Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

Leaking methane and a seep near the well of the damaged Deepwater Horizon rig will not come in the way of continued testing of the capping stack installed by BP last week, according to Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander in charge of the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

In a statement, Admiral Allen said, “Yesterday I sent BP a letter stating that there were a number of unanswered questions about the monitoring systems they committed to as a condition of the United States government extending the well integrity test.” He added that over the weekend, a conference call between the federal science team and BP representatives was convened to discuss the “detection of a seep near the well and the possible observation of methane over the well.”

Noting that the federal science team had received the answers they were seeking and BP reiterated its commitment to monitoring and notification obligations., Admiral Allen said, “I authorised BP to continue the integrity test for another 24 hours and I restated our firm position that this test will only continue if they continue to meet their obligations to rigorously monitor for any signs that this test could worsen the overall situation.”

Seeking to allay fears that the testing period could force oil to seep into the rock surrounding the well, the Admiral said the federal science team had the ability to return to the safe containment of the oil “at any moment” on the surface. He noted that the team would continue closely monitoring the BP well until such time as the relief wells were completed and the main well was permanently killed.

According to reports, the initial closing of the containment cap’s valves was supposed to last 48 hours as a test to determine if the well was leaking elsewhere. However it has lasted four days.

Letter to Dudley

In yet another sternly-worded letter sent on Sunday to Robert Dudley, Chief Managing Director of BP, Admiral Allen said, “Given the current observations from the test, including the detected seep a distance from the well and undetermined anomalies at the well head, monitoring of the seabed is of paramount importance during the test period.”

He added that as a continued condition of the test, BP was required to provide as a top priority access and coordination for the monitoring systems, which included seismic and sonar surface ships and subsea ROV and acoustic systems.

Labels: Admiral Thad Allen, BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon rig, methane

From The Hindu

Even as British Petroleum (BP) announced that it would deploy the world’s biggest skimmer to mop up oil from the Gulf of Mexico — an enormous ship named “A-Whale” — the fingerprints of the oil spill from its Deepwater Horizon rig were detected in tar balls that washed ashore in parts of Texas.

The A-Whale, a super tanker, will be used to “suck” or “swallow up” the slimy oil-water mix that has spread across vast areas of the Gulf. Subsequently, the ship will separate the oil from the water and return the water to the sea. According to reports, the A-Whale is capable of processing 21 million gallons (500,000 barrels) of oil-slicked water a day.

The last one week has reportedly seen smaller skimmers and other methods of mopping up the spill being slowed down by choppy seas and strong winds from Hurricane Alex.

The super tanker is currently undergoing several tests north of the Deepwater Horizon rig, BP’s oil well that exploded in April causing this environmental disaster. Yet bad weather has, according to reports, rendered the results from an initial 48-hour testing period inconclusive.

As the Fourth of July long weekend drew to a close, fresh environmental concerns were also sparked in Texas as investigators discovered “very small tar balls in the surf, but not on shore”, according to official sources. In a statement, the unified command for the spill response said, “The tar balls were collected and sent to the lab to be tested where they were determined to be associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.”

Officials noted that tar balls were collected from the Crystal Beach area of the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas over the weekend but said, “It is unclear how the material got to Texas.” Reports quoted Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski as saying, “It is a very small amount of oil so that is inconsistent with the thought that our time has come and the oil has finally hit our shores. There may be another reason.”

Meanwhile, the unified command also reported continued progress in drilling relief wells despite the “elevated sea states”. Officials said the first relief well had been drilled to a depth of more than 17,700 feet below the Gulf surface and the second relief well, “a redundancy measure taken at the direction of the administration”, to a depth of approximately 13,900 feet below the surface.

Simultaneously, the administration continued to oversee BP’s processing of claims linked to the impact of the spill on local communities along the Gulf coastline. Government officials said, “To date, 95,387 claims have been opened, from which more than $147.2 million have been disbursed. No claims have been denied to date. There are 951 claims adjusters on the ground.”

Labels: A-Whale, BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon rig, oil spill mop up, tar balls

From The Hindu

The Obama administration would finally appear to be waking up to the wave of anger over its slow reaction to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This week the President is set to turn up the heat on British Petroleum (BP) over the question of compensation. He also made his fourth trip to the worst-affected areas along the Gulf, this time in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

Over the weekend, the White House joined with a growing public clamour for BP to set up an escrow account to provide compensation for the clean-up and to those affected by the slick.

On Sunday, David Axelrod, senior White House strategist, said on the NBC channel, “We want to make sure that money is escrowed for the legitimate claims that are going to be and are being made by businesses down in the gulf — people who have been damaged by this.”

Mr. Axelrod added that the administration wanted to ensure that the money would be independently administered so those who have suffered losses and would not be “slow-walked on these claims”.

According to reports quoting administration officials Mr. Obama will, in a speech from the Oval Office on Tuesday, outline a plan to legally compel BP to create an escrow account to compensate businesses and individuals for their losses.

Additionally the New York Times reported that White House officials were researching what legal authority the President had to compel BP to set aside money for claims, based on the 1990 Oil Pollution Act.

Last week in a conversation with British Prime Minister David Cameron Mr. Obama noted that “BP must do all it can to respond effectively to the situation.” The White House had also warned BP that it had until the end of the weekend to speed up efforts to contain the oil spill.

The spill has so far seen over 1.7 million gallons of oil polluting the Gulf daily. Ever since the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and killed 11 workers in late April, there have been increasingly vociferous calls for President Obama to stop being soft on the oil major.

While BP has accepted responsibility for the massive leak it has failed to halt the flow thus far and has also been slow to come up with funds for compensation for environmental damage and loss of incomes along the Gulf coastline.

Labels: Barack Obama, BP escrow compensation, BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon rig