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How Can they Stop the Oil Spill?

There was an interesting section on "Coast" last night when they were up filming around the Shetlen Islands (did I spell that right???). They were talking about an oil tanker that ran aground on one of the islands, spilling its guts all over the beaches and the environmental disaster it caused.

Only problem was...the sea cleaned the oil up itself but the program makers put the clean up down to the rough seas because the tanker ran a ground in a storm...that raged for a further month after the grounding!

Well...I thought it was interesting. Yes animal life was impacted by the oil BUT it wasnt armageddon!

Regards

Mailman
 
mailman said:
There was an interesting section on "Coast" last night when they were up filming around the Shetlen Islands (did I spell that right???).
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Shetland
They were talking about an oil tanker that ran aground on one of the islands, spilling its guts all over the beaches and the environmental disaster it caused.
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I'm guessing they were talking about the MV BraerWP?
Only problem was...the sea cleaned the oil up itself but the program makers put the clean up down to the rough seas because the tanker ran a ground in a storm...that raged for a further month after the grounding!

Well...I thought it was interesting. Yes animal life was impacted by the oil BUT it wasnt armageddon!

Regards

Mailman
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They were just lucky on that one. It was a relatively "small" spill of light crude and because of the prevailing weather only about 1% hit the shore.

Perversely, the storm apparently caused oily seaspray to be spread over a fairly large inland area, that reportedly destroyed crops and polluted freshwater lochs.
 
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Apparently.

But anyway I thought it was interesting that these guys werent in fill "Mann Made Global Warming(tm) Alarmist Mode" and gave quite a balanced report on the incident...that the sea was quite capable of cleaning the oil spill up itself and it wasnt the end of the world etc.

Mailman
 
All true, but it would be foolish , for many reasons, to become complacent about such events.
In the west, big spills become news and the effects may be exaggerated by ignorance, by special interests or by a lack of context. In other places, major pollution incidents are simply brushed under the political carpet. Neither response is smart.

At the end of the day, most oil and gas gets where it's supposed to. And then it's mostly burned.

Ultimately, that's the problem we must face.
 
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Macondo Blow Out Officially DEAD - 19 Sept 2010

Statement from Admiral Allen on the Successful Completion of the Relief Well

...BP has successfully completed the relief well by intersecting and cementing the well nearly 18,000 feet below the surface. With this development, which has been confirmed by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, we can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead.

The cement pressure test on the DDIII relief well was completed at 5:54 a.m. CDT.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement has confirmed that the cementing operation on the Macondo well was successful, that the well has been permanently sealed with cement plugs, and that pressure tests verify the integrity of the plugs.

Oversight of the well now transitions from the National Incident Command to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement under the process laid out in the National Response Framework.

The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement will oversee the continuing decommissioning of the Macondo well and its associated relief wells.
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Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 4.
 
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Soapy Sam said:
All true, but it would be foolish , for many reasons, to become complacent about such events.
In the west, big spills become news and the effects may be exaggerated by ignorance, by special interests or by a lack of context. In other places, major pollution incidents are simply brushed under the political carpet. Neither response is smart.

At the end of the day, most oil and gas gets where it's supposed to. And then it's mostly burned.

Ultimately, that's the problem we must face.
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True, but things arent helped by corrupt politicians who have created the deep water problem in the first place by forcing oil companies to drill so far out to sea.

Mailman
 
mailman said:
True, but things arent helped by corrupt politicians who have created the deep water problem in the first place by forcing oil companies to drill so far out to sea.

Mailman
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Uh, no one is forcing the oil companies to drill in deepwater, quite the opposite. They are allowing them to open up exploration frontiers. As the price of oil rose, so these cost-marginal exploration areas became more commercially viable. Ultra-deepwater leases have been available for exploitation for more than 30 years.

Deepwater drilling is nothing new, despite all the latest hooplah about it, e.g., here is an article about a new water depth record;
7,500 Ft: A New Record Deepwater Drilling Program - in 1983.
 
