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,

Illnesses linked to BP oil disaster

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2010/12/20101230105158700342.html

Despite BP having capped its well in the Gulf of Mexico in July, the health-related after-effects of the disaster subsist.

Gulf Coast residents and BP cleanup workers have linked the source of certain illnesses to chemicals present in BP's oil and the toxic dispersants used to sink it - illnesses that appear to be both spreading and worsening.

Dr. Rodney Soto, a medical doctor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, has been testing and treating patients with high levels of oil-related chemicals in their blood stream. These are commonly referred to as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's). Anthropogenic VOC's from BP's oil disaster are toxic and have negative chronic health effects.

Dr. Soto is finding disconcertingly consistent and high levels of toxic chemicals in every one of the patients he is testing.

"I'm regularly finding between five and seven VOCs in my patients," Dr. Soto told Al Jazeera. "These patients include people not directly involved in the oil clean-up, as well as residents that do not live right on the coast. These are clearly related to the oil disaster."

Chronic health effects

Lloyd Pearcey, from Bonsecour, Alabama, worked on a BP clean-up team as a foreman for four months.

During that time, he collected oil-soaked boom and drove a bulldozer "filled with the tar balls and tar mats we collected. Other times we stood in the water in Tyvek suits putting out shore boom with oil all over us. The fumes got to you."

"I just got my results from the blood tests," Pearcey told Al Jazeera, "I have the chemicals of the oil and dispersants in my blood."

Pearcey had experienced many of the now common symptoms of acute exposure to BP's chemicals.

Dr. Soto is testing his patients, and said he has ample documentation attesting to the levels of toxins people are being exposed to.

Dr. Soto classifies two types of symptom groups: acute exposure that includes skin and respiratory problems; and a second, larger group of people with no symptoms, but who still have toxicity. He believes the pathways of exposure occur through air, skin, and contaminated seafood.

One of the more extreme cases he treated was a woman who developed acute respiratory problems after a visit to the beach.

"This is a young woman in good health, with good nutritional intake, no health issues, hates to take any medication, and ate only organic foods," he explained, "But shortly after going to the beach, where she was likely exposed to toxins, she developed respiratory illness and developed cancer within weeks. I think this was due to direct exposure to chemicals in the dispersants and VOCs."

According to the US Government, BP's oil disaster released at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. BP has used at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic dispersants, that are banned in at least 19 countries, to sink the oil.

Many of the chemicals present in the oil and dispersants are known to cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, kidney damage, altered renal functions, irritation of the digestive tract, lung damage, burning pain in the nose and throat, coughing, pulmonary edema, cancer, lack of muscle coordination, dizziness, confusion, irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, difficulty breathing, delayed reaction time, memory difficulties, stomach discomfort, liver and kidney damage, unconsciousness, tiredness/lethargy, irritation of the upper respiratory tract, and hematological disorders.

While there are many examples of acute exposures like Pearcey and Dr. Soto's patient who developed cancer, his concern is that most residents who are being exposed will only show symptoms later.

"This latter group develops symptoms over years," he told Al Jazeera. "I'm concerned with the illnesses like cancer and brain degeneration for the future. This is very important because a lot of the population down here may not have symptoms. But people are unaware they are ingesting chemicals that are certainly toxic to humans and have significant effect on the brain and hormonal systems."

Dr. Soto is most concerned about the long-term effect of the toxins, because they have "tremendous implications in the human immune system, hormonal function, and brain function."

The toxic compounds in the oil and dispersants are "liposoluble," meaning they have a "high affinity for fat," according to Dr. Soto.

"The human brain is 70 percent fat," Dr. Soto added, "And these will similarly effect the immune cells, intestinal tract, breast, thyroid, prostate, glands, organs, and systems. This is also why this is so significant for children."

His particular concern for children involves toxins which cause "development of the depressed immune system and a resurgence of cancer."

Dr. Soto believes that for residents along the area of the Gulf Coast affected by BP's toxic chemicals, the solution is either to relocate or to engage in an intensive, long-term detoxification regime that includes intravenous detoxification programs.

