Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

Oil companies BP, Transocean and Halliburton share the blame for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico along with government regulators who failed to rigorously examine industry practices, according to the final findings of a Presidential panel investigating the causes of the spill.

In a chapter of the report, made available in advance of the full report’s release, the panel said that the blowout of BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf was not the product of a series of “aberrational decisions made by rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to occur again.”

Rather, the panel argued, the root causes of the explosion and subsequent environmental catastrophe were systemic and in the absence of significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, they might well recur.

The BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 20 last year, following an explosion that killed 11 workers. Since then nearly five million barrels of oil from the well spewed into the Gulf, causing widespread environmental damage exceeding in scale the Exxon Valdez spill near Alaska in 1989.

The panel of experts also specifically noted that the missteps involved were rooted in systemic failures by industry management extending beyond BP to contractors, and also by failures of government to provide effective regulatory oversight of offshore drilling.

Describing their findings as “considerable and significant,” they said that firstly each of the mistakes made on the rig and onshore by industry and government increased the risk of a well blowout; and secondly the cumulative risk that resulted from these decisions and actions was both unreasonably large and avoidable.

In its report the panel recalled that the immediate cause of the Macondo blowout was a failure to contain hydrocarbon pressures in the well and there were three ways to have contained those pressures – the cement at the bottom of the well, the mud in the well and in the riser, and the blowout preventer.

“But mistakes and failures to appreciate risk compromised each of those potential barriers, steadily depriving the rig crew of safeguards until the blowout was inevitable and, at the very end, uncontrollable,” the report said.

Media reported a statement by BP this week in which the company underscored that the panel had apportioned blame to a number of companies, and not BP alone. “Even prior to the conclusion of the commission’s investigation, BP instituted significant changes designed to further strengthen safety and risk management,” a BP official was quoted as saying in the New York Times. BP’s share price rose after it became clear that several companies said to be at fault for the accident.

Halliburton and Transocean also issued statements deflecting blame away from themselves, emphasising BP’s role or the quality of their own management processes instead.

Last month, the United States Justice Department announced that it had slapped BP and other companies with a lawsuit seeking “unlimited removal costs and damages,” under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

Labels: BP, environmental catostrophe, oil spill

From The Hindu

The Justice Department of the United States government has announced that it has slapped BP and several other companies it held responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last summer with a lawsuit seeking “unlimited removal costs and damages” under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

Speaking at a news conference following the announcement Attorney General Eric Holder said “We intend to prove that... violations [of industry regulations] caused or contributed to this massive oil spill, and that the defendants are therefore responsible – under the Oil Pollution Act – for government removal costs, economic losses, and environmental damages.”

Mr. Holder also warned that the Obama administration would not hesitate to take “whatever steps are necessary” to hold accountable those who are responsible for this spill, a remark that led some experts such as law professor David Uhlmann of the University of Michigan to speculate in the New York Times whether a criminal case might follow.

Currently it is only a civil suit that the U.S. government has filed, one that was built on the case that BP and companies related to the oil spill incident ought to be held liable for allowing over millions of gallons of crude oil to flow in the Gulf from the ruptured Macondo well of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Other companies named as defendants in the suit include Anadarko Exploration and Production, Moex Offshore, Triton Asset Leasing, Transocean Holdings, QBE Underwriting and Lloyd’s Syndicate 1036. Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in April this year, and was only capped in July after an unprecedented effort by BP and the government to halt the oil flow.

One notable absentee from the defendants list, however, was Halliburton, which was said to be the contractor for the cement work on the well. When asked about this Mr. Holder was reported to have explained that the complaint could be amended later and more defendant names could be added to the list. The wording of the lawsuit corroborated this claim.

Touching upon the vast scale of the damage resulting from the spill the lawsuit observed, “While the full scope and impact of this disaster are not yet known, the consequences include lost lives, destroyed livelihoods, and grave harm to natural resources across several States and related waters.”

The specific charges brought by the lawsuit against the operators of the well and the rig related to failure to prevent the blowout of oil and methane gas was not prevented by defendants, and the companies involved had not taken “necessary precautions to keep the Macondo Well under control.”

Other charges that the U.S. government has brought against the defendants include failing to use the best available and safest drilling technology to monitor and evaluate the Macondo Well’s conditions, failure to maintain continuous surveillance on the rig floor, and failure to maintain equipment and materials such as the Blow-Out Preventer stack, that were “available and necessary to ensure the safety and protection of personnel, equipment natural resources, and the environment.

Labels: environmental catastrophe, Gulf of Mexico, Obama administration, oil spill

From The Hindu

Oil major BP found itself furiously back-pedalling over yet another public-relations blunder when one of its officials said that the company was again considering drilling for offshore oil near the very site of the Deepwater Horizon rig from which vast amounts of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico for over three months.

The Associated Press quoted BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles as saying that BP might drill again someday into the same undersea reservoir of oil, which is still believed to hold nearly $4 billion worth of crude. “There's lots of oil and gas here... We are going to have to think about what to do with that at some point,” Mr. Suttles reportedly said.

