BP denies reports of new leaks in Macondo well

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/194729.html

BP issued a quick and emphatic denial Thursday after reports began circulating on the Internet about new leaks in its Macondo well, source of a massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year.

"None of this is true," the British oil giant said in a statement in response to reports it had deployed boats and containment boom to the well site. It noted the well was capped in July of last year, permanently sealed in September, and continues to be monitored.

BP also downplayed speculation that an oily sheen spotted elsewhere in the Gulf late last week was fed by leaks in two of its exploration wells, plugged years ago, in Green Canyon block 504 off the coast of central Louisiana.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which regulates the offshore oil and gas industry in federal waters, was still investigating the source of the sheen. Chron

FACTS & FIGURES

On April 20, 2010, an initial explosion, then a larger one ignited BP's Deepwater Horizon platform. For over a day it burned before sinking, killing 11 crew members, releasing thousands of barrels of oil daily, and causing the greatest ever environmental disaster - criminal malfeasance by any standard. OpEdNews

BP was named by Mother Jones Magazine as one of the ten worst corporations in both 2001 and 2005 based on its environmental and human rights records. Catastrophe Map

In 1991, BP was cited as the most polluting company in the U.S. based on EPA toxic release data. Catastrophe Map

Oil leaks into Yellowstone River

A contractor for Exxon Mobil tends to an oil containment boom along the Yellowstone River near Laurel, Mont. , after a pipeline that runs under the river ruptured Saturday July 2, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/187362.html

An Exxon Mobil pipeline in the US state of Montana has erupted, gushing crude oil into the Yellowstone River prompting evacuations of nearby residents.

On Saturday an estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels of oil leaked from the pipe for about 30 minutes before it was shut down, the company said in a statement.

The leak has led to temporary evacuations of hundreds of residents along a 32-kilometer stretch, state-run BBC reported.

Nearby residents in Laurel, Montana, had to evacuate early in the morning but were able to return to their homes by 6 a.m.

"Evacuation orders for all of Yellowstone County have been lifted," the emergency services spokesman told Reuters.

The cause of the incident and the amount of oil released into the river is yet unknown.

"At this early stage, we have no information on the cause of the incident, and we are working to determine the amount of oil released.

“Exxon Mobil Pipeline Company deeply regrets this release and is working hard with local emergency authorities to mitigate the impacts of this release on the surrounding communities and to the environment," the company said.

Yellowstone national park is a famous and major tourist attraction in the US.

There are fears that fish will suffer because of the accident.

US votes to expand offshore oil drilling

US House of Representatives considers California offshore oil drilling

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179648.html

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives has defied the American administration by voting for the expansion of offshore oil drilling amid concerns over soaring gasoline prices.

The controversial draft bill to expand offshore oil drilling was backed by 243 legislators, while 179 voted against it, AFP reported on Thursday.

Democrats have slammed the bill, saying that it would only bring massive contributions to oil companies, a year after the massive and environmentally disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bill is reportedly not expected to win passage in the US Senate.

The oil drilling measure comes as US gasoline prices are currently leveled at around $4 per gallon. US President Barack Obama has warned that the bill poses a threat to the country's struggling economy.

Areas in the Outer Continental Shelf such as waters off California, Alaska, and the eastern US coast are among those to be targeted by the bill.

Obama has recently called on Congress to end tax breaks for oil and gas companies as they enjoy huge profits.

Meanwhile, the White House is worried that the high oil prices along with a number of other economic woes could dominate next year's presidential election campaigns.

'Gulf of Mexico health still at low level'

Experts emphasized their concerns, pointing to the mysterious deaths of hundreds of young dolphins and turtles, strangely stained crabs and dead patches on the sea floor.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175926.html

A group of scientists have said the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year has caused significant declines in the body of water's key health indicators.

More than three dozen scientists have given a grade of 68 percent for the overall health of the Gulf as the Americans mark the first anniversary of the BP's oil spill, according to an Associated Press survey of researcher on Wednesday.

Scientists judge that the current grade is just a few points below the 71 the same researchers gave last summer when asked what grade they would give the ecosystem before the spill.

