A boat passes through an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
[Updated at 6:23 p.m.] Companies involved in the sinking of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon made "some very major mistakes," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday after meeting with executives from the oil company BP.
Salazar would not elaborate, telling reporters the cause remains under investigation. But, he said, "from my own preliminary observations, there were some very major mistakes that were made by the companies that were involved."
The Coast Guard and the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service are leading the investigation into the loss of the drill rig, which was owned by BP contractor Transocean Ltd. The rig sank two days after an explosion set it afire, unleashing an undersea gusher of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and leaving 11 workers presumed dead.
[Updated at 12:27 p.m.] Two Coast Guard teams were scrambled to reset protective booms around Louisiana's Freemason Island after it was reported oil had reached there from the Gulf of Mexico. The area is located the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish. The amount of oil that reached shore was not immediately known.
Trace amounts of sheen from the undersea gusher have been reported to have reached the shores of southeastern Louisiana over the past week, but the landfall reported Thursday marks the first confirmation of oil hitting the shore, said John Curry, a spokesman for well owner BP.
[Updated at 12:11 p.m.] A patch of oil from the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been found on Louisiana's Freemason Island Thursday, the Coast Guard reported.
[Updated at 10:49 a.m.] BP will attempt to lower the container onto a ruptured deep-water pipe later in the day, spokesman Mark Salt said.
"If all goes according to plan, we should begin the process of processing the fluid and stop the spilling to the sea on Monday," said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer.
But he added: "It's very complex, and it will likely have challenges along the way."
The hope is that the container will collect the leaking oil, which would be sucked up to a drill ship on the surface. If the operation is successful, BP plans to deploy a second, smaller dome to deal with a second leak in the ruptured pipe, the company has said.
Getting the large structure into position could take several days, BP has noted. The technique has never been attempted at the depth of about 5,000 feet underwater, according to Suttles.
[Updated at 9:30 a.m.] A four-story container has arrived at a spot in the Gulf Coast that is about 5,000 feet above a massive oil spill on the seabed, a spokesman for BP, Mark Salt, said Thursday.
BP plans to lower the container into the water later Thursday, he said.
[Updated at 7:49 a.m.] The Gulf oil spill is going to cost billions to clean up, a tab BP has publicly pledged to pay in full.
But thanks to the unpredictable nature of the oil slick and the legal maze surrounding maritime law, what BP will pay and to whom is very much an open question. Start with the costs. Estimates to clean the spill and compensate other parties for the economic damage run from $2 billion to $14 billion. One politician even said it could run into the hundreds of billions.The truth is that no one has any idea yet.
The spill, which the Coast Guard says is still leaking oil at a rate of roughly 200,000 gallons a day, could stay near the coast of Louisiana, as it's doing now. It hasn't had much of an impact on the shoreline so far, and the dispersants being sprayed on it appear to be helping to keep it at sea. If the containment device BP is preparing to put over the leak in the next few days works, or if the company can activate the broken valve that would shut off the well, the costs would be comparatively minimal. Say, a billion or two.
If the leak worsens, as company officials say it could, and the oil gets caught up in Gulf currents that bring it around Florida's beaches and up the East Coast, then things get very grim. Fishing grounds and beaches would be polluted. That spikes the cleanup cost and cuts into the revenue of thousands of other businesses.
"It's really bad when people start throwing around numbers," said Fadel Gheit, a senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer. "It almost paralyzes the people working on this into inaction." Read full CNNMoney.com story on the cost
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This has killed more people than nuclear plants have killed in the USA. lets build more nukes. The solar panels produce way to much pollution during manufacture to be any real solution.
The environment will recover after this. Most of this is the government never letting a crisis go to waste.
Obama did not cause this but niether did Bush cause katrina.
If this box works I can see boxes being a requirment from now on. much like fire booms.
Hey to all you engineering people out there. Lets assume they have problems and are not able to get the oil to the boat for some reason. If this dome sits tightly on the bottom, what would be the chances of filling the entire dome with mud/cement (the same stuff they use to seal a well) and do u think it could stop the leak??????