However late on Friday evening, BP issued another statement, emphasising that it would, at this time, focus on killing the well and on the recovery of the Gulf coastline, not on future drilling in the offshore reservoir.

The company said in a statement that its “present focus is entirely on the response effort in the Gulf of Mexico and the future use of the reservoir is not currently under consideration.”

The controversy follows a string of gaffes that caused public anger, particularly comments by former BP CEO Tony Hayward, which underplayed the significance of the oil spill and the environmental damage it has caused.

The latest episode occurred even as BP finally succeeded in completing cementing operations at the ruptured wellhead, as part of the “static kill” procedure. The company said that it was also continuing with relief well operations, and “Depending upon weather conditions, mid-August is the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will intercept the Macondo well annulus.”

Labels: BP gaffes, offshore drilling, oil spill, Tony Hayward

From The Hindu

BP’s role in capping and paying for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should be separated from the decision to release Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron said, at joint press conference with President Barack Obama.

He further emphasised that Mr. Megrahi’s release was a decision made by the Scottish government when Labour was in power in the U.K. and although it was “a decision which I wholly disagree with... [it] was taken in an appropriate way.”

Mr. Cameron also underscored his reluctance to hold any further investigations into Mr. Megrahi’s release, saying, “I'm not currently minded that we need to have a U.K.-based inquiry on this -- partly for this reason: I don't need an inquiry to tell me what was a bad decision. It was a bad decision."

He added that what made it an even worse decision was the fact that “Megrahi is still free, at liberty, in Libya, rather than serving the prison sentence in Scotland, as he should be doing.”

President Obama, who adopted a softer approach than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a few days ago, simply said, “I think all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed, and angry about the release of the Lockerbie bomber... We’ve got a British Prime Minister who shares our anger over the decision, who also objects to how it played out.”

Earlier this week Ms. Clinton, reacting to pressure from a group of Senators demanding a British review of the case, had clearly said that she would press the U.K. government to hold such a review. However Mr. Obama stopped short of reiterating that demand, saying, “We should have all the facts; they should be laid out there. And I have confidence that Prime Minister Cameron’s government will be cooperative in making sure that the facts are there.”

He added that once the facts had all come out, he expected that “we're going to be back to where we are right now, which it was a decision that should not have been made.”

At the joint briefing Mr. Cameron was nevertheless firm in insisting that BP did not play a role in influencing the Scottish government to release Mr. Megrahi. He said, “I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the Scottish government were in any way swayed by BP. They were swayed by their considerations about the need to release him on compassionate grounds – grounds that I think were completely wrong.”

He added that Mr. Megrahi was “the biggest mass murderer in British history and there was no business in letting him out of prison.”

Labels: BP role, David Cameron, Megrahi issue, oil spill

From The Hindu

Additional analysis of the procedure to test the wells was necessary before the actual well integrity testing begins, Admiral Thad Allen, National Incident Commander in charge of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response announced.

The testing of the well’s integrity, an essential step following the installation of the “capping stack” by BP on Monday was postponed until Wednesday night, and will continue into Thursday, Admiral Allen said, instead of beginning on July 13 as initially planned.

BP said that during that period it would “continue to ramp up containment operations on the Helix Producer as well as continue to optimise the Q4000 operations”, the two skimming and flaring vessels deployed in the Gulf by the oil major. The company noted that the Helix Producer has the capacity to capture “approximately 20,000 – 25,000 barrels of oil per day… [and] historically, the Q4000 has flared an average of approximately 8,000 barrels of oil per day.”

However, the company also cautioned that success was not guaranteed in this latest capping operation given that “the sealing cap system, the Q4000 system, the flexible riser system, and the planned additional containment systems never before have been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and their efficiency and ability to contain or flare the oil and gas cannot be assured”.

Meanwhile operations aimed at “permanent” containment continued with regard to the first relief well; however operations on the second relief well have been temporarily suspended at 15,963 feet to ensure that there is no interference with the first relief well. BP noted, “The relief wells remain the sole means to permanently seal and isolate the well.”

Obama sends fourth bill to BP

In parallel, the administration announced that President Barack Obama on Tuesday “sent a fourth bill for $99.7 million to BP and other responsible parties for response and recovery operations relating to the spill”. In a statement, the disaster response team said the administration would continue to bill BP “regularly for all associated costs” to ensure the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is reimbursed on an ongoing basis. It added that BP and other responsible parties have paid the first three bills in full — totalling $122.3 million.

Labels: British Petroleum, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill

From The Hindu

A rare public exchange of letters between National Incident Commander in charge of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Thad Allen and Robert Dudley, who is leading the mop-up operations at BP, showed the government has been pressing the oil major to come up with plans to accelerate its collection of the oil.

It began on Thursday when Admiral Allen wrote to Mr. Dudley saying, “We are entering a critical stage in the Deepwater Horizon response where key decisions will be made in executing plans for total collection of oil at the wellhead and for potentially securing the well completely.”

