Tag: BP

A need to tighten up the offshore drilling safety regime and learn from mistakes Major accidents and disasters in the US can have considerable repercussions for the regulatory regime governing international maritime safety. The Exxon Valdez grounding in 1989 and the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 are the most notable examples, the fallout from which are evidenced in today's global tanker safety and ship security regimes.The shipping industry is now waiting to see what impact the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 might have on their business. A number of investigations have been carried out into the cause of the accident and reports continue to be issued. While the majority of the findings indicate a need to tighten up the offshore drilling safety regime, there are also important lessons to be learned for all those responsible for maritime safety.On 20 April 2010 the mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) Deepwater Horizon was completing drilling operations at the Macondo well on the US outer continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico as part of preparations to temporarily abandon the well. A loss of well control during these operations resulted in a release of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons which, ...

At least 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf are not routinely inspected A new oil sheen was spotted in the Gulf of Mexico, although energy company BP said Thursday the discovery had nothing to do with its operations and was far from the site of its disaster-hit Macondo well.A spokesman for another company involved in investigating the sheen said he believed it had already dissipated since being first spotted last week.BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said his company had sent several remotely controlled mini-submersibles into the water over the weekend to investigate the source of the sheen - a shiny coating that floats on the surface of the water and generally comes from leaked or spilled oil - but had concluded "that it couldn't have been from anything of ours."A statement from BP PLC placed the site of the sheen near two abandoned exploration well sites in the Green Canyon Block in the Gulf of Mexico, although its size wasn't disclosed.The sheen was 172 miles (277 kilometers) from BP's Macondo well and about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast.The company's account differs from an anonymous report received by the Coast Guard's National Response Center over the weekend, which ...

Feds probing source of sheen found recently by Coast Guard 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.BP deployed remotely operated vehicles over the weekend to survey the two wells. One was confirmed to be secure. At the other, samples were taken of "silty water" found near the well head, but preliminary test results showed no trace of oil or natural gas, company spokesman Daren Beaudo said.Other companies with operations in the area, including Enterprise Products Partners and Shell Oil, also were notified by the Coast Guard about the ...

Locals still feel BP is unable to manage the situation properly When news of the disastrous BP oil well explosion reached the residents of Jean Lafitte, Louisiana last April, Mayor Tim Kerner did the only thing he could think of to stop the oil from destroying his community. He encouraged everyone in his town to join him on the water, working day and night throughout the disaster to clean-up the spill.Now, one year after BP managed to cap the runaway well that fouled the Gulf of Mexico with an estimated five million barrels of oil, most of those people are ill."I'm afraid my neighbors will come to me and say, I wouldn't have listened to you and kept my job if I knew it would kill me," Kerner said.Kerner's story was one of many shared by Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, at a briefing Wednesday evening, the day after she led a delegation to the Gulf Coast to assess the scope of the emerging healthcare crisis in the wake of the BP drilling disaster."The residents are sick," Kennedy said. "They don't know what the exact cause of their illness is, but ...

To determine if claims are being processed appropriately The lead attorneys for people and businesses suing BP over last year's Gulf oil spill want a federal judge to appoint a special master to oversee the claims process.They said in court papers Monday that administrator Kenneth Feinberg has been too slow to process interim payments from the $20 billion fund that BP set up to compensate people who lost their livelihoods when crude oil gushed from BP's blown well. The payments are meant to tide people over until claims are settled.The lawyers said BP and Feinberg's Gulf Coast Claims Facility have benefited from desperate victims who choose quick, one-time payments in exchange for promises not to sue. There was no immediate ruling by the court in New Orleans.Last week, the Justice Department said an independent audit would be done to determine if claims are being processed appropriately.Feinberg said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that the GCCF has made interim payments to more than 20,000 claimants and that there are more than 40,000 final payment offers outstanding. He said some $250 million in interim payments have been made. Feinberg said the GCCF will respond to the court filing in ...

BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico Marine oil spills are usually measured by the amount of oil floating on the surface. But the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, from a deep-sea well, required a different approach. Find out how one fluid-dynamics expert caused estimates to rise sharply practically overnight. 2011 National Geographic.

