WHO WOULD EVER HAVE EXPECTED...?

BP officials are objecting to the state’s decision to close waters around Grand Terre to fishing after a 40,000-pound tar mat was unearthed in the surf just off the island.

Grand Terre is an uninhabited barrier island east of Grand Isle. The tar mat, which was 165 feet long by 65 feet wide, was about 85 percent sand, shells and water, and 15 percent oil. It was removed over a period of a few weeks.

The state issued the closure Friday, a few days after reports of the massive tar mat took off in the media. According to state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries officials, all commercial fishing is prohibited in closed waters off Grand Terre. Recreational fishing is limited to rod and reel fishing and charter boat tours.

....

BP claims the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries issued the fisheries closure without explaining its reasons or offering data to show the closure is needed.

....

[Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert] Barham said that the state will continue to close fishing grounds when oil is discovered. He added that according to the most recent federal estimates, up to 1 million barrels of BP oil remains unaccounted for in the Gulf.

Hey!  The huge tar mat is only 15% oil.  What's the problem?

BP is impatient and wants to be done with its responsibility for the Maconda oil gusher, but - dammit! - oil keeps turning up in the Gulf.  When will the nightmare will be over for BP?  I expect long before the 1 million barrels are accounted for.  When will the nightmare be over in the Gulf of Mexico?  Who knows?  Maybe never.

Tony Hayward, BP CEO, on May 13, 2010, eight days after the Maconda well explosion.

The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.

The gift that keeps on giving.  Thanks, BP.

Photo from SierraActivist.

THE PRICE OF OIL

Still Life in Oil

Fort Jackson, Louisiana (USA). June 20, 2010. Volunteers of the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research and the International Bird Rescue Research Center run the facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana , where they clean birds covered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. The BP leased oil platform that exploded on April 20 and sank after burning. Photo by © Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace.

Click on the pictures for the larger view.

The picture above and the pictures below are from the The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 exhibit at the Natural History Museum in London.

After months of anticipation, the winners of Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 have been announced and the exhibition is now open at the Natural History Museum.

The photos of all of the winners are outstanding. Browse the gallery at the link above. Any of you who are in or near London while the exhibit is on display through March 11, 2012, would do well to pay a visit. Book your tickets online.

The exhibition will tour nationally and internationally after its launch in London.

PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE IMAGES TO ANY OTHER FORUM WITHOUT EXPLICIT PERMISSION FROM THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM IN LONDON.

Since I live in south Louisiana, about 40 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico as the crow flies, my particular interest was in the photos by Daniel Beltra, who is from Spain, of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010, and the aftermath. The photos are stunning, some of them quite beautiful, but they tell the story of a tragedy in which 11 men were killed, others injured, and a great deal of death and destruction dealt to the wildlife and plant life that inhabit the Gulf and coastal areas. The picture of the oiled pelicans is heart-breaking.

The photos are copyrighted by the photographer and are used here with permission. The pictures and captions, which are arranged by date starting with the earliest, with the exception of the photo at the head of the post, speak for themselves.

Louisiana (USA). May 6th, 2010. Aerial view of the oil leaked from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead, the BP leased oil platform exploded April 20 and sank after burning. Leaking an estimate of more than 200,000 gallons of crude oil per day from the broken pipeline to the sea. Eleven workers are missing, presumed dead. Photo by Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace

On April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing 11 crewmen and injuring 17. The platform sank 50 miles off shore, 1 mile deep, and weighed 58,000 tons. Oil from the wellhead rises up to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near a different offshore platform, May 18, 2010. Photo © Daniel Beltra for Greenpeace

June 17, 2010. Louisiana (USA)Boats burning oil on the surface near BP's Deepwater Horizon spill source. ©Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace

June 17, 2010. Louisiana (USA)Oil covers the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on the vicinity of BP's Deepwater Horizon spill source. ©Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace

Louisiana (USA). June 24, 2010. Flight to the Deepwater Horizon site, the BP leased oil platform exploded on April 20 and sank after burning. In the picture, the wake of a vessel leaves a trail through the surface oil.Photo by © Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace.

Thanks to my friend Cathy for calling the photos of the winners to my attention.