The spill caused by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon's oil rig off the Louisiana Gulf Coast on April 20 last year left 11 workers dead, blackened beaches from Texas to Florida and triggered the United States' largest environmental disaster of all time.

According to official estimates, 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil spewed out of Macondo well 5,000 feet (almost one mile) below the Gulf's surface.

Scientists say conditions have improved on the surface, however, there are still many unknowns about the long-term effects of the spill.

They have pointed to significant declines in key health indicators such as the sea floor, dolphins and oysters.

Experts also pointed to the mysterious deaths of close to 300 dolphins since the environmental disaster as well as strangely stained crabs and dead patches at the bottom of the Gulf.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama pledged to hold BP accountable for the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Obama, who was speaking on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, also acknowledged that the "catastrophic event" deeply affected the lives of millions of Americans, from local fishermen to restaurant and hotel owners and small businesses throughout the region,

BP shareholders urge assets sell-off

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig ablaze in April 2010

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/175380.html

Some of the oil giant BP's largest shareholders are calling for the firm to sell off up to half of its assets, a year after the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP has already sold some $23 billion worth of assets to help pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as part of plans to divest $30 billion by the end of 2011, but some of the firm's top 10 investors have called on the company to sell another $30 billion worth of assets, the Sunday Times reported on Saturday.

The investors say the move is aimed at coming up with the money to pay for the clean-up of the spill and compensate its victims. However, a BP spokesman has said that the company is "comfortable" with its current level of fundraising.

"The $30bn will cover the costs of the Gulf of Mexico clean-up and the compensation fund,” the spokesman added.

The move comes as environmentalists say the impact of the oil spill is a lot worse than previously thought. Millions of barrels of crude leaked into the Gulf of Mexico last year after a blast on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig.

The April 20 explosion on the drilling rig off the Louisiana coast killed 11 people and triggered the worst oil disaster in the US history.

Last week, fishermen and disgruntled shareholders protested against the oil giant at its first annual general meeting since the spill.

A delegation representing hundreds of fishing families went to the meeting's venue in east London to voice their concerns as they brought shares in the company to gain access to the meeting.

'Biggest cover-up in US history'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159209.html


Months after the US government declared the waters in the Gulf of Mexico safe, thick layers of oil have been found along Louisiana coastal marshes, prompting local officials to accuse relevant authorities of 'cover-up.'

Louisiana officials say parts of the state's coastline are still being fouled more than eight months after British Petroleum's (BP) Deepwater Horizon rig caused the biggest oil disaster in the United States.

"This is the biggest cover-up in the history of America,'' AP quoted Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser as saying.

On Friday, Robert Barham, secretary of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, joined Nungesser on a tour of the area.

"It has been eight months since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, and five months since the well was capped. While workers along the coast dedicated themselves to cleaning up our shores there is still so much to be done," Barham said in a statement.

The heavily saturated area that reporters saw was 30 feet (9 meters) to 100 feet (30 meters) wide in sections.

"There's been no mechanism to clean that up thus far," the parish president said.

"Every day, this shoreline is moving inland," lessening flood protection for residents, Nungesser added.

This is while US President Barack Obama and one his daughters went for a swim in the Gulf of Mexico last summer in an attempt to portray the water as safe and boost tourism industry reeling in the affected areas after millions of barrels of oil leaked into the gulf.

Nungesser has been a frequent and outspoken critic of the cleanup effort ever since the oil explosion began infiltrating the environmentally delicate Louisiana coast line in April 20.

The wildlife and fisheries department, meanwhile, said oiled boom remains in "numerous locations, forgotten or lost by contractors charged with their maintenance and removal."

The officials said biologists have found several oiled birds in the past few days, including at least two dead brown pelicans.

The explosion that destroyed the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and, according to the government estimates, led to more than 200 million gallons (757 million liters) of oil spewing from a hole a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil 'plume' threatens Gulf waters

Scientists say the oil plume is 35km long and located deep below
the ocean's surface [AFP]


Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/08/2010819175228365585.html


Scientists have found a 35km-long plume of oil deep in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, despite US government claims that most of the oil from a ruptured well had dispersed.


