Posts Tagged ‘Gulf oil spill’
After 106 Days, ‘Static Kill’ Appears to Have Stopped the Gulf Oil Leak
Before we talk about what this means, a quick spin through the numbers is in order. It's now day 106 since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion occurred, claiming the lives of 11 rig workers and kicking off what is most currently being estimated as a 62,000-barrel-a-day (barrels, not gallons, making it 12 times faster than BP originally claimed) flow of oil into Gulf waters. All in, 4.9 million barrels, or 205 million gallons, of crude were spilled, costing BP billions in cleanup efforts (they're still on the hook for more) and causing unquantifiable damage to Gulf and Gulf Coast ecosystems.
That's the bad news. The good news is that the worst appears to be behind us. BP is still mulling its options with Coast Guard officials and may either pump in more drilling mud to push the oil deeper into its source rock, or it may begin pumping concrete into the well to cap it off for good. BP is also moving forward with the drilling of the relief well so they can also seal the well from the bottom for added security.
So where are all these 5 million barrels of oil? There's good news being reported on that front as well. The reports this morning that the government is expected to announce that only 26 percent of that oil remains in the water. The other three-quarters have evaporated, dispersed, or been removed by cleanup efforts. How damaging the lingering and dispersed oil is remains to be seen.
Of course, there's still the issue of the 1.8 million gallons of that were dumped into the water and the various unknown effects they might have on ocean life. But for now, the spill itself appears to (finally) be over with, and that's as good as the news can get at this point.
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X-Prize Challenge Offers $1.4 Million for Revolutionary Oil Cleanup Tech
Inspired, of course, by the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- which as of this writing appears to still be contained -- the new X Challenge aims to provide impetus for both venture capital and innovative talent gravitate toward next-gen oil cleanup technology.
"The devastating impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will last for years and it is inevitable that future spills will occur -- both from wells and from transport tankers," stated X-Prize Chairman Dr. Peter Diamandis at this morning's official announcement of the prize in Washington, D.C.
The challenge will be a two-stage affair. Phase one calls for those vying for the prize to put their technical approaches to the problem before a panel of judges that will evaluate them for feasibility, cost, scalability, environmental impact, and the degree to which the technology improves over current methods like skimming and booms.
Phase two, of course, is the demonstration of the technology in action. Competitors won't actually take their ideas to the Gulf for testing -- all evaluations will take place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHSMETT) in New Jersey. But with any luck some of that technology will make it to the field eventually. The team with the single best technology will receive a $1 million prize purse, with second and third place taking home $300,000 and $100,000 respectively.
The prize's namesake and benefactor, Wendy Schmidt, is the wife of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the philanthropic force behind a handful of charitable foundations, including the Schmidt Marine Science Research Institute, which she co-founded with her husband.
One More Proposal to Plug the Oil Leak, But Can We Afford To Make Things Worse?
Saying things can’t get any worse in the Gulf at this point seems like a dubious claim, but Willard Wattenburg’s idea has made it all the way to the desk of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Why? Wattenburg orchestrated the capping of 500 wells in just seven months in Kuwait in the aftermath of Gulf One, a job that was estimated to take 5 years, so he’s got the oil industry chops. But naturally there are some who think the idea is a bad gamble that could indeed exacerbate later efforts to stem the flow of oil.
Wattenburg’s simple idea involves pumping steel balls into the leaking riser that are heavy enough to sink downward in spite of the upward pressure from the upward-surging oil. Once the balls get deep enough down they’ll begin to settle and slow the flow – the job the drilling mud failed to do during the . Once the flow is decreased, we can pump in the concrete and cap the well. We’ll need a bout 200 tons of steel balls, Wattenburg says. Total cost: about $100,000.
What’s more, if it fails if fails without leaving an environmental crisis in its wake, Wattenburg says, and the relatively low cost make it worth a try.
Other engineers are skeptical. For one, they say, the oil is rushing up not through the central pipe, but through the space between the central pipe and the outer casing. The balls would likely take the easiest route downward into the central pipe, where they won’t make a difference. Further, a bunch of steel balls in the well could complicate capping efforts once the relief wells are complete.
The real question now is: Do we make the conservative play and wait for the relief wells to be drilled or should the government go in and attempt new methods of plugging that damn hole. And if those attempts make matters even worse in the Gulf, does that take the blame off of BP to some degree?
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Meet the Robots On the Oil Leak’s Front Lines
Remotely operated robots are shooting video, carrying equipment, drilling pieces into place, and monitoring the flow of oil. BP has contracted with at least four robotics companies, including Oceaneering International Inc., Subsea 7 and C-Innovation, to do the work, according to .