IN MEMORIAM - ONE YEAR LATER

The New Orleans Times-Picayune posted pictures of the 11 men who died in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon well in their print edition, but I can't find the pictures online. However, the men have names:

James Anderson - 35 - Drill supervisor - Married, father of two - Bay City, Texas

Aaron Dale Burkeen - 37 Crane operator - Married, father of two - Philadelphia, Mississippi

Donald Clark - 49 - Assistant driller - Married - Newelton, Louisiana

Stephen Ray Curtis - 39 - Married, father of two - Georgetown, Louisiana

Gordon Jones - 28 - Mud engineer - Married, father of two - Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Roy Wyatt Kemp - 27 - Roughneck - Married, father of two - Jonesville, Louisiana

Karl Kepplinger, Jr - 38 - Mud pit worker - Married, father of one - Natchez, Mississippi

Blair Manuel - 56 - Chemical engineer - Engaged, father of three, Gonzales, Louisiana

Dewey Revette - 48 - Oil driller - Married, father of two - State Line, Mississippi

Shane Rosto - 22 - Floor hand - Married, father of one - Liberty, Mississippi

Adam Weise - 24 - Floor hand - Single - Yorktown, Texas

Father of all, we pray to you for those we love, but see no longer: Grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and, in your loving wisdom and almighty power, work in them the good purpose of your perfect will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, Father of mercies and giver of comfort: Deal graciously, we pray, with all who mourn; that, casting all their care on you, they may know the consolation of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And the oil? It's still there.



Photo from NOLA.com.

Picture at the head of the post from Wikipedia.

"10 DISASTROUS MISTAKES BP MADE BEFORE THE THE DEEPWATER HORIZON EXPLODED"

From Business Insider:

1. BP downplayed operational risks in applications for exemption from federal inspection

2. BP may have cut corners in well design

3. BP used slapdash methods to fix early problems in the well lining

4. BP skipped crucial tests of the well cement lining

5. BP knowingly used a faulty blow-out preventer

6. According to an industry whistle blower, BP falsified blowout preventer tests for years

7. Rig supervisors ignored pressure warnings in hours leading up to the explosion

8. Turns out BP did not have a good rig rescue plan

9. BP did not plan for an oil spill significantly greater than 20,000 bbl

10. BP had not researched Top Hat and Top Kill at drill depth

Read the details of the mistakes at Business Insider.

The mistakes were human errors, errors of judgment by BP, in which decisions were influenced by the culture embedded in the operations of the company to heavily favor production over safety. Our own federal agencies, especially the Minerals Management Service, many of whose employees were cosy with the oil companies, so much so, that they ignored their mission to regulate, failed to make public safety the priority, and instead put the interests of the oil companies first.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 men and injured 17, and resulted in a catastrophic human and environmental disaster, with no end to the ill effects in sight, was entirely preventable.

THE REALITY ON THE COAST AND IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

Dolphin head at Grand Isle, LA Copyright ©Jerry Moran

My friend Georgianne Nienaber is on the scene on the Gulf Coast in Louisiana. She's posted several reports at The Huffington Post on the conditions there and the progress in containing and cleaning up the oil in the water, in the marshes, and on the beaches.

"We are allowing them (BP) to play with our livelihood here!"

Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, was almost stuttering to Anderson Cooper an hour after President Obama's address to the nation from the Oval Office. 58 days after the catastrophic explosion aboard the Transocean/Deepwater Horizon, and the subsequent release of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, there is still no coherent plan to shut down the leak, contain the oil, or respond to the damage done to the environment. There is a new estimate of up to 60,000 barrels a day flow rate. No one believes the numbers BP is providing anymore, and it is stunning that the President is willing to do so.

Read Georgianne's post and compare and contrast with President Obama's speech last night.

Links to Georgianne's other recent posts on conditions on the Louisiana coast may be found here.

You may want to have a look at other photos on the coastal areas by Jerry Moran, whose photo above is used with permission.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THE WELL?"

bwinship1 — May 31, 2010 — Written as a plea, a shout out, a prayer for the folks & critters of the Gulf. Memphis Minnie's "What's the Matter with the Mill" was calling for this re-write. While I had fun creating this, it is my sincere hope that it becomes obsolete sooner than later. Thanks to Mike Dowling, Jeff Newsom, John Kidwell and my boys, Owen & Sam, for helping with this.

As Ann's correspondent said, "Music is a great catharsis for such disasters". Those of us down here feel so helpless. We wanted to go to Grand Isle to see the damage there and take pictures, but the beach is closed off to visitors.

Tom talked to a man whose company is running boats, one of which he pilots, under contract to BP. According to him, the clean-up work is quite disorganized and, in many cases, ineffective. An entity besides BP should be put in charge of mitigation and clean-up. It's nice that Obama visits, but what will he do to correct the problems now that he's back in the White house?

Thanks to Ann for the link.

BP DIDN'T PERFORM THE TEST

Oil in the marshes in Louisiana

From NOLA.com:

BP hired a top oilfield service company to test the strength of cement linings on the Deepwater Horizon's well, but sent the firm's workers home 11 hours before the rig exploded April 20 without performing a final check that a top cementing company executive called "the only test that can really determine the actual effectiveness" of the well's seal.