The report released on Thursday in the journal Science is the first conclusive evidence of an underwater oil plume, a phenomenon which could explain the location of much of the oil that had been presumed to have disappeared.

Oil floating about 1,200 metres below the surface, where temperatures are 4.5 degrees Celsius, breaks down at a slower pace than oil on the surface, posing an unseen threat to marine life, scientists said.

"Many people speculated that the sub-surface oil droplets were being easily downgraded," Dr Richard Camilli, the study's chief author, told journalists.

"Well, we didn't find that. We found that it was still there," Camilli, a member of the research team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, said.

Contradictory claims

On August 4, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the "vast majority" of oil had evaporated, been removed by clean-up teams or was dispersing naturally.

The remaining 26 per cent, an estimated 1.3 million barrels of oil, was classified as "residual".

Government data suggested that it was located "either on or just below the surface as residue and weathered tar balls, has washed ashore or been collected from the shore, or is buried in sand and sediments".

The plume discovery appears to call those claims into question, although the scientists were careful not to overstate the conclusions of an expedition which lasted from June 19 to June 28.

The plume would have been undetectable without the scientists' high-tech equipment, including a special underwater mass spectrometer used to detect the chemical signature of the oil, which was carried deep below the surface by submersible devices.


"At this point, we know the plume exists, and we will know more about its potential biological activity in the future," Dr Chris Reddy, another of the article's authors, said.

The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20, which caused it to collapse and fracture the well head. Eleven people were killed in the incident.

About 4.9 million barrels of oil are thought to have spewed from the well in the Gulf of Mexico before it was capped last month.

Micro-organisms

Prior to the release of this study, scientists assumed micro-organisms in the water had eaten much of the oil, taking it out of the ocean.

But the size and depth of the plume means the role of microbes is less clear.

"Any self-respecting microbe will want to eat oil ... but microbes are a lot like teenagers; they work on their own time, their own scale ... it is difficult often to make predictions about microbe degradation," Reddy said.

"It may vary substantially in the Gulf in any one time."

When asked directly if the study's conclusions contradict US government data, one of the authors said: "I can tell you that we found the plume and I can't tell you how much oil is in it because we don't have the values yet".

Steve Murawski, the chief fisheries scientist for the NOAA, the organisation which provided the disperal data to the US government, attended the release of the new study and agreed that the plume could hurt marine life.

"This is a highly sensitive ecosystem," Murawski said. "The animals down at 3,000 to 3,400 feet [below the surface] grow slowly."

The oil, which includes toxic components such as benzine, could cause genetic problems for marine life even at low concentrations, Murawski said.

Towards the end of the news conference, a reporter with the Times Picayune in New Orleans, Louisiana, the epicentre of the spill, asked what affect the plume would have on fisherman who depend on marine life in the Gulf.

"How this equates to the fishery at this time, I can't say anything about that," one of the study's authors said.

Oil is no longer flowing from the well and Barack Obama, the US president has said the well is capped, but the replacement cap will not be completed until the middle of September.

US report on BP oil spill challenged

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139287.html

US scientists have again challenged government claims that most of the massive oil spill from a ruptured BP oil well in Gulf of Mexico "is gone."

Researchers at the University of South Florida caution not only that the oil spill is a much bigger problem than the government indicates, but also that much of the crude is prowling deep below the sea surface and settling in a vital undersea canyon off the Florida Panhandle.

The scientists have gathered evidence of microscopic amounts of oil mixing into the soil of the canyon.

The experts' early findings are only the latest in a string of scientific reports that strongly question the government's rather optimistic report on the oil spill cleanup, AP reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, another study published by University of Georgia scientists Tuesday said most of the BP oil the government claimed was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there.

The Georgia study state that as much as 80 percent of the oil still lurks under the surface, and that it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone.

Earlier this month federal scientists said that only about a quarter of the oil remained and the rest was either removed, dissolved or dispersed.

"Where has all the oil gone? It hasn't gone anywhere. It still lurks in the deep," said University of Georgia marine scientist Chuck Hopkinson. He headed the quick independent look by the Georgia Sea Grant program at the estimates the White House released.

