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.
I endorse JeffL’s points. I too have spent (too) much time moving rigs into position and HSE is the tightest and most keenly observed anywhere.
Guys n Gals,
A little subject matter expertise if I may, working for Evil Oil as I do, and being a driller as a technical discipline.
The BOPs (Blow Out Preventers) failed to operate at seabed, which in itself is unusual and as others have speculated must have been because the blowout was so rapid – this in itself is also a very unusual occurrence because of the depth of investigation of the well at the time, it has been quoted as being 18k ft (not abnormally deep). However, this was an exploration well which entails that there may have been a modicum of unknown abut formation types/depths and more importantly, pressures.
Even still, a major kick (where the formation invades the hole in an uncontrolled manner but hasn’t yet made it to surface) “normally” is seen at surface by multiple systems by the change in well characteristics e.g. displacement of drilling fluids back to surface caused by Bubble Equation type expansion over multiple minutes.
The BOPs come with the rig and are the responsibility of the rig and the rig is on hire from Transocean. A BP insider has told me that this specific rig was the safest 6th generation rig in BPs fleet of hired-on drill rigs and of other operators in the GoM.
A little geometrical analysis of a well to get some perspective:
The well at blowout time was in the surface casing phase, this means that a section of shallow hole had been drilled, probably (and this is pure supposition at this moment) 18 5/8″ casing or even 13 3/8″ (the latter would be my guess at 18k ft total well depth) This would mean that there was no drill string anywhere near any open hole section where this hydrocarbon influx came from which immediately makes the well kill operation very difficult. The BOP system would however, been deigned to mitigate this.
The BOPs are located over the wellbore at seabed and have at least three high pressure containment systems, the annular preventer, basically a big rubber sack that closes around the wellbore at approx 10-15k psi, a blind ram, two crushing elements that ” crimp” any metal inside the annulus or if none present provide a barrier and below them, the final and Armageddon option, the shear rams which do what it says on the tin. The BOPs are activated by pressurised control lines from the drill floor or automatically at seabed if communication to these are severed (this is the dead mans hand which is not a requirement in US water)
There is one phase of casing operations where the BOPs are dismantled, when the previous open drilled hole section has been drilled to a set depth, cased in metal and cemented off successfully, but as we know they had pipe in the hole this phase had not been reached.
From now on, and information even from a direct GoM BP source, data gets flaky. The well may have been running or tripping casing, we don’t know. From here we know several things. The well was in a casing event following closely on from drilling a section of well that apparently contained hydrocarbons. These may not have been present at the time the hole was drilled or may have communicated from one formation to another after drilling. The well kicked, the BOPs failed to close and are still failing even with direct seabed ROV intervention. The well was not shut in and a blow out occurred, wholly uncontrolled, at immense speed and deadly. Very unusual.
Until we get more detail of phase, depth, hydrocarbon type, etc all we can go on is the information held above on what we do know the rig was doing and what happens in other wells. Let’s not speculate until we have the facts. WUWT readers have this quality in spades.
Tax officers arrest 22 in UK carbon fraud probe
A major cross-border investigation into alleged fraudulent trading of carbon credits has resulted in 22 UK arrests in a case linked to raids at Deutsche Bank.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/7659747/Tax-officers-arrest-22-in-UK-carbon-fraud-probe.html
One commenter questioned the media’s apparent lack of curiosity pertaining to specifics of the event. I have observed about the same thing and have a nagging back-of-the-brain speculation about it. Forgive me for dumping my wild imaginations here:
Seems highly unlikely, but what are the chances that they’re holding back a story that doesn’t fit “the narrative”? This seems an increasing MSM behavior on various “politically sensitive” issues.
As the story currently unfolds it fits nicely into the anti-carbon, anti-big-oil narrative. Given that this is the slant MSM would apparently prefer, one wonders why we are not deluged with detail. Could it be that the details are “inconvenient”, or that rumors are circulating among investigative reporters of another possible bad guy, and they don’t want to jump the gun with a story that will embarrass them later?