There was a question about what went wrong. I heard a clip from a radio talk show where a guy called in who was on the rig when it caught fire (exploded). What he said was in line with rumors that I had heard in the industry. Basically, they had placed casing (metal pipe) and had just set a cement plug at the bottom of the well. This is typical and seals the reservoir from the casing. They then circulated the drilling mud out of the hole and replaced it with seawater. The drilling mud is very heavy and keeps an extremely high pressure on the reservoir (basically everything where it is supposed to be). When they circulated out the mud and displaced it with seawater the well was now under-balanced (i.e. less pressure in the casing than reservoir). This was in preparation for the next step of completing the well. The cement plug was supposed to hold the pressure in place but apparently failed. They plan and anticipate for "kicks" as there called so they are required to test the BOP prior to reopening the well. The test on the BOP had to pass for them to continue. Apparently, the cement plug failed and tons of gas had migrated into the casing and when they opened the BOP the seawater and gas came out so quickly no one had any time to respond. According to the caller the explosion happened within a minute of reopening the BOP. I liked the comment about what may have happened to the BOP. My thoughts is debris (perhaps cement) possibly jammed the BOP and prevented it from closing. But it's just a thought and I will not speculate further.
I will also comment and defend the industry because they are extremely committed to safety. They have to be. Consider, everyday they are flowing millions of cubic feet of gas and 100's of thousands of barrels of oil to shore every day. Basically they are flowing energy (lots of it) on a platform about 200x200ft. Where do you run if something go wrong? Most of the planning they do is to ensure the job is done safely and without incident. They plan for contingency after contingency. They always have layer after layer of safety. An incident like this happens when those layers (each typically has a hole or potential failure) line up. Not sure in this case what exactly happened but I am sure it will be forthcoming and the deficiencies corrected.
It is also disturbing that people with no knowledge or even inkling about the industry make comments and blame. Those in the oil industry are employed by you. And America's desire to drive big gas guzzling cars, be in comfort in nice A/C, and to leave all the lights in your house on. Big Oil as you call them are your own problem. So shut-up and go turn off the light in the room you just left, turn your A/C back up to a reasonable temperature, and buy a smaller car because frankly the rest of the world does.
I can't belive how the world has resopnded to this and yet on the niger delta the spills are a lot worse fisherman can't even feed their families because of the spills come on ....oil companies are making billions and do the worts damage to our enviroment.
nadia mahomed
Johannesburg South africa
Matt, could a wind or solar farm power your GASOLINE or DIESEL car?
Re Brent poster number 23's question as to the use of the dispersants used in this...the dispersants actually do not "disperse" they make the oil globuals stick together and become heavy enough to fall to the bottom of the ocean. These dispersants from what I have read are in fact toxic to marine life...
I have a home on the beach near Gulf Shores, AL. and plan to arrive there on about the 17th of this month I would expect that unless we get VERY lucky the oil shall have arrived and my wife and I will help with the clean-up. Wish us all luck.
Why can they not use what they used to repair are beaches after Katrina took them away. Pump sand in between the outer island to hook them togeater for now that would stop some of the oil from getting into the interior of the islands. All we can do is try to save what we can of our beloved MARSHES.It can work I hope its not to late to try to save some of it.
If the formation of hydrates in the dome is the problem, I was wondering what would happen if they pumped crude oil and or methanol into the dome now that it is on the sea bottom. This should expel water from the dome (especially if they use oil) and avoid the formation of hydrates in the dome when they put it on top of the spill...
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I am not an engineer, but instead of trying to suck up the oil why don"t they try containment alone.If ice crytals prevented the oil from rising into the pipe to pump it up; could they try to pump liquid nitrogen down the pipe;therefore lowering the temperature of the water in the container. Sort of making a gigantic ice cube to seal the oil.
The oil is now in the water use all of the energy blaming each other and start looking for solutions for how bad the impact is going to be. I read some interesting new technology. Read about it... seagrass recovery.com
No suggestions,well beyond my scope. I have several questions, is the entire gulf at risk? Is it possible for this to reach the gulf stream,entire eastern seaboard at risk ? How about the Caribbean,the reefs off the Yuacatan ? Do we have 3,499 blow-out preventors that don't work properly ? I'm sure the answer from the powers that be, we will conduct a study, wonderful, shouldn't the studies be conducted before the fact, no one thought this could happen ? I am truley sad and disappointed, the Govmt.,oil industry,people in general, what have we all done?