White House energy adviser Carol Browner told major US media outlets in early August, "More than three-quarters of the oil is gone. The vast majority of the oil is gone."

The Georgia team said it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved or dispersed is gone.

The federal report, produced by government and independent scientists, estimated that the "vast majority'' of the 4.9 million barrels of crude released into the Gulf had evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered by BP from the wellhead, dispersed naturally or by chemicals into drops likely to be rapidly consumed by microbes. Only 26 percent of "residual'' oil remained largely in the form of sheen or tar balls, the federal report found - still a volume four times the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez.

In announcing the data, Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, cautioned that the vast amount of oil would cause impacts for years but still struck a glass-half-full tone echoed by other Obama aides.

There are, however, still vast volumes of crude oil in the water column, widely dispersed and breaking down into multiple compounds whose impact on the environment won't be understood for years, she said.

BP takes tests before 'bottom kill'

US government's BP oil spill incident commander Thad Allen

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138731&sectionid=3510203

The US has ordered BP to run a series of tests before completing a relief well to permanently seal the runaway Gulf of Mexico Horizon oil well with a "bottom kill."

The delayed drilling of the relief well's last 30 meters and the final capping procedure are to finish in a few days once the operation gets the green light from the US government's oil spill commander Thad Allen.

After a series of setbacks, BP was able to stop the gush of oil into the sea on July 15 with a temporary cap. The ruptured well was blocked with cement on August 5 and tests were conducted on the integrity of the plug.

In a Saturday statement, Allen said that considering "the results of the post cement pressure test, and in response to BP's request to consider foregoing the relief well," the "bottom kill" operation could go ahead.

"The Government Scientific Technical Team has determined that the benefits of the bottom kill procedure outweigh the risks," AFP quoted the retired US Coast Guard admiral as saying.

However, before the drilling of the relief well can resume, Allen asked BP to present plans for a "pressure relief system ... including any necessary containment option," in case excessive pressure might accumulate at the well head.

He also demanded a series of pressure tests "to assess the stability of the well" when the current damaged well stack is replaced with a new one.

Before the stack is removed, Allen said he wants BP to prove that the annulus between the well pipe and the outer well bore is either leak resistant, or provide a proper risk assessment of a possible leak.

About 1,000 barrels of oil are believed to be trapped in the well's annulus and it is possible that some of the cement pumped in from above effectively closed the annulus from the surface. A decision was made nonetheless for the bottom kill operation to continue and cement be pumped all the way to the well's source under the Gulf of Mexico.

The well ruptured when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22 following a massive explosion that killed 11 workers, letting 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico -- the biggest maritime oil spill disaster of all time.

BP spill to take 'decades' to recover

Vast quantities of crude remain hidden below
the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, posing a danger
to fish and other marine life.


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137878§ionid=3510203


As BP's "static kill" procedure finally plugs its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well, experts have warned that it could take decades for any signs of recovery.

BP finished the heavy pumping of cement into the ruptured well, temporarily halting the leak, but a "bottom kill" procedure is to follow next month in order to kill the spill permanently.

Although this signals an end to the worst oil spill in history, BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, says, "we are far from finished," AFP reported on Sunday.

Though the massive slick has mostly dissolved or dispersed, vast quantities of crude remain hidden below the waves, posing a danger to fish and other marine life, which once supported a multibillion-dollar commercial and recreational fishing industry, the report said.

Hundreds of miles of Louisiana's fragile coastal wetlands remain covered in blankets of oil and each new tide blankets the once-golden coasts of Florida in tar balls.

Although experts claim the oil appears to be biodegrading rapidly, Jim Cowan, a professor in Louisiana State University's department of oceanography and coastal sciences says, "this whole notion that that stuff is weathering away is really questionable."

"What dispersed oil does is eventually dissolve into sea water and the ultimate fate of that is ultimately undetermined," AFP quoted Cowan as saying.

BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April, killing 11 workers. It took the oil giant 106 days to seal the ruptured well.

Some 4.9 million barrels of oil have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since then, with only 800,000 barrels captured, leaving BP with a tarnished reputation and a loss of billions of dollars.

