Posted on 04/24/2010 8:06:47 PM PDT by Steelfish
US Coast Guard: Oil Leaking From Sunken Rig
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AFP/US Coast Guard – This US Coast Guard image released on April 22 shows fire boat response crews as they battle the blazing …
Sat Apr 24 NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Oil is leaking from the ruptured well of a large rig that exploded, burnt and sank in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week, the US Coast Guard said Saturday. The Coast Guard estimated that up to 1,000 of barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons (158,987 liters) were spewing each day from a riser and a drill pipe, prompting further concerns of damage to Louisiana's fragile ecosystem, already stressed by hurricanes and coastal erosion.
Officials confirmed the discovery a day after the Coast Guard said that no oil appeared to be leaking from the well head. Coast Guard Eighth District commander Rear Admiral Mary Landry told reporters the leak likely began on Thursday, when the rig sank two days after an initial explosion tore through the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible oil drilling platform. The best case scenario is sealing off the pipe ruptures in a few days; the worst case scenario is a matter of months.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
42,000 gallons? That’s nothing. Four semiloads.
No doubt “commander zero” and “deadfish” won’t let this crisis go to waste.
Wow!! 158,000 Liters is SO much more scarier than less than 1,000 barrels, isn’t it???
Could all the oil in the Earth eventually leak out this hole?
No.
Oil fields are separate. That is why we have to drill in so many separate locations.
Oh,the Humanity! This is terrible. Mother Earth is hurting.
LOL!
If we don't oil the drive shaft once a week, Melmac's orbit will begin to squeek.
I’m not sure what you are laughing about. Forgetting the 11 dead and who knows how many injured, and not minding the $500 million dollar investment that now lays at the bottom of the ocean as a worthless pile of scrap metal, every week and a half a million dollars worth of crude will be lost in the middle of a fishery that in Louisiana alone accounts for $270 million dockside value. Pretty funny, huh?
They said today that the well head is at about the 5 thousand foot level? If so, they got a real problem.
What's funny is that you don't have clue about the nature of my post. Bye.
I guess not. Must be because you’re an idiot.
What the hell to believe? One day it’s 300 thousand gallons plus. The next day it’s no oil. The day after than we’re up to 145 thousands gallons per day.
One can only guess what the total will be every day this next week. Sheesh!
"The Gulf of Mexico is an area where such natural seepage occurs at a very high rate. Of the 200,000 metric tons of oil seepage that is thought to occur each year, about 150,000 metric tons escapes from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico."
150,000 / 365 = 411 metric tons a day
411 * 2,205 pounds per metric ton = 906,255 pounds
At 7 pounds per gallon: 906,255 pounds / 7 = 129,465 gallons a day naturally.
Ho hum.
Hmmm. Wonder how they can distinguish this so far from the 700,000 gallons of diesel onboard the platform?
Adding a third again as much isn’t exactly “ho hum”.
Two distinct points have been seen leaking in the remaining riser pipe by submersible ROVs.
Not likely. They had to be able to work at that level to be able to put the well-head in in the first place. I think the biggest problem with most well blowouts is fire or the danger of fire, which isn't likely to happen at the bottom of the Gulf.
This is NOT to say that fixing it will be easy, but the technology doesn't have to be developed "from scratch".
Its already on fire.
They got a real problem. If the casing is bent over they have to cut the casing and then either drive a jacket over that casing or thread it and get a valve on it to seal the thing.
It all depends on the pressure at the head I suppose.
Have they ever determined the cause of the explosion?
These days I’m constantly suspicious of
1. Terrorism
2. Enviro-whackos
THe timing of this, right around cap and trade legislation is just as suspicious as the timing of the lawsuit against Goldman Sachs and the financial regulation bill.
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