon as possible."
The sheen was later reported on a newNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration web site tracking environmental incidents nationwide.
"Although the source of these sheens may be the wrecked BP Macondo well, this relationship has not been established at this time," officials wrote on the site, which is operated by the National Ocean Service's Office of Response and Restoration. "Activities include daily over-flights sponsored by BP, with USCG or NOAA observers on board intermittently."
The report also said BP was sending a vessel equipped with a remotely-operated underwater vehicle to the area to investigate the potential source of oil.
A BP spokesman referred questions about its response to the sheen to the Coast Guard.
This is the latest in a series of reports of new oil on the surface of the Gulf at or near the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which resulted in a 3-month release of oil.
Coast Guard officials said they also are monitoring a 3-mile by 1-mile "barely discernible silvery sheen" emanating from an Apache Corp. platform about 15 miles south of Grand Isle.
A report filed with the Coast Guard National Response Center by Apache officials on Tuesday said 7 gallons of oil were released into the Gulf because of equipment failure. A separate report filed with the center by an anonymous caller referred to the release as a "massive oil sheen."
Wolfe said according to the company, the equipment has been secured and the oil in the water is not recoverable. He added that the Coast Guard has referred the case to the EPA, and there is no chance of the oil reaching land.
and....
http://www.stuarthsmith.com/in-the-tank-feds-scrub-incident-report-about-gulf-spill-near-bp-rig/
IN THE TANK? FEDS SCRUB INCIDENT REPORT ABOUT GULF SPILL NEAR BP RIG
Getting rid of an oil slick is hard work. But apparently it’s a lot easier to clean up an incident report about an oil slick — especially when that spill is near the site of the worst offshore oil accident in American history. Just ask the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, which used its magic to make information from last month about a mystery oil sheen suddenly disappear.
Early yesterday, this blog broke the news about the Sept. 17 incident report, which raised the possibility that fresh oil is still leaking from the Macondo oil field where the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe occurred in April 2011 — killing 11 workers and unleashing a spill that lasted for weeks and dumped 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Here’s what the initial report from NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration said:
This hotline is being started for new reports of sheen of unknown origin in and near lease block Mississippi Canyon 252. This incident is likely related to reports in August 2011 (See incident #8345, Aug2011). Although the source of these sheens may be the wrecked BP Macondo Well, this relationship has not been established at this time. Activities include daily overflights sponsored by BP, with USCG or NOAA observers on board intermitently. BP is sending a vessel to the area with an ROV to investigate the potential source.
However, that report is no longer on the web site as of last night. Instead, this is what visitors see instead:
Incident #8510 does not exist, has been deleted, or you do not have permission to view it.
You can view a saved version of the original September incident report at this address.
On one level, this is simply stunning. On the other hand, it’s in many ways typical of the way that the federal government has acted since Day One of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and spill — much more inclined to take actions that benefit BP rather than the public and its right to know. From its stance on recovery workers wearing the right protective gear to the obstacles that government agencies have created for independent scientists, the federal agencies operating under the Obama administration have repeatedly acted with a pro-BP, pro-Big Oil slant. The disappearance of the incident report — after the new oil sheen has already been reported in the media — is the latest insult.
It also may be a sign that the new oil spill at the Macondo site is more serious than the feds want to let on. Since breaking the news yesterday about NOAA’s original incident report, I’ve been investigating tips that vessels loaded with absorbent booms have been observed recently leaving the Breton Sound marine terminal at Hopedale, and that numerous fishermen who work the waters around the Macondo field have reported fresh sightings of the oil sheen.
We’ll keep you posted at the site about everything that we find out with this new incident as soon as we find out about it. Unlike BP and the federal government, we strongly believe in the public’s right to information.
To see a copy of the original incident report, check out:http://www.stuarthsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/incident_report.tiff
To follow the orginal link, which now goes to the deletion of the report, check out:http://www.incidentnews.gov/incident/8510
Read my Sept. 3 blog post that broke the story of the new oil sheen at:http://www.stuarthsmith.com/breaking-news-new-oil-sheen-near-site-of-deepwater-horizon-disaster/
and....
