See inset view below.
On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a wide-view natural-color image of the oil slick (outlined in white) just off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick appears as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. Sunglint — the mirror-like reflection of the sun off the water — enhances the oil slick’s visibility. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta. Credit: NASA/Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the University of Wisconsin’s Space Science and Engineering Center MODIS Direct Broadcast system.
NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites are helping the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) keep tabs on the extent of the recent Gulf oil spill with satellite images from time to time. NOAA is the lead agency on oil spills and uses airplane fly-overs to assess oil spill extent.
A semisubmersible drilling platform called the Deepwater Horizon located about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi Delta experienced a fire and explosion at approximately 11 p.m. CDT on April 20. Subsequently, oil began spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico and efforts to contain the spill continue today. NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellite imagery has captured the spill in between cloudy days.
NOAA used data from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument from the Terra satellite on April 26, 27 and 29 to capture the extent of the oil spill, which measured 600-square-miles. The MODIS instrument flies aboard both the Terra and Aqua satellites.
This satellite image from NASA’s Terra satellite on April 27 at 12:05 CDT shows the outline and extent of the oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. The red dot represents the platform. The coasts of Mississippi and Alabama appear at the top of the image. Credit: NOAA/NASA
› Larger image In the satellite image from April 27 at 12:05 p.m. CDT the MODIS image showed that the oil slick was continuing to emanate from the spill location. Individual slicks lay just north of 29 degrees and zero minutes north, where they have been noted in the days before. Oil had spread further east and the edge of the slick passed 87 degrees and 30 minutes west compared to the MODIS image taken on April 26. The April 26 satellite image came from NASA’s Aqua satellite.
On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a natural-color image of the oil slick just off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick appeared as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta.
Deepwater Horizon had more than120 crew aboard and contained an estimated to 17,000 barrels of oil (700,000 gallons) of number two fuel oil or marine diesel fuel.
Today, April 30, NOAA declared the Deepwater Horizon incident “a Spill of National Significance (SONS).” A SONS is defined as, “a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge” and allows greater federal involvement. NOAA’s estimated release rate of oil spilling into the Gulf is estimated at 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.
NOAA reported on April 29 that dispersants are still being aggressively applied to the oil spill and over 100,000 gallons have been applied. NOAA’s test burn late yesterday was successful and approximately 100 barrels of oil were burned in about 45 minutes. NOAA is flying planes over the area and using NASA satellite imagery from the Terra and Aqua satellites to monitor the spill.
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The “greens” and “alternative energy” folks will be all over this like oil on a seagull.
It is a terrible disaster. The drilling technology (which I have read some details about) is impressive, but it seems it was a matter of time before something would happen.
As !#$%! Albertan with those despicable “tar sands” this will make us look good. Sort of kidding. And sort of not kidding.
I sincerely hope this can be cleaned up with minimal loss of flora and fauna…one suspects that’s unlikely. Good luck.
Clive
The “greens” and “alternative energy” folks will be all over this like oil on a seagull.
Right now, that seems like a strange thing to worry about.
I knew the cries that there would be no leak was premature. I still what to know about the 11 men that have not been killed when the the thing started. I have not read but would not be surprised that the fail safes worked but when the platform sank it broke the cap.
Thanks for posting this, Anthony. I’ve been following this story in the past couple of days with grim despond, given my interest in fisheries and marine life. How can this gusher be capped? I’m hoping to learn something from the engineers who frequent this site. The only bright side to this is that Obama now has a chance to screw up as badly as Bush did on the environmental disaster front. There’s something about Louisiana….
I remember that after several past disasters of this sort (maybe in the 1970s?), safety gear was developed that would shut off the flow of oil at the ocean floor in the event of a break at the platform or on the way up to it. The idea of having the device at the ocean floor was that whatever happened to the platform could not affect it. I thought such precautions were required — perhaps even with redundancy — so the fact that a large spill occurred raises questions. Were the devices in use? Were they damaged somehow? But I have not seen any discussion of such questions in the news.
I can see good reason to be concerned, but at the same time this image shows the media coverage to be more than hyperbolic.