I’m thinking, of course, of enviro-terrorists. Here in Canada we’ve seen numerous attempts or threats aimed at oil pipelines. One wonders why an environmentalist group might want to HARM the environment in the name of their cause. One wonders about a lot of things that go on in their heads. But “environmentalism” these days seems to not really be that much about the environment, and to some groups like Greenpeace it has transmogrified into a mortal battle against a perceived, definable enemy. I can’t see Greenpeace blowing up an oil platform, though they like to play high seas chicken and large-scale vandalism has become routine for them. But wasn’t it James Hansen a while ago speaking in approving terms about an ecoterrorist attack against a coal-fired power plant? I guess the thought is that if they can push the environmental damage of “evil big oil” far enough and in a dramatic enough way then they can win support for environmental constraints. (In their minds) a small disaster to forestall much larger apocalyptic disaster. Or if this turns out to be the case this time, I could see such a group believing in the failsafe mechanisms or believing there was a working BOP, and so underestimating the risk of catastrophe. Or a someone plotting a “little explosion”, to cripple the evil industrial monstrosity, not realising that it would trigger a much larger reaction. I can think of several plausible scenarios…
Mindless greed. Is anyone really surprised ? Keep drilling morons.
Clive says: The “greens” and “alternative energy” folks will be all over this like oil on a seagull.
Clive, if as I suspect, this refocuses the Greens on oil and not CO2 then I will feel I have achieved my objectives as a “sceptic”.
For me the biggest lie of “manmade warming” was in the statement “if we continue consuming fossil fuels as we are” (i,e, at an exponentially increasing rate). For me this was the bizarrest statement anyone could make because, whilst we do not know exactly when (a huge crime in itself) we do know that the primary transportation fuel of oil is going to run out before even the worst predictions of warming gave us even mildly worrying warming.
Basically the reason I’m so contemptuous of the Greens and climategate shamsters is that they were telling everyone: “there is so much fossil fuel that the biggest problem in the whole world is an insignificant bit of warming. Which is really saying: “the worst the future holds is less winter cold”.
I remember the 1970s oil shock, and that was real. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see the typical “45micro-meters of sea level rise” type scare we have now is totally absolutely completely utterly ridiculous. An oil crisis would be catastrophic – indeed it is arguable the oil crisis has already started and the recent financial crisis was us entering the foothills triggered by an oil price rise over $100/barrel.
Oil is literally the fuel of our western society. When it runs out (supply failing to meet demand and dramatic market instability), there will never again be such an easily low-cost energy-dense form of energy supply and storage for transportation. As we move to more and more difficult supplies for oil, the cost of oil will rise, that in turn will increase the cost of energy generally and because food production is so heavily dependant on fossil fuels (farm machinery, fertilisers, pesticides, transportation fuel) the cost of food worldwide will increase and worldwide food production will decrease.
Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that e.g. a 10% reduction in world food supply means around 10% of the world won’t be able to afford the cost of living … they will die. 6billion x 10% is 600million people facing death by starvation. As oil input is about 50% of the energy out from a typical western farm without external energy from fossil fuel, your typical farm will see a 50% reduction in output if it tries to grow its own energy to run the farm!
So, not only will the “rich” nations be desperately nudging each other out the way to get their hands on the remaining oil supplies and getting pretty grumpy in the process, hundreds of millions of the poorest will be pretty upset with their lot and willing to help those who might e.g. see the “West” as a legitimate target.
And, unlike global warming which is a “optional extra” which governments can “opt into” if and when they think their electorate might support it (i.e. never). The end of oil, isn’t an optional extra. When (or if) it happens, it happens whether or not the politicians sit down in Jokenhagen to discuss whether they want oil to end.
So if this giant oil spill focusses the Greens on the real problem of oil and gets them off the imaginary problem of manmade warming. And if that then causes the politicians to seriously plan how our western economies are going to cope with reducing oil supplies and get them to face the fact that there is no magic bullet solution to energy and we have got to plan to live with the energy forms we have now and not imagine someone can “invent” us out of this problem and if that means we don’t end up going into another massive oil crisis with no realistic plan B except getting that oil by hook or (nuclear) crook, then this oil spill could be the best thing that has ever happened to the West!
