Posted on 07/19/2010 2:24:55 PM PDT by Steelfish
Seepages Near The Leaking BP Oil Well 'May Be Natural' Seepages on the sea floor near the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well may be unrelated to the well itself, the government's incident commander says.
Adm Thad Allen said there were concerns over three areas of "anomaly" during monitoring for a pressure test on the well.
The well has been capped to see if the flow of oil can be stopped without provoking leaks in the sea bed.
If the test fails, the well will be re-opened and oil will flow out again.
Adm Allen outlined the three areas of concern.
Some seepage, 3km (1.9 miles) from the well head, had caused concern.
But Adm Allen said it was not believed that the leak on the sea floor was anything to do with the integrity test.
Oil and gas leaks can happen naturally, and it may have been impossible, while the oil was still gushing out of the well, for nearby natural seepage to be detected.
Another area of concern is nearer to the well head, a few hundred metres away. And the third cause for concern is bubbles of gas and small quantities of oil coming from a section of the cap.
This may not be "consequential", Adm Allen said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Drill some more wells close by and pump the living daylights out of them to reduce the local pressures and the global price of oil.
methane ... In the Gulf of Mexico? seeping.. near the well head. I’m shocked.
Isn’t the Gulf one of the most rich regions re: methane, etc. ? naturally occurring even.. ?
If this baby was gonna collapse or explode , why’s it taking so long? Hmmmm..
may be, cuz we got a bunch of folk around trying to paint a picture that ain’t gonna happen.. jmo
It isn’t likely that any seep at any distance from the well has anything to do with the well.
And Naturally BP didn’t know about these before the explosion and have them mapped..... /s
Gasp! You mean that Gaeia, the Earth Mother is naturally leaking oil? Oh, the humanity.
It would be pretty easy for BP to tell as they could look at the seismic data and see if there is a fault that cuts the wellbore. It would have to be moving up a fault plane to be that far away from the wellbore.
“what does he have against us down here?”
You’re just a convenient vehicle for his takeover of industry.
But there are particulars against you as well. White (well, Jindal isn’t but he’s not black or hispanic) Southern governors - a couple of possible Presidential contenders among them. Voting Republican for President, etc.
Obama rightly fears Gov. Rick Perry.
Texas has the most robust, growing economy of any major state.
Perry would enter the race in 2012 with the backing of the national Old Guard Pubbies, the Bush machine, and Sarah Palin.
He has no skeletons in his closet. Rick is a GREAT speaker and looks great on camera.
While conservatives have criticized his mistakes, most of the country would not even notice them.
The MAJOR ISSUE in 2012 will be the moribund economy. The People will follow a pol with a proven record. That’s why the dims have been trying to damage Texas and the Gulf Coast in any way possible.
BTW, I used my Jedi powers in 1998 to foresee that W would be the Prez in 2000. That was many posts ago.
Everybody agrees that natural seeps occur. On land, as at Titusville, PA, where the first well was drilled; at La Brea in Los Angeles. Offshore in shallow water at Santa Barbara, CA. Many others. Bitumen was known in Biblical times.
Natural seeps in deep water, >1500 m, are not reported.
In any case, seeps in coastal waters that have existed for 100s of thousands of years or more, have allowed marine creatures to evolve to live in that environment. Close to the surface, plentiful oxygen from wave action.
A seep in deep water, where there is a very different biota, opens many new questions. Inasmuch as the deep water sea floor is geologically older and more stable, it can be thought that a seep there is not “natural”.
Creatures that have evolved to live in a 100 ppm of oil may not be able to cope with a sudden gush to 10,000 ppm.
Completely unexpected!
True but given the record of the Feds and BP in this spill you have to wonder about “natural seeping.”
There are seeps in deep water all over the world. Water depth is not an issue.
Well, it is an issue in that the deeper the water the more pressure holding the oil at bay.
Now Obambi the Deer Leader can get on a submarine, and lecture the seafloor about not being “green” enough.
And BTW, there is also naturally-occurring chrysotile asbestos on all of the world’s ocean floors.
The Gulf floor is full of natural seeps and it’s no coincidence that drillers like to sink wells near seeps.
BP will have all kinds of 3D seismic data from surveys that they used to discover this reservoir in first place. They can use that data to compare with new data - a fault or a new fault would have been obvious.
Heard one of our state guys say the other day the first reported oil spill in Texas was in 1543, recorded by the Spanish.
you gotta be kidding about rick perry.
I live in texas, been here for 4-5 generations.
Perry is frat boy / used car / big hair which way the wind blows idiot.
What about the STD Vaccines he wanted forced on school girls?
What about the Trans Texas Corridor we fought tooth and nail to defeat the outsourcing of the TTC toll road to a spanish conglomerate?
If you like RINOs, Perry is perfect.
If Perry wants the conservative vote, he will come out and EXPLAIN why he was out-of-his-friggin mind with the above two issues.
I prefer someone WITHOUT dirty underwear, or at least somebody who knows he has crapped his pants....
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