Alaska pipeline Ruptures, Methanol and 'Produced Fluids' Leak A pipeline at a BP oil field in Alaska burst over the weekend, spilling between 2,100 and 4,200 gallons of an oily water and methanol mixture in Alaska's North Slope, reports Reuters and the Anchorage Daily News.John Ebel, State of Alaska Environmental Program Specialist Emergency Responder, told The Huffington Post that the rupture occurred at an underground portion of the 8-inch pipe while workers were conducting a valve test.SCROLL DOWN FOR BREAKING UPDATEThe Anchorage Daily News reports that people who were in buildings near where incident occurred could feel the ground shake from the force of the rupture.Ebel said that the spill consisted of 60% methanol and 40% "produced fluids," which include crude oil, water, brine and other substances associated with oil production.The spill affected about 2,000 square feet of aquatic tundra and nearly 5,000 square feet of a gravel pad, according to a report by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.The spill occurred at a drill site in the Lisburne Production Facility, only 800 feet from Prudhoe Bay. The report says, however, that "there is no evidence that the released product has migrated away from the area adjacent to the pad."A ...

Fishermen still fight for survival A year ago to the day, I attended a packed town hall meeting deep in the Louisiana bayoufeaturing newly-hired BP claims administrator Ken Feinberg. The faces inthe crowd were diverse and anxious; Cajun, Vietnamese, African American, all pressed together in the sweltering heat, trying to find out how tosalvage their livesafter the worst oil spill in history.Suddenly in the middle of the meeting camenews from Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser: the oil has been stopped! But onlya smattering of applause broke out. People worriedthe damage to their fisheries was seriousand the road to recovery would be long.Now a year after the well was plugged,those fears have been justified. Manyfishermen are struggling with the same problems, the same concernsthat their livelihoods will never return. The oil is not gone; it keeps coming in places like Grand Isle, LA, and Biloxi,MS, rolling in with the tides as globs of tar balls and sheen. Louisiana beaches near Port Fouchon and parts of the rich fishing grounds in Barataria Bay remain still closed due to oil contamination. No one can predict when they will open again.Butthat's not the story that BP or local government officials paint. According to a ...

One year later On 15 July 2010, the beleaguered responders closed the final valve in a long-sought technical solution to what had seemed like an endless emergency. Literally overnight, the gigantic layer of BP oil floating on the Gulf of Mexico began to dissipate. Within about ten days, we could no longer see any surface oil in the satellite images we had been scanning all through that long summer.Although floating oil could no longer be seen from space, it festered in marsh soils and offshore sands. It had killed and would keep on killing myriads of marine creatures. Some of their carcasses washed ashore and broke our hearts, but the vast majority sank uncounted and unmourned. The oil had devastated the livelihoods of many Gulf residents in a way that no BP lucre could repay. But something else had been dealt a deadly blow, something just as difficult to restore as damaged ecology and economic well-being: trust.With the dissipation of the surface oil due to sun and wave action, a strange denial began to set in. BP has aggressively aired television spots proclaiming that the coast was clear, even though there is still plenty of oil to be found in ...

Plans to invest $4.8 billion to redevelop the Schiehallion and Loyal oilfields British energy company BP said it aims to coax 450 million barrels of oil from the North Sea even though London is asking for a higher levy on their yields.BP said it plans to invest $4.8 billion to redevelop the Schiehallion and Loyal oilfields west of the Shetland Islands.The investment comes as London increased the levy on oil production from 20 percent to 32 percent to the ire of energy companies.A spokesman for the energy company was quoted by The Daily Telegraph in London as saying the value of projects on the regional continental shelf was lowered because of the tax increase."The tax increase certainly didn't make the decision any easier however the size and scale of this development means we are able to progress," the spokesman said.BP's investment will target a new floating, production, storage and offloading vessel that could process up to 130,000 barrels of oil per day and store more than 1 million barrels of oil.BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley had said the company was committed to long-term development in the North Sea. BP gets about 7 percent of its total and natural gas ...