R Craigon, sudden explosions at sensitive sites does rather raise the specter of terrorism, but I haven’t heard that the FBI has come out and declared there is “No evidence of terroris” … which leads me to believe that terrorism is not, in fact, involved.
Look, the Deepwater Horizon tragedy will be analysed to the nth degree in coming weeks.
The important thing is the failure of numerous triple-redundancy shut-down systems on the rig, together with failure of the simplest OHS modules like the “dead man’s” switch.
None of the safety measures were activated, which leads one to the conclusion that the catastrophic fireball (200″ high) was fatal towards any human intervention.
We live and learn, and Rest in Peace and God-Speed the deceased missing crew of 11. This tragedy is far more serious than it should have been.
R. Craigen
Your idea of eco-terrorism fits in the same place as deliberate demolition of the twin towers. This is something that was always on the cards. All of us who have worked in the oil industry know the corners they cut. Yes, all safety measures are in place, but I remember the cheap, case-hardened, custard-core materials, poor knowledge of heat treatments and welding tech, minimal stress analysis, minimal testing in real-life situations and the hellish time pressure put on engineers by clueless managers, who all seem to get promoted by backstabbling, asslicking, authoritarian ignorance. Firefighting, ie fixing problems after rather than thinking about them before, is common . Despite all the pretense they routinely send stuff offshore that is not 100% right and just hope for the best. Blow out preventers have never been my favourite technology – they always seemed to have jutting bits of steel that cut through the seals of anything that went through them. You have to design shields especially to protect your seals and sometimes they get stuck too.
The above comments are all speculation, in the drilling industry there are safety precautions upon safety precautions, it is the most safety regulated industry bar none, but, with 1,000 precautions in place, there is always 1.001.
R Craigen : I also formulated this same conspiracy theory in my head, but I don’t think it does anyone any good to speculate like this without a shred of evidence, especially when men have already died. This looks like, and is being reported as, an accident on a drilling rig, which, as others have already posted, is a highly dangerous place to be in the first place. I think we should keep the conspiracy theories and eco-terrorists for books like “state of fear”, unless some real evidence of wrongdoers surfaces.
R. Craigen says:
May 1, 2010 at 12:32 am
Sorry, but I have to say that the only part of that post I could accept was “Seems highly unlikely…”
Mr Black says: (May 1, 2010 at 12:01 am) 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. […] Accidents happen, in everything. Get some perspective, learn from this incident and keep moving forward.
I agree, Mr Black, but doubt the “perspective” you suggest will prevail against the glorious doom so beloved by powerful vested interests to whom a bird in the oil is worth two in the air. (And that probably undervalues the oilybird by a factor of thousands.)
This leak is a gift to weepers and wailers everywhere. It must not be wasted.
(My sympathy to the families of those who died. R. I. P.)
rbateman says:
April 30, 2010 at 10:43 pm
You obviously did not meet Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper
I actually listened to one of her talks. Quite a speaker.
She was the second or third COBOL programmer in the world.
She was there when the first “bug” in a computer was found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug
Maybe we need more female admirals?
I’m going to throw this out there: how many of you have considered the possability that a militant enviro group like Earth First is responsible for this? The timing is unbelievably convenient. I have never heard of one of these things blowing up like this. Yes, they have accidents and fires, but I’ve never heard of one blowing up and sinking. And here we have one just days after Obama announces an expansion of off shore drilling. I, of course, have zero evidence to back this up, other than a healthy disdain for environmental terrorist groups…
When are we going to do ‘something’ about this oil leak?
http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=76955
ScottR says:
April 30, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Scott. apparently they did have such safety gear at the bottom, but it didn’t work – possibly because the rig above blew up and sank before it could be activated. I await the investigation
Thanks for posting Anthony, facts far out way the hysteria of the “volcano ash cloud” lame stream agenda driven media.
