OIL COULD GUSH FOR MONTHS: More like a volcano

[Are_grits_groceries]

BP's containment problem is unprecedented
The company must stop a relentless gush of oil nearly a mile below the surface, in a situation that hasn't been dealt with before.

The problem with the April 20 spill is that it isn't really a spill: It‘s a gush, like an underwater oil volcano. A hot column of oil and gas is spurting into freezing, black waters nearly a mile down, where the pressure nears a ton per inch, impossible for divers to endure. Experts call it a continuous, round-the-clock calamity, unlike a leaking tanker, which might empty in hours or days.

"Everything about it is unprecedented," said geochemist Christopher Reddy, an oil-spill expert and head of the Coastal Ocean Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "All our knowledge is based on a one-shot event…. With this, we don't know when it's going to stop."

Accidents have occurred before in which oil has gushed from damaged wells, he said. But he knew of none in water so deep.

More at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fix-20100501,0,323202,full.story

Gah! I've had enough for now. This is just ONE oil rig.

[msongs]

1. oil supports an obsolete 1800's technology - time to move on nt

[ORDagnabbit]

2. the WSJ is now reporting that it might be leaking 25,000 barrels a day not 5,000

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703871904575216382160623498.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

BY IAN TALLEY

WASHINGTON—The Gulf of Mexico oil spill could be leaking at a rate of 25,000 barrels a day, five times the government's current estimate, industry experts say.

Basing their calculations on government data and standard industry measurement tools, the experts said the Gulf spill may already rival the historic 1969 Santa Barbara, Calif., and 1989 Exxon Valdez disasters.

Ian MacDonald, professor of oceanography at Florida State University who specializes in tracking ocean oil seeps from satellite imagery, said there may already be more than 9 million gallons of oil floating in the Gulf now, based on his ...

more at the link

[Jkid]

3. 25,000 barrels a day?!

Now, THAT is a waste of oil. The company could have easily prevented this, but they did not because it would be a small tiny dent in their profits.

[spanone]

5. the dead gulf

[Stuart G]

8. Alabama preparing for worst case disaster...

.Rough seas again thwart cleanup of oil catastrophe
Rough seas again thwart cleanup of Gulf Coast oil catastrophe that BP had deemed 'unlikely'

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Rough-seas-again-thwart-apf-639068182.html?x=0

VENICE, La. (AP) -- Frustrated fishermen eager to help contain a catastrophic oil spill along the Gulf Coast had to keep their boats idle Saturday as another day of rough seas kept crews away from the slick that may be even more devastating than first feared.

Documents emerged showing British Petroleum downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the offshore rig that exploded, and the White House announced Saturday that President Barack Obama would head to the Gulf Coast on Sunday to get an update on efforts to contain the massive spill.

How far the spill will reach is unknown, but the sheen already has reached into precious shoreline habitat and remains unstopped and impossible to measure, raising fears that the ruptured well could be pouring more oil into the Gulf than estimated.

The Coast Guard estimates now that at least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers. The environmental mess could eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster, when an oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons off Alaska's shores in 1989.

The slick nearly tripled in just a day or so, growing from a spill the size of Rhode Island to something closer to the size of Puerto Rico, according to images collected from mostly European satellites and analyzed by the University of Miami.

On Thursday, the size of the slick was about 1,150 square miles, but by Friday's end it was in the range of 3,850 square miles, said Hans Graber, executive director of the university's Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing. That suggests the oil has started spilling from the well more quickly, Graber said.

"The spill and the spreading is getting so much faster and expanding much quicker than they estimated," Graber told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Ian R. MacDonald, an oceanography professor at Florida State University, said his examination of Coast Guard charts and satellite images indicated that 8 million to 9 million gallons had already spilled by April 28.

"I hope I'm wrong. I hope there's less oil out there than that. But that's what I get when I apply the numbers," he said.

Alabama's governor said his state was preparing for a worst-case scenario of 150,000 barrels, or more than 6 million gallons per day. At that rate the spill would amount to a Valdez-sized spill every two days, and the situation could last for months.

"I hope they can cap this and we talk about 'remember back when,'" Gov. Bob Riley said late Friday, "but we are taking that worst-case and building barriers against it."

[Stuart G]

4. This could become the most important story of the year..if

it gets as bad as some project. As the story says.."With this, we don't even know when it is going to stop."

[Chipper Chat]

6. How long do we have

before our tap water tastes like oil?

[Stuart G]

7. duplicate.sorry.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. An oil volcano? That reminds me of ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=62866&mesg_id=62866

[suffragette]

10. Wasn't the Montara spill similar in depth?

The more I'm reading about it, the more it seems there's much to learn from it.


http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/key-questions-in-a-71-day-disaster/story-e6frg14u-1225793519687

AS the Montara spill continues to grow as one of Australia's biggest environmental disasters, environment reporter Narelle Towie examines the crisis off our coast.

What happened?
On August 21 at 5.30am, PTTEP Australasia reported a sweet crude oil and gas leak at the Montara wellhead in the Timor Sea, 250km northwest of Truscott in WA.

The West Atlas mobile drilling rig is sitting above the leaking pipe. When the leak began the 69 workers on board were evacuated.

PTTEP has refused to confirm what caused a concrete and rubber plug at the end of a well pipe 3.6km below the sea floor to crack - sparking the leak - because the incident is now the subject of a Government inquiry.


http://blog.skytruth.org/2009_11_01_archive.html

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Finally Stopped?
PTTEP Australasia is reporting that their fifth attempt to kill the leaking well on the Montara platform has succeeded, shutting off the uncontrolled flow of oil, gas, and natural gas condensate that has been polluting the water and air off Western Australia since the blowout occurred on August 21. The fire that ignited over the weekend, engulfing the Montara platform and the attached West Atlas drill rig, has also been nearly extinguished.

Heavy mud was pumped into the damaged well at a point 8,600 feet below the seabed, where it was intercepted by a relief well drilled from the West Triton jackup rig. Towed in from Singapore, the West Triton did not arrive on scene until September 10, nearly three weeks after the blowout occurred. It took nearly four more weeks to set up the rig, drill down to the intercept depth, and make the first unsuccessful attempt to intercept the damaged well. Finally, after 74 days, the spill has been stopped. Difficult tasks ahead: now workers must try to re-enter the well from the fire-damaged Montara platform so they can inject permanent cement plugs. As a PTTEP official notes:
We do not underestimate the significantly increased technical complexity, logistical challenges and hazards of the work now required in the wake of the damage caused by the fire to the wellhead platform and the West Atlas rig.
Estimates of the amount of oil spilled vary widely. PTTEP's unexplained estimate of 400 barrels per day yields a total of 1,243,200 gallons. The Australian government's estimate of "up to" 2,000 barrels per day means a total spill of as much as 6, 216,000 gallons. And an estimate of 3,000 barrels per day based on the known flow rates of other wells in the area results in a spill of 9,324,000 gallons, almost as large as the 11 million gallon Exxon Valdez spill that, 20 years after a massive cleanup operation, is still affecting Alaskan communities and the environment.




Finding a ton of info at the Skytruth blog - just started reading/processing it.