A spokesman for the testing firm, Schlumberger, said BP had a Schlumberger team and equipment for sending acoustic testing lines down the well "on standby" from April 18 to April 20. But BP never asked the Schlumberger crew to perform the acoustic test and sent its members back to Louisiana on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight at 11 a.m., Schlumberger spokesman Stephen T. Harris said.

At a few minutes before 10 p.m., a belch of natural gas shot out of the well, up a riser pipe to the rig above, igniting massive explosions, killing 11 crewmembers and sending millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. The rig's owner, Transocean, blames failed cement seals, installed by Halliburton, for the disastrous blowout.

The truth seeps out slowly, because BP has not been forthcoming in releasing information. Senate committee hearings on the oil gusher seem to be accomplishing their mission, which is to gather all pertinent information.

Also from NOLA.com:

The White House is asking BP PLC to publicly disclose more information about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including measurements of the size of the leak 5,000 feet under the sea and air quality.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the White House is writing to BP asking the company to put that information on its website and be more transparent about its response.

BP is under fire as scientists dispute the company's estimate of how much oil is spilling into the Gulf.

For weeks BP has said the flow is 210,000 gallons a day, but scientists say the amount could be much higher. A BP official conceded Thursday there could be more.

Scientists also are criticizing government agencies for not pushing the company harder to let independent experts take measurements.

It's about time for the White House to stop relying on BP's words. From day one of the explosion, BP issued incomplete and misleading information. Why have the Obama administration and the federal agencies been so trusting and credulous and not moved forward more quickly with plans to verify BP's statements and findings?

BP says it is now collecting 3000 barrels of oil a day from the leak, but the amount of oil gushing from the well is under dispute, so we still don't know how much is being released into the Gulf.



More oil in the marshes of Louisiana

Images from The Huffington Post.

"DANGEROUS DEEPWATER DRILLING"

Oil spill underwater video - 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill

From NOLA.com:

The failed blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig had a hydraulic leak and a dead battery in one of its control pods, and testing in the hours before an April 20 explosion revealed that pressure in the well was dangerously out of whack, a House committee investigating the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico said Wednesday.

"The more I learn about this accident, the more concerned I become," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who has cast the explosion and the ongoing oil spill that followed as a cautionary tale of America's dependence on oil and what he characterized as "dangerous" deepwater drilling in particular.

In recent days, the Energy Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has been combing through documents provided by BP, the oil giant that had been on the verge of announcing a huge find in the deep waters 50 miles off the Louisiana coast, and Transocean Limited, the contractor whose offshore rig blew up three weeks ago, killing 11 workers and opening an undersea gusher that is releasing about 5,000 barrels of crude a day into the Gulf.

The investigation by the subcommittee, of which Rep. Henry Waxman is chairman, obtained more information than the two Senate committees which grilled the CEO's yeaterday. Waxman is one of my heroes in Congress. He's a bulldog. He won't let go.

The finger-pointing blame game amongst the corporations involved continues unabated, but the consequences of the disaster will affect all the companies involved, no matter their efforts to throw the blame off themselves.

According to Waxman, just after midnight the morning of April 20, Halliburton finished cementing the well. Waxman said that James Dupree, the BP senior vice president for the Gulf of Mexico, told the committee staff that a 5 p.m. pressure test, to determine whether any gas was leaking into the well through the cement or casing, had an unsatisfactory result, and a second test also discovered a disturbing imbalance between pressure in the drill pipe and in the kill and choke lines.

Waxman said that while Dupree indicated that the well blew right after the second test, BP lawyers told the committee that additional tests were done and well operations resumed. Two hours later the well blew.

"The investigation will have to tear that apart piece by piece," said Lamar McKay, the president and president of BP America, of the discrepancy in the pressure tests.

Why, why, why wasn't the well shut down when the tests showed unsatisfactory results? Why?

Rep. Charlie Melancon (D), my rep in Congress, is running against Sen. David Vitter for his Senate seat, but he's far behind Vitter in the polls. He needs to wake up to the reality of conditions in the US today. Melancon says:

"We're the United States, and I would have thought if this was going to happen, it would have been in maybe a South African continent or some Third World country that just looked the other way or said, you know, if there's still such a thing -- and I'm sure there is -- kickbacks, that that would have happened there and not here in the United States," Melancon said. "And, of course, having come through Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike and now Horizon, it's just, I guess, the anxiety is building on South Louisiana as though there's a bull's eye on us."

Where ya been, Charlie? Asleep? Are you just now noting all is not hunky-dory in our country? Although our decline started before the Cheney/Bush regime, didn't you see the trashing of our institutions and agencies during the 8 years those guys were in charge? You voted their way a good many times, loyal Blue Dog Democrat that you are.


My hero.