It’s quite plausible that there is a reason there have been few ‘accidents’ of this magnitude — We know what the weather underground and Obama buddy Bill Ayers did to try and end the Vietnam war. Aren’t we now seeing plenty of people worldwide “try and end carbon based fuels”, using scientific scams, other nefarious ways, lies and obfuscation. Here is where I am at — I simply wonder why the FBI hasn’t launched a massive investigation, hasn’t called aside everyone involved with the drill rig, and ask some very pertinent questions. It would seem that if anything warranted a widescale complete criminal investigation, this is it. Surely it pales in comparison to the show trials of GS and the attempts to lay blame of the financial meltdown on anybody but the cause, the government, Fannie and Freddie.
I do believe there was a time when we all felt al Qaeda had access to scuba gear, small drug subs. Billion dollar oil rigs and the economic chaos sinking a huge deep water rig would cause — Hey who thought the planes were coming, before 9/11.
And surely we know governments everywhere wouldn’t be trying to scam people out of their access to energy resources, don’t we.
History has taught us, disasters have uses, crisis mode clouds effective solutions and hysteria(think volcano) breeds false choices … Events have causes, stuff just doesn’t blow up, sometimes little bombs go bad, but companies aren’t in business to destroy billion dollar assets, you do your best to prevent such destruction. So put me in the category of suspicious until shown real proof what really happened. Even BP has gone quite. And Obama is sending in the troops, of lawyers.
It all makes little sense, and that is what smells really bad. If it was an accident, the Titanic sank after all, then they can be prevented.
Everything should be on the table, and if it’s not … you know the table is rigged.
#
R. Craigen says:
May 1, 2010 at 12:32 am
One commenter questioned the media’s apparent lack of curiosity pertaining to specifics of the event. I have observed about the same thing and have a nagging back-of-the-brain speculation about it. Forgive me for dumping my wild imaginations here:….
I’m thinking, of course, of enviro-terrorists. Here in Canada we’ve seen numerous attempts or threats aimed at oil pipelines. One wonders why an environmentalist group might want to HARM the environment in the name of their cause. …..
______________________________________________________________________
R. Craigen, you took the words out of my mouth. I hope the experts who have commented can tell us if sabotage is possible. Either by an employee or off rig.
I have dealt with sabotage before. Eight times so it is not at all far fetched.
First these people do not really care about the animals or environment, it is the “cause” that is all sacred. This is based on up close and personal observation. As one activist screamed at me “I rather see horses extinct than owned by humans.” On a second occasion, when they could not turn my animal loose college students intentionally blinded her by kicking her in the eye as she grazed. The sabotage I encountered was always a very well coordinated multi-person operation.
I have also seen a very well coordinated media campaign used to shut down and blacken the name of an industry. I know the facts because my boss was head engineer. He would have become plant manager if the innovate new plant had been built. It was supposed to recycle post consumer polystyrene from McDonalds and the anti-polystyrene media campaign hit one month before the ground breaking and news media announcement. The campaign was allegedly started by a NH grade school teacher and made nationwide front page news immediately. The news campaign was highly successful and short down five plant in my state alone.
Another incident with far reaching consequences and laws being passed was the e-coli petting farm incident at the NC state fair about five years ago. Very long story but the main points are. There were no illnesses at the week long county fair just before the state fair, the USDA agent who inspected the animals and took rectal thermometer reading in-beween gigs was a know animal rights activist and the CDC stated this was the first known incidence of that type of bacteria found in sheep and goats. Also extensive testing by the CDC showed no e-coli on the coats or in the mouths only in the feces. Most telling all attempts at sabotaging petting farms and pony rides (cut girths) that I know of ceased.
To me the timing is just too convenient for those who want to curb use of oil especially here in the USA. I also stumbled across an article a few years ago where the animal rights activists responsible for bankrupting the Hallmark Meat packing plants mentioned getting PETA training.
We will probably never know if it was sabotage, but after seeing these people in action over several years, that is the first thing that leapt into my mind.
Can someone of expertise explain the type of oil being released? Most everyone tends to think of “crude oil” as heavy, thick, tar like goop. Is this different from refined oil spills and how so?
In support of what ”AleaJactaEst” had to say and also provide relevant technical expertise, as I also work in the Oil and gas field, specifically on these type of rigs as a Senior Subsea Engineer; who is ultimately responsible for the correct operation and maintenance of the BOP (Blow Out Preventer)…..this event should never have happened.