BOP (Blow Out Preventor) failed. Blowouts happen. They were a mile down, under tremendous pressure. It was BP. They mess up a lot. Especially at Depths. They’ve got half of Thunderhorse shut down, replacing one of the manifolds on the ocean floor. Bad welds, it seems. (Metallurgical Cracks.) They’ve been fined repeatedly, and are on probation in the North Sea. They messed up at Prudhoe Bay.
A Lot of things can go wrong when you’re a mile down. Some are Catastrophic. This slick could end up shutting down all oil imports to the Gulf. That would mean tapping the SPR, and, quite possibly, “Rationing.”
It “could” cost us a Trillion Dollars.
This whole thing makes me sick. I love to fish for specs and red fish in the LA marsh, a truly unique habitat. For the most part oil exploration is beneficial to the fish. The shell beds and wrecks from old oil platforms are the best places to fish. They provide spawning areas and places for the fish to hang out just like an artificial reef. I also think the evidence is quite clear that oil is a bio-derived product of one sort or another and for the most part will be re-incorporated into the biosphere…..eventually. Most living things are after all sacs of hydrocarbons. In the mean time my fishing is wrecked. The locals who depend on shell fish and shrimp for their living will suffer. They are just now making a small come back after Katrina. To say nothing of the loss of life on the platform.
It is amazing what an ecosystem can adapt to. Just visit Yellowstone if you don’t believe me. I saw an ecosystem that had adapted to effluent that the EPA would put you in jail for discharging from a mining operation. The difference is the Yellowstone ecosystem has had time to become sympatico with the discharge. Sudden shocks to an existing system are however, problematic. This oil spill is a sudden shock.
As an engineer I find the absence of a sea bed shutoff puzzling. In many countries this is required. Was this a business decision based on cost? What is the cost of disrupting one of the most productive US fisheries and dumping oil all over major tourist areas? IMHO BP should bear the cost for this decision. What is the damage to all the property, fishing lease, and business owners along the gulf? How does that compare to the cost of a sea bed shutoff? What sort of insurance settlement is due…..what does the insurance company think of the lack of an existing technology that could prevent this? The gov will posture….but don’t they regulate this kind of thing? Why didn’t they require sea bed shutoffs? Who makes the most money off of a gallon of gas?
The oil and gas industry makes a large effort at safety, and they have billions of dollars at risk in capital investment. I know for a fact this kind of thing is not taken lightly. Why at THIS time after decades of accident free operation (including massive hurricanes) did this happen? Why on a rig with no shutoff? Why in such a way as to cause such a mess when we were just about to open more domestic production? Lots of questions….timing is suspicious.
I have not been able to have my usual winter mental health fishing trips, because the fish have not been biting this year due to the extreme cold water temp (caused I’m sure to global warming), now it could be many years before I get the opportunity to fish in this magnificent place again. I’ll also be joining you paying more than I should at the pump.
Cui Bono?
Not I, nor you.
Monty
Today they closed the Louisiana Capline offshore crude terminal (off of St. James) due to the spill (likely do not want tankers spreading the spill and fire risk on the water). This is where crude oil import tankers tie up to unload for the Louisiana area refineries. Gasoline is up another 5 cents today wholesale.
“3. What is being done to stop the leak?
For the last several days, BP has been trying to use sub-sea robots, operating at 5,000 feet below the surface, to engage the blowout preventer and turn off the flow, which seems to amount to about 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) per day. With each day that passes, the chance of this working would seem to go down. If the blow out preventer didn’t activate properly originally, and hasn’t engaged during past attempts by robots, why would a new attempt work any better?
There are two alternative approaches BP is using to cutting off the flow. One approach is to drill a second well to intercept the first well, and inject a special heavy fluid to cut off the flow. Workers will then permanently seal the first well. This procedure is expected to take several months.