"A SIMPLER PROTECTION...MUD"

 

A dead bird floats in oily water in Breton Sound about 10 miles southeast of Breton Island on Thursday.

From NOLA.com:

The investigation into what went wrong when the Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and started spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico is sure to find several engineering failures, from cement seals that didn't hold back a powerful gas bubble to a 450-ton, 40-foot-tall blowout preventer, a stack of metal valves and pistons that each failed to close off the well.

There was, however, a simpler protection against the disaster: mud. An attorney representing a witness says oil giant BP and the owner of the drilling platform, Switzerland-based Transocean Ltd., started to remove a mud barrier before a final cement plug was installed, a move industry experts say weakens control of the well in an emergency.

When the explosion occurred, BP was attempting to seal off an exploratory well. The company had succeeded in tapping into a reservoir of oil, and it was capping the well so it could leave and set up more permanent operations to extract its riches.

In order to properly cap a well, drillers rely on three lines of defense to protect themselves from an explosive blowout: a column of heavy mud in the well itself and in the drilling riser that runs up to the rig; at least two cement plugs that fit in the well with a column of mud between them; and a blowout preventer that is supposed to seal the well if the mud and plugs all fail.

In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, Scott Bickford, a lawyer for a rig worker who survived the explosions, said the mud was being extracted from the riser before the top cement cap was in place, and a statement by cementing contractor Halliburton confirmed the top cap was not installed.

If all of the mud had still been present, it would have helped push back against the gas burping up toward the rig, though it might not have held it back indefinitely.

The article doesn't mention the last-resort acoustic switch that was not installed on the Horizon.

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The switch costs $500,000. The total cost of a rig like the Horizon can run over $100 million.

IT'S HERE!

From NOLA.com:

Orange-colored oil from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has washed up on the western side of North Island, the northenmost sliver of the Chandeleur and Breton Island chain.

"On a small section of the northernmost island, we could see a pretty significant buildup of oil," said Times-Picayune photographer John McCusker, after an aerial tour of the spill this morning. "It's not inundated, but oil has definitely reached the island."

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro confirmed there was oil on Freemason Island, which is about a mile west from the middle of the crescent of the Chandeleur chain. He also said there are reports of birds covered with oil.
....

"The heaviest oil has not reached the Chandeleurs and Breton Sound, though," he said. "It breaks up from a heavy glob to a sheen."

Earlier Thursday, a BP executive told Louisiana officials some oil had reached coastal islands last night.

The already fragile chain of barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana, the Chandeleur and Breton Islands, battered and broken by hurricanes, get another hit. Pardon me, while I mourn for this and, no doubt, for worse to come.

Counterlight had it first.

THE MISSING LAST RESORT ACOUSTIC SWITCHES

From the Wall Street Journal:

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.

The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. On Wednesday federal investigators said the disaster is now releasing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, up from original estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.

U.S. regulators don't mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and the Deepwater Horizon, hired by oil giant BP PLC, didn't have one. With the remote control, a crew can attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself is damaged or evacuated.

The efficacy of the devices is unclear. Major offshore oil-well blowouts are rare, and it remained unclear Wednesday evening whether acoustic switches have ever been put to the test in a real-world accident. When wells do surge out of control, the primary shut-off systems almost always work. Remote control systems such as the acoustic switch, which have been tested in simulations, are intended as a last resort.

Although the efficacy of the devices may or may not be clear, depending upon to whom you're listening, the better part of caution would have been for BP to install the acoustic switches at the cost of $500,000, which is a fraction of the cost of a deep-water rig, which can run over $100 million. The spokesmen for the oil companies are already saying that the acoustic switches don't work.

UPDATE: Paul, the BB, is less restrained in his post at Byzigenous Buddhapalian.

HOPE FADES FOR MISSING RIG CREW

From NOLA.com:

Barring an overnight miracle, the search for 11 workers missing for more than 48 hours after an oil rig explosion was expected to be called off early today as two drilling companies and the federal government marshal resources to contain leaking oil after the burning rig sank Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico, creating what an industry official said "has the potential to be a major spill."

Hope for survivors dimmed Thursday as some of the 115 rescued crew members said the missing workers may have been near the Tuesday night explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig about 45 miles southeast of the Mississippi River's mouth, said Rear Adm. Mary Landry, commander of the Coast Guard's 8th District.

With a water temperature of 67 degrees, the probability of finding survivors had diminished to almost zero by Thursday afternoon, Landry said.

Working on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico or any offshore waters is not for the faint of heart. The potential for a dangerous accident is quite high. The Gulf provides around 25% of the US oil supply.

Please pray for the missing workers and for their families and friends.

Pray also that the leaks in the sunken rig can be contained and not lead to a major oil spill.