US report undermines BP spill effects

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137512§ionid=3510203


Many scientists and Gulf of Mexico Coastal residents have raised doubt about a US government report suggesting the oil spill disaster is largely contained.

The Obama administration's Wednesday report claimed that most of the estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil leaked into the gulf was either 'accounted for' or effectively gone in a highly diluted form, suggesting that future damage from the oil spill would not be as great as it has been feared, The New York Times reported.

The report was not well received by those directly affected by the spill on the Gulf Coast, where many regarded it as new evidence that the Obama administration was getting ready to abandon them as the Bush administration did after Hurricane Katrina.

Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, confirmed that the relatively small amount of oil remaining on the water's surface does not erase concerns about the long-term impact on marine life.

"I think the common view of most of the scientists inside and outside government is that the effects of this spill will likely linger for decades," said Lubchenco.

Gov. Bobby Jindal said the report should not be used as justification to turn back the federal response.

"Even based on the federal government's own estimates, there are still over 1 million barrels of oil in the Gulf," the governor said in a written statement. "We must remain vigilant about the oil that remains a threat to our coast."

Much of the skepticism about the report was linked to inaccurate federal estimates of the spill's magnitude that had to be repeatedly revised upwards, going from 1,000 barrels a day to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day.

The release of the report coincided with BP's final efforts to permanently seal the well, which stopped leaking oil July 15 after being sealed with a temporary cap.

Some researchers attacked the report's findings and methodology, calling it premature at best and sloppy at worst. They noted that a plenty of research was still under way to shed light on some of the main scientific issues raised in the report.

“A lot of this is based on modeling and extrapolation and very generous assumptions,” said Samantha Joye, a marine scientist at the University of Georgia who has led some of the most important research on the Deepwater Horizon spill. “If an academic scientist put something like this out there, it would get torpedoed into a billion pieces.”

The Wednesday report claimed that only 26 percent of the oil had come ashore or was still in the water in a form that would break down quickly in the warm waters of the gulf.

That 26 percent, however, is equivalent to more than 53 million gallons of oil, five times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

BP reported that 2,300 barrels of mud forced down the well overnight, in an operation called a "static kill," had pushed the crude back down to its source for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off Louisiana on April 20. The explosion killed 11 workers and began the spill that sent tar balls washing onto beaches and oil oozing into delicate coastal marshes.

US spill 'world's worst oil accident’

Over 200 million gallons of oil have gushed into
the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon
rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 people.



Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137249§ionid=3510203


The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is by far the world's biggest accidental release of crude into marine waters, new US data attained by federal scientists says.

According to the most precise estimates yet by a joint response command including BP and the US government, 4.9 million barrels of oil have leaked from a ruptured BP well since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 people.

That amount eclipses the estimated 3.3 million barrels spilled into the Bay of Campeche by the Mexican rig Ixtoc I in 1979. That incident was previously thought to be the world's largest accidental release.

The Monday statement adds that cleanup teams have so far only managed to contain 800,000 barrels of crude.

"We've never had a spill of this magnitude in the deep ocean," said Ian MacDonald, a professor of oceanography at Florida State University. "... I think we'll be hearing the echoes of this, ecologically, for the rest of my life."

The team believes that the current estimates are accurate to within a 10 percent error. However, the government is continuing to study the data and may refine the estimate.

The amount of oil said to be gushing from the well has been a matter of dispute from the earliest days of the spill.

The latest data comes as BP plans to inject mud and cement into the ruptured well to permanently seal it. The procedure is expected to take five to seven days.

The well has been temporarily sealed for two weeks now.

The oil spill has so far caused huge environmental damage and economic losses in four US Gulf states.

US Coast Guard ignores chemical limits

A BP worker holds up a sample of water taken from the
Gulf of Mexico to be tested, while working off Louisiana's coast


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137137§ionid=3510203


The US Coast Guard is under fire for allowing the use of huge amounts of chemical dispersants to fight the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico waters.

According to a Washington Post report on Sunday, the US Coast Guard, which is in charge of the oil spill clean-up, allowed BP to deploy dispersants 74 times over 54 days.

The chemicals were used both on the surface and deep beneath at the site of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, which ruptured an undersea well, killing 11 workers.

