BP Pursues Options to Halt Gulf Oil Leak
BP, as lease operator of Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252), continues to forge ahead with a comprehensive oil well intervention and spill response plan following the April 22 sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.
"We are attacking this spill on two fronts -- at the wellhead and on the surface offshore," said BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward, who has travelled to Texas and Louisiana this week to meet with response personnel. "The team on the ground and those at sea have the Group's full resources behind them."
BP continues to assist Transocean's work below the surface on the subsea equipment, using remotely operated vehicles to monitor the Macondo/MC252 exploration well, and is planning and mobilizing to activate the blow-out preventer.
BP is preparing to drill relief wells to permanently secure the well. The drilling rig Development Driller III is moving into position to drill a second well to intercept the Macondo well and inject a specialized heavy fluid to securely prevent flow of oil or gas and allow work to be carried out to permanently seal the well.
As of Saturday, April 24, the oil spill response team had recovered more than 1,000 barrels of an oil-water mix of which the vast majority is water. The material has been collected by skimming vessels and vessels towing containment boom. Dispersants have also been applied to the spill. Equipment available for the effort includes:
- 100,000 gallons of dispersant are ready to be deployed, which is a third of the world’s dispersant commodity; BP is in contact with manufacturers to procure additional supply as necessary.
- 32 spill response vessels (skimmers, tugs, barges, recovery vessels).
- 5 aircraft (helicopters and fixed wing including a large payload capacity C-130 (Hercules) for dispersant deployment).
In Houma, La. where the field operations response is being coordinated, almost 500 personnel on- and offshore have already been deployed to coordinate the oil spill response. BP’s team of operational and technical experts are working in coordination with several agencies, organizations and companies including United States Coast Guard, Minerals Management Service, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, and Marine Spill Response Corporation. More teams have been mobilized in Houston and New Orleans to support the effort.
According to Steve Benz, President and CEO of the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), "At BP's request we are mounting the single, largest response effort in MSRC's 20-year history. The many years of working together with BP on drills and exercises has proved invaluable to us as we move forward on this response effort."
"Given the current conditions and the massive size of our response, we are confident in our ability to tackle this spill offshore," Hayward added.
Along with the response teams in action, additional resources, both people and equipment, continue to arrive for staging throughout the Gulf states in preparation for deployment should they be needed.
- How Likely Is an All-Out War in the Middle East Involving the USA?
- Rooftop Solar Now 4th Largest Source of Electricity in Australia
- US Confirms Reimposition of Oil Sanctions against Venezuela
- EU, Industry Players Ink Charter to Meet Solar Energy Targets
- Analyst Says USA Influence on Middle East Seems to be Fading
- Russian Ships to Remain Banned from US Ports
- Brazil Court Reinstates Petrobras Chair to Divided Board
- EIB Lends $425.7 Million for Thuringia's Grid Upgrades
- Var Energi Confirms Oil Discovery in Ringhorne
- Seatrium, Shell Strengthen Floating Production Systems Collaboration
- An Already Bad Situation in the Red Sea Just Got Worse
- What's Next for Oil? Analysts Weigh In After Iran's Attack
- USA Regional Banks Dramatically Step Up Loans to Oil and Gas
- EIA Raises WTI Oil Price Forecasts
- How Likely Is an All-Out War in the Middle East Involving the USA?
- Venezuela Authorities Arrest Two Senior Energy Officials
- Namibia Expects FID on Potential Major Oil Discovery by Yearend
- Oil Markets Were Already Positioned for Iran Attack
- Is The Iran Nuclear Deal Revival Project Dead?
- Petrobras Chairman Suspended
- Oil and Gas Executives Predict WTI Oil Price
- An Already Bad Situation in the Red Sea Just Got Worse
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Oil and Gas Execs Reveal Where They See Henry Hub Price Heading
- Equinor Makes Discovery in North Sea
- Macquarie Strategists Warn of Large Oil Price Correction
- DOI Announces Proposal for Second GOM Offshore Wind Auction
- Standard Chartered Reiterates $94 Brent Call
- Chevron, Hess Confident Embattled Merger Will Close Mid-2024
- Analysts Flag 'Remarkable Feature' of 2024 Oil Price Rally