JihadJane said:
New oil slick?

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/hard-believe-oil-louisiana-area-again-disaster-john-wathen-photos

http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/b...43-slick-100-miles-long-skimming-started-days
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Looking at this aerial photo, I'd say we're looking at sediment being deposited by a river system. The wave front at the dividing line is pretty typical for a body of water driven by a river meeting a tidal body of water. Also, the fishing boat only appears to be churning up the lower sediment as it motors over it. There doesn't appear to be a surface sheen of oil at all.

Well, leastways, I have observed just this sort of of sight a number of times while low-flying in coastal regions.
The USCG also reports dredging operations in the Mississippi river as a possible source of this.

USCG Update. These appear to be two separate incidents.

The large "slick" observed from the air was sampled and that's the one the USCG think is merely silt discolouration.

The USCG has deployed boom due a report of "an oily substance" washing up on shore at Elmer Isle, Fourchon Beach and Grand Isle.
"Samples have been taken from the shoreline impacts for testing, but the oily substance is not, at this time, suspected to be residual oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill."
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USCG Update 2.
An oily substance was reported to be washing ashore, Sunday, which prompted Coast Guard, along with other state and local agencies, to begin clean up and recovery operations of impacted shorelines on Elmer Island, Fourchon Beach and Grand Isle.

"We are working with our state and local partners to mitigate any further environmental impact while continuing to facilitate the safe movement of marine traffic to the fullest extent possible. Vessel traffic is highly encouraged to avoid the spill area and vessels that must transit through the affected zone should make every effort to avoid pockets of oil while ensuring safe navigation," stated Capt. Jonathan Burton, the Federal On-Scene Coordinator for the response. "We are continuing to examine all measures necessary to maintain uninterrupted commerce throughout the Morgan City Captain of the Port Zone."

Currently, an estimated half mile of shoreline, in all areas combined, has been affected.
 
USGC Update 4 March 22

The large (~100 mile) black "shadow" in the water has been identified as silt washing out from the Mississippi River - determined by sampling.

The total landfall impact of oil is about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile over a 3 mile area.

The oil has been identified as Louisiana Crude, so from a well or a tanker, well certainly GoM origins. A source for the spill has not been identified, but is unlikely to be left over from Macondo.

If you assume a solid volume 1/2 a mile long, a foot wide and 1/2 an inch thick, this is about 104ft3, or 18bbls.
[handwaving]Note, the last is merely my speculation.[/handwaving]
The oil that has landed on beaches is not a continuous slick, so the above number is entirely plucked out of the air.
If a contiguous slick that was only a couple of inches wide the volume might be less 3bbls total.

An "anonymous State Official" claims that it comes from a shallow-water well capping operation. In that report it seems that the USGC put the total of oil spilled from it to be 3.7gal (0.1bbl)

There is also a large sheen along 30 miles of the coast and perhaps extending 5 miles out. It is expected to dissipate due to weathering and not expected to hit any coastal regions - so no significant impact on land, or sea.
 
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USCG Update 5.
It looks like our anonymous state official was barking up the right tree.

The Coast Guard, Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office and Anglo-Suisse Offshore Partners are working together to clean up oil that has made landfall in the Grand Isle area.
The Coast Guard notified Anglo-Suisse, yesterday, that preliminary sample results suggest a possible match between samples taken from the shores of Elmer Island and those taken from the West Delta 117, which is an Anglo-Suisse owned well.

Further testing is ongoing.

Anglo-Suisse has agreed to cooperate with the Coast Guard and aid in the clean up response pending any contradictory results from the sample testing.

"We do not believe the spill along the coast is the result of our operations, however, when the Coast Guard informed us that this might be the case, the responsible thing to do was mobilize," said John Sherwood, CEO of Anglo-Suisse.

Currently, an estimated one-quarter to one-half mile of shoreline, in all areas combined, has been affected by patches of oil.

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Note my bolding. This is not a contiguous spill along 1/2 a mile of coastline, but small patches of oil being found.
 
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