The Worst Oil Pollution Disaster in US History

Written by merlynne6

Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig on Fire, April, 2010 Photo: Anonymous

The Rig and Deep Water

On April 20, 2010 Deep Water Horizon, a Transocean deep sea drilling rig - working for British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico on the Macondo Prospect, which is located on the Mississippi Canyon Block 252, 48 miles from the coast of Louisiana - caught fire, burned fiercely for 36 hours and then sank in 5,000' of water. Eleven oil rig workers died and several others were severely injured. The flames from the rig fire were 200-300 feet high and visible from a distance of 35 miles when the fire was its height.

(Hold your mouse over photos, most have additional information.)

This accident is producing the largest oil slick in American history, perhaps the largest such disaster anywhere in the history of the oil industry. Oil is leaking out at 200,000 gallons per day. The oil slick tripled in size in one day, from a spill the size of Rhode Island to one as big as Puerto Rico, according to images collected from mostly European satellites and analyzed by the University of Miami. The environmental mess could be larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, when an oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons off Alaska's shores. No effective means for containment for the Deepwater Horizon oil slick has been found as of the date of this article.

Deepwater Nautilus - 5th generation deep water, exploratory oil rig

Deepwater Nautilus / Deep Ocean Exploration Oil Rig Photo: Reading and Bates RBS-8M

These photos of Deepwater Horizon on fire were made available by a friend and colleague who works on oil rig maintenance and safety for a major international oil company, and has often visited British Petroleum installations.

Deepwater Horizon oil rig on fire at night Photo: Anonymous

Deepwater Horizon Drilling Rig Fire, April 2010 Photo: Anonymous

In their 52-page exploration plan and environmental impact analysis, BP repeatedly suggested it was nearly impossible, for an accident to occur with deep exploration oil rigs that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish, mammals and fisheries. 'Unprecedented' is BP's oblique admission that they were caught unprepared as the Denial Box about their shoddy safety procedures seems to have been in full play. Hubris has a way of coming back to batter its author.

Blowout Preventer
Blowout Preventer for oil rig Photo: Schlumberger

BOPs, Explosion and Disaster

Blowout Preventers (BOPs) are the pressure control system positioned at the seabed on the uppermost, unmoving point in the well. In a serious emergency, there are multiple Panic Buttons to hit. There are also fail-safe Deadman systems should the system become automatically engaged in the worst of scenarios. As none of these systems were activated, the speed at which the explosion traveled to the surface was extreme. There was no way to deal effectively with the first few minutes of an accident of this type.

Two Oil Rig Blowout Preventers Photo: Dexcel / Wikipedia

Apparently, immediately preceding the well head explosion of April 21, 2010, gas and oil got into the well head and were not detected in time to prevent an explosion. With Dynamic Positioning, the rig floats as it not securely anchored by design, the speed at which the blowout traveled upward to the surface and rig must have very rapid. At the time of the explosion, the rig had just finished cementing steel casing at depths exceeding 18,000' (5,486 meters). The next operation would have been to suspend the well so that it could be moved to its next work location, later to return to this location to bring the well into production.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Fire, April 2010 Photo: Anonymous

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A story now circulating among industry professionals who work on these giant, high tech oil rigs is that a drill tool became stuck in the hole across the BOP which prevented the rams from operating. But this cannot be the complete story because shear rams are supposed to shear drill pipe and close the hole. Something else that was very important and yet to be identified and/or acknowledged, occurred. My contact is not the first oil industry safety professional to suspect British Petroleum of cutting corners on safety procedures, because their only operational priority in daily practice is oil production. Specifically, he suspects that BP compromised safety on this BOP as regards deck testing procedures before the BOP was sent to the undersea well head. BP has long been accused of covering up mishaps at their North Sea rigs.

Oil spill locations April 25 to May 4, 2010 Photo: NOAA

The Mother of All Oil Slicks

Minimum average flow rate from the well head is slightly more than 1 million gallons of oil (26,000 barrels) per day on the sea floor. As of May 2, 2010, a minimum of 12.2 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. As high as the oil leakage is now is at 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons/day, it is restricted by the presence of the wellhead and kinked piping.

British Petroleum intends to drill a new well that intersects the blowing one. The challenge is to drill a new well three miles deep from a floating rig to an exact location with an acceptable target radius error of a few feet. When the target is intersected – the damaged and leaking well – a heavy fluid is pumped in that exceeds the formation's pressure, thus causing the oil flow to stop. It will take $USD100 million and more than two months to accomplish this feat. Meanwhile, the well continues to pour oil into the ocean at increasing flow rates and an ecological disaster of unimagined proportions is upon us.

Oil Slick on the Gulf of Mexico, April 30, 2010
Photo: Originalwana / Wikimedia

While taking full responsibility for the cleanup and environmental repair necessitated by the spill spread from Mississippi Canyon 252, BP in latest interviews implied that responsibility for the accident itself rests with Transocean, the deep ocean drilling experts who operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. As of March 2, 2010, US$2.5 billion has been lost by the Louisiana shellfish and fin fish industries, and the tourist industry has taken a US$3 billion hit. President Obama has put a full stop on all offshore drilling until this event is fully understood, and new and better safeguards are implemented in similar deep ocean drilling situations.

The Deep Horizon Oil Slick Below the Surface Photo: US Coast Guard, NOAA, BP, Transocean

No effective means to contain the Deepwater Horizon oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has yet been found. High winds have blown through this portion of the Gulf of Mexico on many days since the spill. Several foot high waves take apart the barriers built from inflatable booms. Likewise in a high wind environment burning is not an option, nor are skimmers that suck oil from the surface effective. Other chemicals that break up oil before it reaches the surface are being applied at heretofore untested depths. These winds will also drive oil slick into inlets and creeks when it reaches the coastline. If the winds do decrease after May 2, then some of these containment methods will begin to have effect. Nonetheless, the loss of wildlife, endangered species and otherwise, commercial fishing stocks etc, is incalculable and numbers in the millions of individual animals. This is the birthing season for ~5,000 dolphins that frequent this region of the Gulf of Mexico. For dozens of affected species that are rare and officially endangered, this area is one of their last possible breeding habitats.

Last Hours of Deepwater Horizon on April 21, 2010 Photo: Anonymous

How Bad is Beyond Awful?

1900+ people, 300+ vessels and dozens of airplanes are deployed to fight this giant, monster oil slick. Two USAF C-130 Hercules cargo planes are dropping tens of thousands of gallons of oil dispersing chemicals into the slick. As Monday May 3 dawns in the Gulf of Mexico, winds appear to be breaking up the slick that extended east from Mobile Bay toward Pensacola. Oil remains emulsified but some beaches will not be dealing with tar. However, these same strong winds broke up 80% of the boom that was deployed before Sunday, May 3 and made skimming oil off the ocean surface impossible.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick, May 3, 2010 Photo: NOAA

A worse case scenario reads like this. On April 30, 2010, copy was obtained of private – 'not public' Emergency Response document from NOAA. “Two additional release points were found today in the tangled riser. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought." In everyday language, an order of magnitude increase is 10 times greater than the reference point or currently accepted baseline. Lay in some serious whiskey, or cases of your favorite beer and ale and stand by. This story has barely begun to be written.

Sources -

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