BREAKING NEWS: NEW OIL SHEEN NEAR SITE OF DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER
Here we go again. Federal officials acknowledge that they’re investigating a new oil sheen in the vicinity of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and spewed 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. The announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, says that British Petroleum is involved in the probe and that the source of the fresh oil could well be BP’s damaged rig.
Here’s the incident report that was posted with little fanfare by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration on Sept. 17:
This hotline is being started for new reports of sheen of unknown origin in and near lease block Mississippi Canyon 252. This incident is likely related to reports in August 2011 (See incident #8345, Aug2011). Although the source of these sheens may be the wrecked BP Macondo Well, this relationship has not been established at this time. Activities include daily overflights sponsored by BP, with USCG or NOAA observers on board intermitently. BP is sending a vessel to the area with an ROV to investigate the potential source.
This news is dismaying and upsetting, but it does not come as a complete surprise. As alluded to in NOAA’s incident report, oil leaks in the area have happened before in the time since the unchecked flow of oil from the damaged rig was first capped in the summer of 2010. Last August, officials confirmed a fresh leak of sweet Louisiana crude from the Macondo field where the BP rig had exploded. Both BP and federal officials tried to initially deny the problem when the story was broken on this blog, but shifted gear after pilot Bonny Schumaker from the Wings of Care, followed by independent journalists, confirmed the oil sheen and the pungent aroma of crude which was fingerprinted fresh Macondo oil by several laboratories. .
Experts had predicted such oil leaks would likely take place after the Deepwater Horizon rig was capped. That’s because the blocked oil continues to seek a path to the surface, and that could create fissures or cracks in the sea floor for the hydrocarbons to escape. This situation is exactly what we’d warned about in 2010 — that the rig diaster, caused by BP’s reckless and foolish actions, would continue to wreak havoc on the Gulf environment for years to come.
Since learning of this new incident in the last few hours, we’ve been working to mount our own investigation into what exactly is going on in the Macondo field. I hope we can do so, because in the past we haven’t been able to fully trust the official investigations and clean-up efforts.
But there’s one other critical thing that I want to note here. This fresh oil sheen comes just one month after Hurricane Isaac came and churned up a lot of the roughly 1 million barrels of BP oil that experts believe is still in the Gulf, dropping tar balls and other goo onto our formerly pristine beaches. And now this new revelation of leaking oil from Macondo comes at a very important time.
In recent weeks, BP and a select group of lawyers tapped to represent Gulf citizens and small business owners — the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee, or PSC — has been pushing, and pushing hard, to ram through a $7.8 billion settlement of the plaintiff’s damage claims. But several key players including the U.S. Justice Department and the states of Louisiana and Mississippi have objected to the settlement on a variety of legal and environmental grounds, while thousands of claimants, including those represented by my law firm, want the deal tossed out.
One of our big reasons for opposing the current $7.8 billion settlement is that it treats the BP oil spill as essentially over, when the reality is that oil from the Macondo field continues to assault our beaches and marshlands and threatens the integrity of our seafood. BP and the PSC also refuse to publically release the scientific assumptions upon which the settlement is based. And now today, some 30 full months after the explosion on the rig, there is still fresh crude pouring into the Gulf from the vicinity of BP’s rig. This oily sheen should make things very clear: This is not over by a long shot and BP needs to come up with a lot more money. It’s time that BP and the Feds come clean about all this fresh oil.
To read the NOAA incident report, go to: http://www.incidentnews.gov/incident/8510
Read my Aug. 17 , 2011 post that broke the story of the “new Macondo leak”:http://www.stuarthsmith.com/oil-rising-again-from-macondo-well-bp-hires-fleet-of-40-shrimp-boats-to-lay-boom-around-old-deepwater-horizon-site
To check out my post from last November about the 2011 leaks at the Macondo field, check out: http://www.stuarthsmith.com/breakthrough-in-the-macondo-mystery-bp-admits-to-new-activity-at-deepwater-horizon-site/
To read my post on why Gulf residents and business owners are objecting to the proposed $7.8 million settlement, check out: http://www.stuarthsmith.com/we-object-why-bps-8-7-billion-deal-is-a-failed-settlement/
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