This is while on May 26, US President Barack Obama ordered a strict mandate to limit the use of such chemicals.

The dispersants were deployed to break down the leaking crude oil into smaller particles, which will not wash up on the Gulf coasts.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that they are being used, the chemicals are considered to be a "tradeoff" that shifts the ecological burden from the Gulf shores to deep sea life, Carys Mitchelmore, an expert in aquatic toxins, told CNN.

This is because some organisms deep under the ocean will see the smaller droplets "as food", Mitchelmore added.

The findings were revealed by an analysis of federal documents prepared by the office of US Congressman Edward Markey, the Post said.

The recent development comes as authorities in the state of Louisiana reopened 2,400 square miles (6,200 square km) of coastal waters for fishing.

The US Food and Drug Administration has deemed seafood harvested from such open areas safe for human consumption.

BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles has also stated that he would "absolutely" eat Gulf of Mexico seafood and would even feed it to his family.

However, environmentalists, who believe that the seafood has undergone an insufficient amount of testing, warn that BP's use of chemicals means that there are lingering questions about toxicity in the fish.

'Seep detected' near capped BP well

The gushing oil has caused massive
environmental damage to the Gulf Coast [Reuters]


Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/2010718231020146812.html

The US government has ordered BP to submit a plan for reopening its recently capped blown-out oil well to allow oil to flow into the ocean again after engineers detected seepage on the ocean floor near the well.

Thad Allen, the retired coast guard admiral overseeing the government's response to the spill, told Bob Dudley, the BP chief managing director, in a letter on Sunday to report on a "detected seep" and other "anomalies" near the Gulf of Mexico oil.

"Given the current observations from the test, including the detected seep a distance from the well and undetermined anomalies at the well head, monitoring of the seabed is of paramount importance during the test period.

"I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed," he said.

More than three days since BP started using a new, tighter fitting cap to stop the oil from gushing out of the well 1.6km below the surface, the British energy giant said the cap was holding.

Earlier on Sunday, BP officials had expressed hope that the test of the cap which began Thursday could continue until a relief well being drilled reaches the damaged well and heavy drilling mud and cement is used to seal it more permanently.

Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, told reporters on Sunday that reopening the well would release oil into the Gulf for up to three days even though capture vessels were standing by on the surface to begin processing oil within hours.

"We're hopeful that if the encouraging signs continue that we'll be able to continue the integrity test all the way to the point that we get the well killed," he told reporters before Allen issued his statement.

"Clearly we don't want to reanimate flow into the Gulf if we don't have to."
Before the cap was placed, nearly 10 million litres of oil was spewing into the Gulf every day for nearly three months since BP's rig exploded and sank in late April, according to the US government's worst case projections.

BP was able to siphon some of that oil to ships on the surface but was not able to shut off the flow until fitting the cap on Thursday.

Gulf spill jeopardizes ecosystems

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134545§ionid=3510212


Almost 86 days into the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, experts say the crisis is likely to cost BP far more, once damage to the ecosystem is factored in.

The oil which has been pouring unchecked into the sea since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion is an outstanding example of destroying and neglecting natural habitats.

Baby birds, turtles and fishes are among the many endangered species in the region which have been fouled with the oil, rescuers say.

"There are plenty of oiled babies out there," AP quoted Rebecca Dmytryk of the International Bird Rescue Research Center, one of the groups working to clean oiled animals.

BP has put forward a figure of 20 billion dollars for cleanup and compensation; however experts believe that putting a price tag on the value of affected ecosystems, largely ignored, changes the estimates of the losses to a great degree.

"We cannot manage what we do not measure, and we are not measuring either the value of nature's benefits or the costs of their loss," said Pavan Sukhdev, lead author of the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for Business report.

Sukhdev believes that if the US government had required a "holistic economic assessment" before drilling was allowed, the potential liability might have pushed BP to take more stringent safety measures.

"But what about the cost to the economy of lost utility -- eco-tourism loss, fisheries stocks that represent future losses to industry, the inability to fish in the area," Sukhdev concluded.

Gulf oil spill intentional?