The other approach is designing and fabricating an underwater collection device (dome) that would trap escaping oil near the sea floor and funnel it for collection. According to NOAA, this approach has been used successfully in shallower water but never at this depth (approximately 5,000 feet). NOAA reports construction of such a dome has already begun. ”
from http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6407
Note that this was from several days ago, when the volume of the leak was being underestimated. If the BOP can’t be triggered, this leak will continue for some time until one of the methods cited can be executed.
As much as I support keeping us out of the Stone Age with intermediary hydrocarbons, this is a worst-case scenario, and the blame should be placed squarely on BP.
If they have the technology to drill at 5000 feet, then they should have had mechanisms in place to immediately cap these wells at the depths and backup procedures beyond that.
It is now revealed that no adequate such precautions were taken, apparently because an event like this is so rare.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion
My point is “to much that has been given, much is required.”
In other words, if a company is to profit off of mining hydrocarbons out of the oceans, then that same company must bear the risk and the responsibility for ensuring disaster prevention.
And they must bear the responsibility for cleaning up and compensating for the disaster.
It really is a shame…this event…because technology is available to provide for all contingencies in case of an emergency.
And now whole ecosystems are going to suffer at the cheapskate lack of planning of one particular opportunistic species.
This is not a proud day for homo sapiens.
Chris
Norfolk Virginia USA
They showed today what apparently is a small sub working on the drill head safety device on the ocean floor.
Why not go down there with a jaws device and pinch the pipe off?
Turn the valve the other way. Attach a plug, cap, something onto the head.
Do something.
On the Media Side:
We still have not heard a word about what happened out there.
Where’s the interviews?
When there’s an accident at a coal mine, they are all over it.
On the command side of things:
NOAA’s quip about ‘leaking faster than previously thought’ was not exaclty an in comand statement.
The biggest shocker yesterday was watching the head of Homeland Security attempt to speak.
Looked about ready to pass out. Hope not. If I were to read her expression as to cause of accident…
Suffice to say the D.H.S. and Dept. of Interior are conducting a full investigation, which probably means
we won’t catch a news break there.
Too bad they can’t shut the leak down as fast as they shut the media down on what went on.
The only person I have seen who appears to be in command of thier nerves is the Read Admiral.
Everyone else looks lost or confused.
I didn’t know we had Women Admirals.
I have talked with engineers familiar with the situation. Right now, it is hard to fathom exactly what happened, given the operations that were going on. The media is giving the wrong impression that there were no safety precautions. That is not true. What was lacking was a remote shut off system- operated from off the platform with some sort of telemetry – a system that is generally not used in US waters & only required in Brazil & Norway, I believe. That lacking equipment is generally not deployed because there are already multiple redundant systems in place already. The fact that they all failed apparently is what has people I have talked to most puzzled. This includes something called a “dead man” switch – which is literally a panic button – hit it & run like hell & an automatic system is supposed to shut the well in. From what I have heard, the dead man switches were not even activated, so what ever happened, happened extremely quickly & probably without warning. That in & of itself is very odd. I have been involved in drilling a well which blew out ( see http://www.sjgs.com/gushers.html – lost hills section & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Hills_Oil_Field) & when things go wrong, you usually have warning. In the case of I was involved in, the crew has 12 hours between when problems were detected & the well blew out. Because of this, all the crew was kept safe – thank God. Clearly, what ever happened here, happened so fast that no one could react to set any of the safety devices into action. That is why people I have talked to are scratching their heads – it just doesn’t fit with how these things generally unfold.
For those not familiar with oilfield operations, you need to understand how seriously HSE (aka Health, Safety & Environment) is taken. Oilfield work is deadly serious & every company wants to do everything they can to prevent even minor incidents. Awards are given as major time anniversaries without incidents are made. No operation starts with out a safety briefing. Safety drills are run regularly. Safety equipment is tested regularly. And this is at no small cost. A rig like the one that blew up was probably running in the vicinity of $500,000 per day to run. So if you spend 4 hours or so doing a test of your safety equipment, you might be burning $50-100k. So, I cant emphasize enough how seriously safety is taken on rig operations. It is unfortunate that some in the media are characterizing this as the operator being negligent. There is nothing to suggest that at all.
