Oil now leaking from Gulf disaster piping – UPDATED
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
Oil appears not to be flowing from a sunken drilling rig and damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, but hope was dimming as search continued for 11 workers missing in the disaster, said the U.S. Coast Guard.
“As of right now, the spill is not growing,” a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
A remotely operated unmanned submarine sent down Thursday to inspect the scene found no oil leaking from the sunken Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and no oil flowing from the well, reducing the risk of a major spill, a spokeswoman said…
But 11 workers remained missing despite an intensive search and it was feared they were unable to escape the blast.
The Transocean Deepwater Horizon sank Thursday after burning since Tuesday following an explosion while trying to temporarily cap a new well drilled for BP 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana.
The blast occurred about 10 p.m. CDT Tuesday as the rig was capping a discovery well pending production, company officials said. Some 115 of the 126 workers on board at the time of the explosion were rescued.
I’m truly glad to see that the blowout protection systems appear to be working.
Obviously not as designed – for that would have prevented the explosion and resulting fire, loss of life and the rig. But, one of the critical portions of such systems is closing the wellhead and preventing an oil spill.
Folks will still need to get down to the bottom and properly cap the well. No doubt the process will include drilling an ancillary well to access the original production holes.
UPDATE: Capping the well acquires a higher priority now that risers and drill pipe from the wellhead are leaking oil at a rate approximated at 1000 barrels a day.
This is a serious rate – and although the blowout protection system did its job, the drill rig components failed as a result of the explosion and mechanical forces exerted on the drilling system.
Fuck Yeah! We need a lot more of these things, located all up and down the coastlines of all of our countries and a lot more in remote, unseen places, like pristine nature preserves and wilderness conservation areas.
I mean really, what could possibly go wrong?
Thanks, President Obama. I just love it when you bargain away the future for precious, precious petrochemicals, desperately needed to pollute our planet.
It’s always something, isn’t it?
If it’s not giant pharmaceutical corporations or giant insurance corporations or giant financial corporations or giant food corporations or giant coal corporations – it’s always something (with lots of money), isn’t it?
We are disappoint, Mr. President.
Cinaedh
April 24, 2010 at 6:44 am
The fact that there was no oil spilled will be used to promote more drilling in those pristine, safe areas.
Mr. Fusion
April 24, 2010 at 7:57 am
It’s difficult to think of much of the Gulf of Mexico as pristine.
god
April 24, 2010 at 10:21 am
Is the Gulf of Mexico a nature preserve? Sorry, I didn’t know. I was referring to all the other nature preserves, in places like Alaska.
Cinaedh
April 24, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Thank you. This is what I meant. Sorry for the confusion.
Mr. Fusion
April 24, 2010 at 5:27 pm
No oil spilled?
Then I’m left to wonder about the composition and source of the imaginary slick currently being cleaned up by the Coast Guard – to prevent it from reaching the coastline of Louisiana.
Cinaedh
April 24, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Realistically, the Coast Guard differentiates from “incidental” oil on machinery, structure, small engines, etc. on the rig vs. oil that might spill from the wells down at the ocean floor wellhead.
My reading of this article and others concludes the wellhead blowout protection devices worked and no oil is exiting the ocean floor at this location.
The slick from this disaster isn’t as big as some of the natural slicks resulting from natural leaks on the sea bottom in the Gulf of Mexico.
Ask someone who lives around Brownsville, TX, about the latter. It’s why people started looking around the Gulf for oil long ago. No different from Pennsylvania.
god
April 24, 2010 at 1:07 pm
As usual, it doesn’t more than one part of a system of protection to fail – to result in the same effect of the whole system collapsing.
moss
April 24, 2010 at 9:22 pm