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132875§ionid=3510203



The BP oil spill continues to poison the sea, and US citizens are starting to feel like there's more than meets the eye in this story.

The potential magnitude of what is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico simply cannot be overstated. It is far, far worse than what is being admitted and what we are allowed to see is catastrophic enough.

Lawsuits claim that the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, 52 miles southeast of the Louisiana port of Venice on April 20, was caused because Halliburton workers improperly capped the well — a process known as cementing.

Oddly, just eight days before the Gulf blow-out, Halliburton also announced that it had agreed to buy Boots & Coots for $240.4 million. Who are Boots & Coots?

Boots & Coots are the world's largest oil-spill clean-up company, which also deals with oil and gas well fires and blowouts.

Goldman Sachs sold 44 per cent of its holdings in BP, a total of 4,680,822 shares worth the best part of $300 million, in the weeks before the Gulf disaster that sent BP shares plummeting.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward is reported to have sold his £1.4 million shares in BP a month before the explosion. The profit allowed him to pay off the mortgage on his mansion.

BP abandons 'top kill' effort

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/05/201053003734718415.html


Oil giant BP's latest effort to plug the broken wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico has failed, the company has said, adding it is time to "move on" and try other solutions.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday Doug Suttles, the company's chief operating officer, said that after three days of blasting mud and other materials into the well, engineers had been unable to stop oil from spewing into the ocean.

The so called "top kill" operation had pumped around 4.5 million litres of mud into the gushing well, but most of it escaped out of the well's damaged riser pipe.

"After three full days of attempting top kill we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well so we now believe.

In the six weeks since an explosion hit BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing 11 workers, the leaking well has spewed some 68 million litres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The spill is the worst in US history - exceeding even the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 off the Alaska coast.

BP has so far spent $940m to try to plug the leak and clean up the sea and soiled coast.

"This scares everybody, the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven't succeeded so far," Suttles said.

"Many of the things we're trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 feet."

Disappointment

News that the top kill attempt had failed was met with disappointment in the coastal fishing communities in the US state of Louisiana, where oil first made landfall in large quantities almost two weeks ago.

"Everybody's starting to realise this summer's lost. And our whole lifestyle might be lost," Michael Ballay, manager of the Cypress Cove Marina in the town of Venice, told the Associated Press.

The top kill operation was the latest of several failed attempts to plug the leaking well.

In the days immediately after the explosion BP engineers tried to use robot submarines to close valves on the massive blowout preventer atop the damaged well.

Two weeks later ice-like crystals clogged a 100-ton containment box the company tried placing over the leak.

And earlier this week engineers removed a mile-long siphon tube from the broken riser pipe after managed to extract a disappointing 3.4 million litres of oil from the well.

'Confident'

With pressure growing on BP to do more to contain the leak, Suttles said engineers were already preparing for the next attempt which would use robot submarines to cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking.

They would then try to cap it with a containment valve in an operation that is expected to take between four and seven days.

"We're confident the job will work but obviously we can't guarantee success," Suttles said.

Cutting off the damaged riser was not expected to cause the flow rate of leaking oil to increase significantly, he added.

However other experts have warned that the operation is risky because a bend in the damaged riser pipe was likely to be restricting the flow of oil.

"If they can't get that valve on, things will get much worse," Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama, told the Associated Press.

"It's a scary proposition."

BP engineers have said that a permanent solution to the leak, a relief well currently being drilled, will not be ready until August.

Oil spill recovery operation halted

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127958§ionid=3510203



The US Coast Guard has recalled all 125 commercial fishing boats helping with oil recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico after reports of health problems.

The move raises questions over the safety of the clean-up operation in and around the Gulf of Mexico.

Crew members of three separate fishing vessels reported suffering from "nausea, dizziness, headaches and chest pains" on Wednesday afternoon.

"No other personnel are reporting symptoms, but we are taking this (recall) action as an extreme safeguard," said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Robinson Cox.

Safety officers for the energy giant British Petroleum (BP), along with US Coast Guard officials and the Environmental Protection Agency, are investigating the incident.

The latest oil spill clean-up operation called 'Top Kill' is currently being carried out by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.