You can already see the makings on punative treatment of the industry coming. Unfortunately, it will be the public who will ultimately pay. If new drilling in the offshore is shut down indefinitely, this will have a significant impact on domestic production, which in general will equate to lower supply & higher costs. As significant though is that there are whole swaths of the industry which may be wiped out as they have built their entire businesses around the Gulf Of Mexico. This could put a lot of people with high paying jobs out on the street, which will be a drag on the overall economy.
Someone asked about this thing can be capped – in the short term I have heard they may basically put a dome over it with a pipe to the surface, so that the flow of oil will be contained & could be put onto barges – basically keeping it from continuing to flow into the water. I have heard that could take up to 2 weeks. The most likely scenario for a long term solution is drilling a relief well, where they will drill a second well & intercept the blowout well & capture all it’s flow into the undamaged new well bore. This is amazing technology – but would probably take up to 3 months from what I understand to drill this well (reservoir is at 18,000 ft from what I have heard). I heard today that BP has already deployed a rig to the scene for that purpose.
I want to re-emphasize to all here questioning the safety equipment involved here. The media is leading you astray (not unlike they do with AGW). The equipment was INDUSTRY STANDARD. They had blow preventers & multiple redundant systems to activate. They were running regular safety tests & drills. They were not being cheapskates as one poster suggested. What they lacked is non-standard remotely operated device which could be used in a situation like this. Again, this is non-industry standard equipment. But of course, that is all the media has focused on, giving many the impression that BP must be negligent or cheapskates or whatever other negative connotation you want to drum up.
There also appears to be some confusion by some on the depth – the sea floor depth is at 5,000 ft (= water depth), but the hydrocarbons are coming from a reservoir at 18,000 ft (=13,000 ft below the sea floor)
Oil is organic. It’s biodegradable; a natural product that contains no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors. What’s the problem here? You would think the environments would love it!
I heard a man that survived the explosion say today it could take 30 days to cap off the oil and gas leaks. It’s 5000 feet underwater where the work has to be done. It’s difficult working that deep.
Nowhere in media reports is any mention of the largest spill in US waters – the 590,000 barrels spilled by German Uboats along the mid-Atlantic coast in 1942.
If anyone is interested the National Academy’s Oil in the Sea, Inputs, Fates and Effects provides a good overview http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309084385
Within this report is this caution -written in bold type- that every news agency should heed “The reader is therefore strongly cautioned against inferring impacts from the mass loading rates.”
(Impacts are a function of the crude type, distance offshore, temperature, weather, habitat impacted etc, etc, etc.)
The Valdez is also the absolutely wrong comparison— the Ixtoc blowout is a much better comparison. (Valdez was a heavier crude, cold water, near shore)
Literature says Gulf marshes rebound in a few months to a few years from large spills. Keep that in mind when you hear some of the interviews.
Monty, I believe they have a sea floor BOP and it has failed or has partly failed. I was talking to some of the people at Safety Boss in Calgary. They have lots of experience on land but not any at these water depths. What is puzzling to them and me was why they were so aggressive in trying to put the rig fire out in the first place. I appears they sunk the thing with water, trying to save the asset. On land, for example in H2S wells, we let it burn. At least the fall out from that is less damaging. The fuel and crude on the rig (and any subsequent leaks) were already on fire. I suspect the 11 missing are still on the rig, probably never got off.
As far as I know this is the first time something this deep has gone bad. The BOP and wellhead technology is new, state of the art. I guess that state is not as advanced as thought. I wonder if the designs were developed from untested models?
This comment by Salazar shows he has no clue what happens to oil following a spill.”We cannot rest, and we will not rest, until BP seals the wellhead, and until they clean up every drop of oil.” Leaving aside the fact that the largest fraction of oil evaporates and then is photochemically degraded– my big concern for the coast may be the government taking actions that look good politically but do far more harm than good. Many studies show the greatest damage of an oil spill in near shore habitats were the cleanup activities. Listening to some of the talk coming out of Washington they are going to turn the cleanup into a spectacle– and that could be worse than the spill.
This comment instilled a lot of confidence: “It is of grave concern,” David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. “I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.” Seems just the guy you want in charge.