This class of rig (6th generation) has the most advanced BOP systems available, with multiple redundant control systems and features that is suppose to prevent this sort of uncontrolled blowout from ever happening. Besides the assumed fact that somehow the dead man system was not activated which would have automatically operated a variety of functions on the BOP including the annular, casing shear rams and blind shear rams in a sequential manner that would have shut off the well, the BOP is also equipped with an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) intervention system which should have allowed the ROV to so a variety of functions on the BOP.
So far it has been reported that the ROV has been unsuccessful in operating the shear blind rams and shutting in the well. This can be either be because the shear rams have malfunctioned for some reason or because the rams have not be able to close sufficiently because there is something preventing them from doing so. The later is a more plausible cause especially if they were busy running casing when the well started to flow in an uncontrollable manner for some reason.
I do not know what type of shear rams the BOP was equipped with but these 6th generation rigs usually have a set of casing shear rams that are supposedly capable of shearing casing, and another set of Blind shear rams on top that would be able to cut drill pipe and also seal the well off. If the casing shear rams did not cut the casing, or the cut casing above the casing shear rams was not cleared above the blind shear rams, then the blind shear rams would not close 100% and seal off the well.
All these scenario’s would have been risk assessed when the drilling program was put together and at each phase of the operation, these risks would have been discussed at multiple levels and meetings before the specific job ever was started. So what ever happened it must have been really out of the ordinary and also happened very quickly, as to not have the time to implement any of the normal emergency drills that the crews should have discussed and practiced many times before.
Like ”AleaJactaEst” eloquently put it….. Let’s not speculate until we have the facts. WUWT readers have this quality in spades…….and I have been guilty of just this.
There is a good layman explanation here.
http://blog.iongeo.com/?p=1961
It is speculation but two major failures occurred. The first was the cement which is supposed to securely seal off the high pressure oil & gas zone behind a casing (at some 18,000 feet by all accounts). This failure appears to have occurred roughly 20 hours after the cement job. The second failure is the Blow Out Preventer, which sits on the sea floor and would have been activated by the crew or should have closed automatically (cutting any pipe in the hole and sealing the well) when hydraulic and electrical power was lost.
It is too early to tell whether the crew did anything wrong or whether there was a mistake in the operating procedures.
Following the accident, the biggest error may have been to pour water on the rig from the rescue boats. It is possible that the rig would not have sunk if water had not been poured continuously on the damaged/breached decks for 36 hours – likely filling the very ‘pontoons’ that allow the rig to remain afloat. As long as the rig floated it supported the string of pipe from the sea floor to surface and this allowed the oil & gas to exit without entering the sea and most importantly to burn. The environmental situation is much worse now that there are several leaks issuing from the 5000 feet of twisted pipe lying on the sea floor.
Have there been any video’s released of the seafloor at the release point?
R. Craigen,
It’s a sad thing, but the same thoughts stir in the back of my mind. They are not my first thoughts, but they do occur.
I’m not sure of the exact difference between parinoia and suspition, but I know I didn’t suffer from these thoughts as badly until I became aware of how much fudge was stirred into Hansen’s and Mann’s and Briffa’s data, and then watched in amazement as the MSM failed to cover Climategate.
Now I’m turning into a suspitious old grouch.
What has been in the news lately?
Let’s see. Toyaota has all sorts of problems with its cars. How handy for GM.
Then we have various coal mine accidents. How handy for Cap and Trade.
And now an oil rig blows. Again, handy.
If I was BP I’d be looking for the stern end of a torpedo, down in the mud at the bottom. That’s how suspitious I’ve become.
AlanG says:
April 30, 2010 at 10:58 pm
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!
Doug in Seattle says:
April 30, 2010 at 11:43 pm
I suspect phytoplankton in the gulf are having a feeding frenzy about now
Mr Black says:
May 1, 2010 at 12:01 am
It really bothers me the way folks get so upset about what is a minor leak of a single well. …..
Oil has been leaking out of the ground naturally for tens of thousands of years at least, nature can handle it and nature recovers.
I can only say that oil has has been leaking probably for hundreds of million years..
you guys here at WUWT are the best