Oil leaking into rivers and oceans is nothing new and has been going on for ages now we just here of it when its in catastrophic amounts like this. Where all oil junkies in increasing populations including my self. I have lived in South Florida all my life and watched crystal clear waters of Key Biscayne slowly turn bragish not just from all the polution from boats, cruiselines, and the shipping industry but also the massive amounts of sewage spills from the local sewage treatment plants. Bottom line is you can blame the supplier but the junkie is the one feeding the demand in all aspects of this paradox. What we can demand of our government as a people is for technology already available to be used to replace gas and oil powered engines for environmentaly safe ones and not alow oil companies to purchase patents to those discovered inventions if they serve humanity or regulate it in some way. We are a capitalist nation and any diversion of that is deemed socialist. Money makes the world go round and kills it slowly unless it kills us first via our own devices.
If you are the type of person who likes to believe in conspiracy theories then there is enough in the Internal Combustion Engine history to keep your interest.
A. Thomas Edison had a project with Henry Ford to create an electric vehicle. Edison made batteries that were shipped to Ford in working order but they never arrived that way. Then Edison's factory was burnt to the ground from some kind of accelerant. He stored no flammables in the factory. He abandoned the battery project. Jay Leno has an Edison Alkaline battery that works today if the electrolyte is changed in it.
B. Diesel invented his engine to run on peanut oil. On his way to England he boarded a boat and never made it. He was found washed up on the French shore. Evidence of his diary later found suggests he committed suicide.
C. Henry Ford created his car to run on ethanol. Most people lived on farms at the time and it was a reasonable business practice to believe that farmers would make their own fuel. But some suggest oil companies were behind prohibition. It had the effect of giving petroleum based gasoline a 10 year advantage. Ford gave up his idea of ethanol and prohibition ended.
D. This one has more facts: GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil created and owned a company called National Bus Lines that bought out Trolley lines around the US. They made a great deal of profit by buying the lines, pulling up the tracks, selling off the equipment, bankrupting the companies, and replacing the service with busses made by GM, running on fuel made by Standard Oil and on tires made by Firestone. In the only case brought against them they received a slight fine.
D.1 There is a story to be told about the 1970's oil embargo and diesel fuel. It was at that time that Brazil started on a path to using ethanol and Europe started using a much cleaner diesel fuel that was not available in the US. (This story is still being assembled.)
E. GM created the EV1 with all the enthusiasm of a parent with an unwanted child. Watch the movie, "Who Killed the Electric Car" to see some of the details. But the story of the Nickel Metal Hydride Battery continued after the movie. GM had the rights to this battery but didn't want to put them in its premier electric vehicle until owners complained. Panasonic perfected the batteries and they went into the RAV4ev where they gave great mileage and have in many cases lasted over 150,000 miles. Its a great battery chemistry. GM sold the rights to Texaco. They were bought out by Chevron (formerly Standard Oil of California) six days later. They sued panasonic to keep these batteries out of electric vehicles. Later rumors have GM selling the rights to the EV1 design to "a major oil company."
F. Although GM had a successful EV the Volt has been delayed again and again. Now it is supposed to be released this year, but to a market in Washington DC. Other automakers have ranked US cities according to how successful an EV would be in that area. This is in preparation for their EV releases. Washington DC is near the bottom of the list. It might seem that GM has a death wish or two masters.
70% of refined oil goes to transportation. Oil companies are the most profitable on the planet. How would you spend your profits if 70% of your business was threatened?
But then again if you are not the type to believe such things then the world is just full of coincidences and unusual but not necessarily meaningful events. And there is no reason to bother with the facts.
God loves a story-teller, that was then, this is now. Edison,Ford,the only man with clean hands,maybe,Tesla...are really out of this storey(sic); put you're nose in the gulf and say,(damn this smells good), We have all been compliciant in the mess.I'm sure you ride a bicycle everyday, I do. Sorry I have to go,you folks wear me down to the knubs.
I'm sorry, I shouldn't carry on the way I do........I'm older than I imagined, done questionable things.(thank you VietNam) but then there is the Gulf, a bullet would have been kinder. My daughters and grand-children wanted to go south, Hudson Bay and Polar bears sound like a break................puar