Initially, the undersea robots were unimpressive, failing to that could have sealed the well from the surface. But since then, they cut the broken riser pipe and placed both containment domes over the spewing well. They’ve also provided the live video streaming across millions of TV screens.
Teams of humans on boats are controlling the robots, which have names like Maxximum, Hercules and Skandi Neptune. The human operators -- two for each robot -- drive using joysticks, but they can’t see where their undersea avatars are going. Even with headlights, the robots’ environment is almost completely dark, so they use sonar to gauge their proximity to objects.
The ROVs range in size from that of a small car to a big truck, although most of their bulk consists of foam intended to protect them from the intense pressures found at 5,000 feet below the surface. They remain connected to fiber-optic or copper tethers that enable communications, but sometimes ocean currents tangle or even break those lifelines.
The spill has shown the world how much hinges on the work of a team of robots, according to John Mair, global technology manager for the Scottish firm Subsea 7.
Here’s hoping they (and their human drivers) can handle the pressure.
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Depressing: Oil Spilled To Date Could Power 38,000 Cars For a Year
As of today, Wednesday, June 9, the oil spewing from the Deepwater Horizon well could have powered 38,000 cars, 3,400 trucks and 1,800 ships for a full year, according to University of Delaware professor James J. Corbett.
Corbett, a marine policy professor, has a that calculates the spilled oil's lost potential on a daily basis. He uses an estimate of 19,000 barrels a day, the most recent government guess. He says he created the site to put the spill in perspective that petroleum users can easily understand.
Meanwhile, estimates $1 million in oil is being spilled each day.
And that's saying nothing of the
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Underwater Survey Finds Volume of Leaked Oil Unprecedented ‘in Human History’
"It's an infusion of oil and gas unlike anything else that has ever been seen anywhere, certainly in human history." So says the leader of a group or researchers aboard the F.G. Walton Smith, who yesterday after spending two weeks touring the Gulf while studying an underwater plume of oil measuring 3 miles long, 15 miles wide, and about 500 feet thick, the core of which is 3,500 to 4,000 feet below the surface. Meanwhile, NOAA researchers have confirmed the finding of undersea oil concentrations up to 40 nautical miles northeast from the leak site.
The good news from 4,000 feet down is that bacteria are breaking down the oil, feasting on the bounty of hydrocarbons loose in the water. The bad news is that the feeding frenzy is causing oxygen levels to dive and could create a "dead zone" in which marine life will be smothered.
Then there's the methane, which is rising to levels up to 10,000 times higher than normal, and the oil dispersants, whose effects on marine life and food chains are largely unknown.
The takeaway from all this: Regardless of how many barrels or gallons of oil have slipped into the water versus previous disasters, researchers in the Gulf are concerned that the Deepwater Horizon spill may be the worst ecological disaster in known marine history due to the size and density of the plumes in the Gulf as well as what can fairly be described as a botched response to the disaster (are surface dispersants necessary when the source of the oil is so deep?).
While crises like these tend to draw out all kinds of agenda-driven opinions, the federal government and many of the smartest minds therein are now coming to terms with what's going on down South, formally backing these less-than-optimistic opinions of scientists working in the Gulf. That bodes well for the spirit of consensus, but not for the long-term ecological health of the Gulf Shore.
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Could We Stop the Gulf Leak With a Nuke? Maybe, But We’re Not Going To
The idea of nuking the oil leak surfaced on various sites of over the past weeks as failure after failure to contain the leak rendered BP and U.S. agencies more and more desperate for a solution. It's rooted in the idea that, reportedly, the USSR used nuclear blasts to cap off five different gas wells from 1966 to 1981, with all of the attempts successful but the last.
Since then, the idea seems to have gained more and more adherents -- a Houston-based energy expert claimed Friday that "all the best scientists" are behind the idea (see video below) -- lending credence to the notion that the U.S. might attempt the tactic as other options seem to be running out. The fact that the New York Times actually asked DOE officials about it shows just how much traction the idea of dropping a nuke to the seabed off the coast of Louisiana has gained in the popular consciousness.
But just for the record, when the Times did ask, a DOE spokeswoman said the option never was, and is not, on the table. Aside from the fact that we would be entering technologically uncharted waters (all the alleged Soviet attempts to cap wells with nukes took place on land), to detonate a nuke in this day and age, even for peaceful purposes, would violate a variety of international agreements and perhaps undo whatever progress President Obama has made toward disarmament.
So no, we're not going to drop a nuke in the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. But if you're the type who enjoys mingling with the more sensational side of what the Internet has to offer, check out article from Russia's Pravda, which kicked off discussion of the nuclear option in the first place (can we tempt you by noting that the film "Armageddon" is used as an analogy within the piece?). After that, it's probably a good idea to let this one die.
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