All clear?

State health departments in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama had issued swimming advisories while BP's well continued to gush oil into the Gulf of Mexico last summer. Since then, however, all three states have declared their beaches, waters, and seafood safe from oil disaster related toxins.

Florida never issued any advisories, despite many residents reporting illnesses they attribute to the oil disaster.

US federal government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with President Barack Obama himself, have declared the Gulf of Mexico, its waters, beaches, and seafood, safe and open to the public.

In addition, most doctors in the effected coastal areas are not treating people as though they are suffering acute exposure to toxic chemicals.

While Al Jazeera has heard of incidences where doctors having received threats, and while many fear litigation for talking openly about patient illnesses being attributed to BP's oil disaster, most doctors are simply not trained to deal appropriately with acute chemical toxicity on a mass scale.

Dr. Mary Jo Ghory a general and pediatric surgeon, and a member of the American College of Surgeons, told Al Jazeera she believes most doctors along the Gulf Coast are unlikely to connect the illnesses they treat to BP’s chemicals, because of a lack of adequate training.

"Toxicology is not usually a course, and there is not much discussion of the toxic effects of chemical exposure," Dr. Ghory said. "When confronted with an array of confusing and widely varying symptoms related to chemical exposure, it is difficult for each individual physician to sort things out, especially without a definite profile of what to expect."

Dr. Soto says he is in a very unique - but isolated - position, as he is one of the only medical doctors he knows in the region who is treating people accordingly.

Like Dr. Ghory, Dr. Soto believes this is largely due to lack of training.


The Exxon Valdez legacy

Merle Savage was a cleanup worker for the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska in 1989, and she is still suffering health effects from chemicals in the oil and dispersants.

"The first few weeks I was on the beach spraying hot water onto the oil covered rocks," Savage explained to Al Jazeera. She was soon promoted to a foreman working on the support barges where workers returned each evening.

"So when they started spraying the dispersant, the crews that came back in from spraying it returned with it all over their suits and boats. They were sprayed off with water, and the steam that came off them was dispersant chemicals and we all breathed this in."

"The symptoms mimicked the flu, and everyone was coughing," Savage added, "Then it came on and stayed. I went to the doctor during some time off the cleanup, and at that time I was congested with bronchial problems. Then it became a stomach disorder. My whole system since then has been jeopardized."

After finishing her work on the oil disaster clean up, she returned to her home in Anchorage, where her problems worsened.

Savage moved out of Alaska, thinking that would improve her health. Yet after moving, a liver biopsy showed cirrhosis of the liver.

"I have always been physically active and very healthy," she explained, "I don't drink or smoke, and I eat health food."

Savage, now 72-years-old, completed a chemical detoxification program three years ago, and is now feeling better.

"There was 21 years of watching my body break down like that, and nothing I could do helped, until I learned I was chemically toxified, and could treat that appropriately," she said.

Reacting accordingly

Independent scientists and activist groups have been carrying out their own blood testing of Gulf Coast residents.

Recent results released in a report involve a 46-year-old male who lives 100 miles from the coast. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, was not a BP cleanup worker, yet tested as having higher levels of chemicals from BP's oil in his blood than the actual cleanup workers.

Dr. Wilma Subra, a chemist and Mcarthur Fellow, analysed his blood and found the highest levels of ethylbenzene than anyone tested to date. Ethylbenzene is a form of benzene present in the body when it begins to break down; it is also present in BP's crude oil.

Styrene, a chemical produced in industrial quantities from ethylbenzene was also found, along with Hexane. M,p-Xylene, a clear, colorless, flammable liquid that is refined from crude oil and is used as a solvent, was also present in the man's blood.

"I've never even seen a tar ball," the man, from Louisiana, told Al Jazeera, "I tried to stay away from all of it. So for me to have the high levels I have, tells me that everyone must have it."

Gregg Hall lived in Pensacola, Florida, and also had his blood tested by Dr. Subra.