Why is the piping damaged on the sea floor?How does that happen?It couldn’t be pressure on the pipes because it seems like the oil has been flowing freely.Perhaps they cut corners building it?I guess it’s no good speculating,but I can’t believe any company is prepared to take that sort of risk these days.Seems like the shut off requirements were not good enough.Why?The computer models must have let them down on that one.
I suspect phytoplankton in the gulf are having a feeding frenzy about now.
Good, factual article states the blow-out-preventer did not close, and remote-operated subs could not close it, either.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704423504575212031417936798.html
BP is fabricating a dome to place over the well and stop the oil entering the sea. Should take about a month.
Curiously. Wikipedia carries an informative article about what the EPA & White House call the BP Oil Spill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_drilling_rig_explosion
The first link gives opportunities to follow Lisa Jackson’s outpourings on Twitter & Facebook. I’m not saying the woman’s ugly, but she always looks to me as if she is chewing on a mouthful of wasps.
http://twitter.com/lisapjackson
http://www.facebook.com/lisapjackson
It really bothers me the way folks get so upset about what is a minor leak of a single well. It is no different than accepting a certain number of car crashes as the cost of owning cars. We don’t talk about blaming Ford every time someone crashes one of their cars nor do we think Ford should be stopped from making cars. Accidents happen, in everything. Get some perspective, learn from this incident and keep moving forward.
Oil has been leaking out of the ground naturally for tens of thousands of years at least, nature can handle it and nature recovers.
rbateman says:
April 30, 2010 at 10:43 pm
“They showed today what apparently is a small sub working on the drill head safety device on the ocean floor.
Why not go down there with a jaws device and pinch the pipe off?
Turn the valve the other way. Attach a plug, cap, something onto the head.
Do something.”
Perhaps they should turn to you to enlighten them?
Drill pipe, from memory, is about 4.5 inch diameter with .75 in wall thickness. A large work-class ROV has about 100 HP and a limited weight-carrying capacity. How are you going to get the “jaws” of sufficient size down there and into position? In addition, the oil will be coming up (at a rate of 145 USG per minute) from the conductor, which could be any of a variety of sizes up to 42″. How are you going to get “jaws” round that? And if you did, do you think a (say) 36″ steel conductor filled with concrete and drilled out to (say) 24″ is likely to form a reasonable seal?
Like most of us, I too would like to read some details of exactly what went wrong, but I suspect most people on site have better things to do just at the moment. It does seem the BOP (Blowout Preventer Stack) must have failed in some way, since its purpose is to shear through the drill string and seal off the well and, AFAIK, it should fail safe.
Anent the slick, it looks horrifying, but is mostly very thin and the net flow over the delta wetlands is, naturally, outwards. The currents in the Gulf are primarily to the East, gathering speed as they approach the choke point between Florida and Cuba and then squirting out into the Atlantic, where they could threaten the Bahamas and possibly Bermuda. Of rather greater importance for pollution is the wind, since that can blow the slick anywhere. All the time it is at sea the lighter fractions are evaporating and reducing the size of the slick.
To my mind the greatest risk is twofold: the political desire to “Do Something” which causes the use of dispersants which as we have seen in Europe guarantees enormous damage to wildlife because the dispersants themselves are toxic and they cause the oil, otherwise confined to the surface, to mix downwards. The second is the shoals of lawyers already circling. The list of officials and organisations involved does not bode well, given that they are all trying to make their names and get on TV.
The only cheering thought is that it will almost certainly not be nearly so bad as is being touted. I recall being in the Persian Gulf at the time of the first great US sales drive, when the late unlamented Saddam Hussein set fire to the Kuwaiti olifields. Newsweek had a graphic showing the entire gulf filled with a slick. Curiously, it only started about ten miles from the coasts, which accounted neatly for no-one on the ground being able to see anything. It turned out of course that the heavy crude had lost all its volatiles, absorbed sand blown off the land and sunk, to be gratefully received by sundry bacteria which ate it. Anyone tried dusting the slick with dry soil?