'Major oil spill' as rig sinks off US coast

Louisiana ecosystem faces threat from potential oil spill
New Orleans (AFP) April 22, 2010 - Any oil spilt from a huge drilling rig that sank Thursday after an earlier explosion could threaten Louisiana's fragile ecosystem, already stressed by hurricanes and coastal erosion. "I wouldn't say it's a threat at this point, but it's a significant ecological issue," said Luann White, a professor of toxicology at Tulane Unviversity. A US Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday afternoon that authorities and BP are still trying to determine if any oil is leaking from the Transocean Deep Water Horizon drilling rig, 45 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. "We have a remote vessel diving down underwater to see if there is oil leaking. We don't know at this time," said Tom Atkezon, petty officer third class.

White, director of Tulane's Center for Applied Environmental Public Health, says any spillage would be a "fair distance offshore," White said. "But the issue is how do you keep the oil off the wetlands and the marsh area?" If oil leaks and the spill escapes containment efforts, Louisiana's sensitive coast would be at risk for ecological damage, White said. Wild birds, breeding grounds for shrimp, and oyster beds would also be threatened, she said. Should a spill reach shore, birds could be covered in the slick.

"The spill is ugly but it is not very toxic," White said. "The crude oil gets in their wings, but it doesn't affect them like a poison." Weather will play a key factor in the days ahead. Environmental risks from a spill "depend on the winds and tide," White said. Rough weather could break up any spill, making it harder to contain. "Theoretically, it sounds nice to contain the spill' but that is easier said than done." The sweet crude oil from the rig is "heavy and gunky," which can make it easier to clean up, White added. But some of the heavier components of the oil could sink, Most hydrocarbons found in oil do not dissolve in water.

The Coast Guard and the companies involved will be watching any spill closely, she said, adding that there was little environmentalists, shrimpers and oyster farms could do. "If the birds are there in the marsh, its pretty hard to get them to move." "All of south Louisiana is a very environmentally-sensitive area. It has been stressed because of recent hurricanes and coastal erosion." The toxicologist said if any valves were left open on the rig before Tuesday night's explosion or if pipes were broken during the fire and sinking, "it's quite possible oil could continue pumping."

BP issued a statement Thursday afternoon, announcing an "extensive" response plan including the drilling of a relief well, if needed. Companies usually drill a relief well after a "blowout" to relieve the pressure from wherever the oil well is leaking. "That's a common technique if the well is open, which you'd suspect it probably is," White said. A blowout is an "uncontrolled flow of gas, oil or other fluids from a well to the atmosphere," according the US Minerals Management Services. "A well may blow out when formation pressure exceeds the pressure overburden of a column of drilling fluid." BP says a "flotilla of vessels and resources" has been deployed, including 32 spill response vessels with a large storage barge and a skimming capacity of more than 171,000 barrels per day. Four aircraft are ready to spray more than 100,000 gallons of oil spill dispersants, with Coast Guard approval. The company also expected to launch one million feet of containment boom by the end of the day Thursday. BP said it expects any spillage will remain "well offshore" during the next 48 hours and pledged all available resources to protect the local environment.

by Staff Writers
New Orleans, Louisiana (AFP) April 23, 2010
A blazing oil rig has sunk into the Gulf of Mexico, sparking fears of an environmental disaster two days after a massive blast that left 11 workers missing.

With no sign of the missing workers, rescuers looked likely to abandon their search for survivors.

US maritime authorities said crude oil was pouring into the sea at the site where the hulking Deepwater Horizon rig once stood, though they were unable to determine at what rate.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said the federal response to the disaster "was being treated as the number one priority," the White House said in a statement.

Obama "made sure that the entire federal government was offering all assistance needed in the rescue effort as well as in mitigating and responding to the environmental impact," the statement read.

Officials said that before the explosion there were 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of diesel fuel on board the semi-submersible platform and it had been drilling 8,000 barrels, or 336,000 gallons, of oil a day.

"This is considered a major oil spill," Mike O'Berry, a US Coast Guard senior chief petty officer, told AFP.

The Coast Guard said a one mile by five mile slick had settled on the surface some 45 miles (70 kilometers) offshore as a massive clean-up operation gets under way to prevent the oil from hitting land in the Gulf states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Coast Guard vessels continued their search late Thursday for the 11 missing workers, while British oil giant BP, which leased the platform, dispatched a fleet of boats to try to keep environmental damage in check.

Officials said the current spill had the potential to be the worst seen in the United States since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill, considered one of the worst man-made environmental disasters.

That spill, vastly bigger than the current one in the US Gulf, poured nearly 11 million gallons of crude into Alaska's Prince William Sound, devastating some 750 miles (1,300 kilometers) of its once pristine shores.

If oil leaks and the spill escapes containment efforts, Louisiana's sensitive coast would be at risk for ecological damage. Wild birds, breeding grounds for shrimp, and oyster beds would also be threatened. Should a spill reach shore, birds could be covered in the slick.

O'Berry said US authorities were deploying several oil-skimming vessels to try to limit the pollution.

The Coast Guard sent a mini-submarine equipped with cameras to determine the oil flow into the ecologically fragile Gulf, home to a vast array of waterfowl and other wildlife.

Before the rig sank into the ocean, oil fires raged for more than a day and a half following a spectacular explosion late Tuesday that sent huge balls of flame leaping into the night sky.

The now submerged oil rig measuring 396-by-256 feet (121-by-78 meters) is owned by Houston, Texas-based contractor Transocean, Ltd. and under contract to BP.

Transocean confirmed late Thursday that it had not been possible "to stem the flow of hydrocarbons prior to the rig sinking," raising fears that thousands more gallons of crude will pollute the Gulf waters before the flow is contained.

"We are working closely with BP Exploration & Production, Inc. and the US Coast Guard to determine the impact from the sinking of the rig and the plans going forward," the company said.

It added that "the US Coast Guard has plans in place to mitigate any environmental impact from this situation."

Transocean vice president Adrian Rose said earlier that the rig likely suffered a blowout while drilling through rock at BP's Macondo prospect, although investigations into the exact cause of the accident are ongoing.

Seventeen workers were airlifted to hospital on Wednesday after suffering broken bones, burns and smoke inhalation in the explosion on the mobile rig. Four remained in critical condition.

But there was no sign of the missing 11 workers and it remained unclear whether they made it safely into one of the rig's lifeboats.

And Rear Admiral Mary Landry, commander of the Coast Guard's 8th District, said the missing 11 may have been near the huge explosion itself, The Times-Picayune newpaper reported Friday.

"With a water temperature of 67 degrees, the probability of finding survivors had diminished to almost zero by Thursday afternoon," the report cited Landry as saying.

"We will go beyond that survivability period because it's always an estimate," she said late Thursday. "We will probably search for another 12 hours," she said in the report; that would put the end of search and rescue at early Friday morning.

Transocean's Rose said the missing workers "may have been unable to evacuate" once the rig exploded.

Transocean is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor, with a fleet of 140 mobile offshore drilling units, in addition to three ultra-deepwater units under construction.

A total of 126 people were onboard the platform at the time of the explosion, 79 of them Transocean staff, six BP personnel and 41 contractors.

burs/ch-mdl/lt

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