"I have a cough that won't go away, my feet have been numb for months, I have headaches and nausea all the time," Hall said.

Hall recently moved to Idaho, and is among a growing number of Gulf Coast residents who feel that they are victims of an environmental catastrophe that has received inadequate response from the federal government.

Dr. Soto, whose list of patients related to the BP oil disaster continues to grow, feels similarly.

"It's criminal for the government to tell people to eat the contaminated seafood, and that it's alright for people go to our toxic beaches and swim in the contaminated water," Dr. Soto concluded, "This crisis has to be taken seriously by the government and health care community."

'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.

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 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.

BP to drill off coast of Libya

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=136035§ionid=3510203


The oil giant BP will start drilling off the Libyan coast soon, amid intense pressure over the company's involvement with the Lockerbie case.

The deep-water drilling will take place in the Gulf of Sirte off the northern coast of Libya within a few weeks, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

The news comes at a time when investigators are probing the oil giant for its involvement in the release of Abdel-Basset al-Megrahi-also known as the 'Lockerbie bomber' to secure the multi-million dollar contract with the North African nation.

BP and its Libyan partner, the Libya Investment Corporation (LIC), signed an exploration agreement worth $900 million with Libya's National Oil Company (NOC) in 2007.

With the US still angry over the Gulf of Mexico environmental disaster, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to investigate whether BP played any part in the Scottish government's decision last year to release the Lockerbie bomber from prison.

BP denies any involvement and argues that Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds.

Megrahi was the only man convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan American flight to the United States, which crashed over the Scottish town of Lockerbie leaving 270 people dead. Most of the passengers onboard the airliner were US citizens.

'BP trying to gag scientists'

A man holds a plastic bag with seawater and
oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill south of
Freemason Island, Louisiana May 7, 2010


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135907§ionid=3510203


British energy giant BP is trying to silence scientists and academics involved in the oil titan's spill response in the Gulf of Mexico, the American Association of Professors says.

The British company, which faces more than 300 lawsuits for the April disaster that lead gallons of oil to gush into the Gulf, has reportedly offered scientists a contracts preventing them from publishing all research done for BP.

Speaking to the BBC, Cary Nelson, the head of the association on Thursday said BP is trying to "buy" the best to help its defense against litigation after the spill.

"This is really one huge corporation trying to buy faculty silence in a comprehensive way," Nelson added.

According to a copy of the document obtained by the BBC, scientists are forbidden from publishing any data for at least three years, unless the Obama administration approves BP's restoration plan for the whole of the Gulf.

"Faculty members under contract to BP, would be unable to testify against the company in court and would be available to testify on the company's behalf," Nelson also wrote in an article article in the Inside Higher Ed daily.

BP, which has pledged transparency and openness throughout the oil disaster, reportedly has also approached the head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama in a bid to hire the entire department.

"We laid the ground rules -- that any research we did, we would have to take total control of the data, transparency and the freedom to make those data available to other scientists and subject to peer review," Bob Shipp, the department head said.

"They left and we never heard back from them," He added

The Press-Register on Friday reported that scientists have been offered $250 an hour for their services to the oil giant.

"Scientists from Louisiana State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M have accepted offers," Alabama's oldest newspaper added.

'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.

BP temporarily halts oil flow

Thad Allen, overseeing US response, said the cap
may only be used to shut the well in emergencies [AFP]


Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/201071516524296809.html

BP engineers have temporarily halted the gush of crude into the Gulf of Mexico from their oil well, as the company runs pressure tests on the rupture wellhead and a capping device.

The British company on Thursday shut down vessels siphoning oil and closed all valves on the 75-tonne metal cap placed over the well earlier in the week, completely stopping the leak for the first time since it began in April.

"I'm very excited to see no oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico," Kent Wells, senior vice president of BP, said, adding that it was an "ecouraging sign".

A statement from the oil giant had earlier said the well integrity test being carried out "will last at least six hours and could last up to 48 hours".

President Barack Obama, who has seen his US public approval ratings drop as the crisis dragged on, called it a "positive sign" but noted that the latest effort was still in the testing phase.

Experts say between 35,000-60,000 barrels of oil have been pouring into the Gulf of Mexico daily for about 13 weeks, leaving millions of gallons sloshing around in the waters, threatening vulnerable wildlife and fouling the shores of five Gulf states.

A leak in a hose connected to one of the valves in the capping device, which had delayed the test and was repaired earlier on Thursday, had been only the latest setback for the British company.

Interim solution

Since a rig drilling the BP oil well exploded on April 20, numerous efforts to contain the spill have failed, and the oil company has seen its share prices plummet.

Thad Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral overseeing the US government's response to the spill, said the cap could succeed in stemming the leak, but remained an interim solution.

"The intention of the capping stack was never to close in the well per se," he told reporters in New Orleans. "The best reason to be able to shut in the well right now ... is it allows us to abandon the site if there is a hurricane."

"We can certainly consider shutting in the well - that is a possibility and of course we would like to do that."

BP's plan is to funnel the leaking oil through pipes connected to the cap up to collection ships on the surface of the water.

However, the only proven way to permanently kill the leak lies in the drilling of relief wells to intercept the ruptured one.

The first of two such wells started in May is expected to intercept it by the end of July and plug it with drilling mud and cement by mid-August.

BP delays cap test amid worsening spill

BP so far has failed to completely stop the spill

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134683§ionid=3510203


Embattled energy giant BP has delayed a crucial test that is to bring them one step closer to capping the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

After 86 days of oil continuing to gush out from the ruptured well into the gulf, BP was scheduled to test a new cap designed to stop the flow on late Tuesday.

However, the oil company announced that additional analysis of the 'well testing procedure' should be performed prior to commencement of the long-awaited well integrity test, which consequently will be delayed.

The well testing procedure is to determine whether the well can take the pressure caused by capping the ruptured wellhead.

The energy giant, which has faced mounting criticism over the environmental catastrophe it has caused, claims that the new cap has a better seal than the last one.

New estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA) about the BP oil spill suggest that -- so far -- at least 2.3-4.5 million barrels of crude have poured into the Gulf of Mexico since the April event, which triggered the worst ecological disaster in US history.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill began after an April 20 explosion at the BP-run Deepwater Horizon rig which shattered the well and also left 11 people dead.

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.

BP oil spill triggers mental problems

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134383§ionid=3510210


Apart from various health concerns linked to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the incident is also blamed for the increased rate of mental health problems in the area.

The oil spill disaster is now more than two months old and has forced authorities to close swathes of Gulf waters to fishing, making the majority of the Gulf residents jobless.

The resulted job loss has not only caused financial crisis but also imposed lots of stress-related illnesses and mental health problems including anxiety, depression and anger to the residents.

The stress is believed to be worse than that reported following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina as it is impossible to predict when waters will reopen.

"The mental health impact here ... (and) the level of uncertainty is taking a toll on people and that's a huge, huge concern," said Kindra Arnesen, a Gulf Coast native.

Officials, on the other hand, have no strong evidence confirming the real impact of the catastrophe on the mental health of the residents.

"We hear it over and over again," said Wilma Subra, an environmental scientist of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, adding that "It is the stress because of the possibility of not being able to earn a living and pay their bills."

"We're basing it on what we're seeing out in the field. We're sending counselors and representatives out to the marinas and boat docks, where there are large clusters of people with high levels of frustration," said John Ziegler, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

State officials from Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi have, therefore, asked BP PLC for millions of dollars to help pay for the expanded mental health monitoring and services needed for the residents affected by the "ongoing challenge."

BP officials have not provided any immediate response about the money. They, however, have announced that the company is studying "which non-profits might be useful in a plan to address mental health needs related to the spill."

Millions of gallons of oil have poured into the Mexican Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig exploded on April 20, Killing 11 workers and blowing out the well. A newly revealed BP document indicates that around 100,000 barrels of oil per day are gushed out of the well into the Gulf of Mexico.