Not mincing his words, Admiral Allen on Thursday demanded that Mr. Dudley provide him, within 24 hours, with a detailed timeline outlining BP's plans to affix onto the well a second cap — called a “capping stack” — that could significantly increase the containment capacity of the system. Paradoxically, the process for deployment of the capping stack would, Admiral Allen acknowledged, increase amount oil leaking temporarily. To mitigate this heightened flow, the Admiral asked Mr. Dudley to explain his plans to use a third containment ship, the Helix Producer. “I must have knowledge of the steps and decision points involved; mitigation efforts to be implemented; and contingency plans if these efforts are not successful,” he emphasised.

After scrambling to provide the Admiral with a response within the deadline, Mr. Dudley said in his letter that though BP had initially scheduled the capping stack installation to follow the Helix Producer beginning containment operations, “as weather has impacted our ability to execute these activities in series we … have proposed that the capping stack procedure be implemented in parallel with the start-up of the Helix Producer.”

After review Admiral Allen approved the plan, saying later to media: “After reviewing Bob Dudley's response to my July 8 letter … I approved BP's plan to simultaneously install the Helix Producer and ‘capping stack' containment mechanisms, which will require temporary suspension of the current top hat containment system.”

The Admiral added that he had validated this plan because the capacity for oil containment when the installations were complete would be “far greater than the capabilities we have achieved using current systems”. He also noted that weather forecasts had turned more favourable over the last few days and “will provide the working conditions necessary for these transitions to be successfully completed without delays”.

Admiral Allen said the transition to the new containment infrastructure could begin “in the next days but will take seven to ten days to complete”. He also said the entire process, “once we start unbolting until we're in a position to put the new cap on, could be three to four days”.

The Admiral conceded that there would be a spike in the outflow volume, saying: “There will be a period of time where the Discover Enterprise will have to move off station to allow us to put the new capping device on. So the amount they've been able to recover which is roughly around let's say 15,000 barrels a day will have to be released while we're putting the new cap on.”

Labels: British Petroleum, capping stack, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill, Robert Dudley, Thad Allen

From The Hindu

In a desperate bid to stave-off a surge off public anger that has now been engulfing oil major British Petroleum for nearly two months, the company’s CEO Tony Howard today said he was “deeply sorry.”

Facing a grilling during a hearing by the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives, Mr. Hayward said, “I want to speak directly to the people who live and work in the Gulf region: I know that this incident has profoundly impacted lives and caused turmoil, and I deeply regret that.”

Even as the Obama administration cranked up the heat on BP, the company announced that it would commit around $20 billion to an escrow account that would be used to help mitigate the costs of cleaning up the enormous spill from the BP-run Deepwater Horizon offshore rig.

On Wednesday President Barack Obama and senior White House staff met with Mr. Hayward and top BP executives to lay out their demands regarding the escrow account and the costs that they expected BP would make good.

According to reports Representative Henry Waxman of California said, “BP cut corner after corner...and they were apparently oblivious as to what was happening,” during the hearing which was conducted by the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “Now the whole Gulf Coast is paying the price,” he reportedly said.

Further Representative Joe Barton of Texas noted, “The picture emerging in this investigation is not one of technological limits, but of unsafe industry practices… It is BP's decision making that was a critical factor in this incident.”

Regarding the escrow fund, BP said in statement that an agreement was reached to create a $20 billion claims fund over the next three and a half years on the basis that BP would initially make payments of $3 billion in the third quarter of 2010 and $2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010. “These will be followed by a payment of $1.25bn per quarter until a total of $20bn has been paid in,” the company noted.

Settling claims

The fund would be available to satisfy claims such as natural resource damages and state and local response costs and fines and penalties would be excluded from the fund and paid separately. Payments from the fund would be made as they are adjudicated, whether by the Independent Claims Facility (ICF) or by a court, or as agreed by BP, the company said. It added that the ICF would be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, who also served as President Obama’s “pay tsar” in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Labels: Barack Obama, British Petroleum, claims fund, Gulf Coast, oil spill

From The Hindu

President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced that he had chosen Michael Bromwich, former Assistant Attorney and Justice Department Inspector General, to lead his administration's efforts to "accelerate reforms in the regulation and oversight of offshore oil drilling".

In a statement, the White House said Mr. Bromwich would lead the effort to reform the Minerals Management Service (MMS), with the aim of "restoring integrity and rigor to the relationship between federal regulatory officials and oil companies". It added that Mr. Bromwich would also seek to develop plans for a new oversight structure and replace long-standing and inadequate practices with a "gold-standard approach for environmental and safety regulation".

This is the second round of administrative appointments made by President Obama in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier last month, he announced the establishment of a bipartisan National Commission to investigate the oil spill from British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon rig. The Commission was charged with closely examining the activities of the offshore drilling industry and is co-chaired by former two-term Florida Governor and former Senator Bob Graham and also former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency William Reilly.

The latest appointment comes with a promise by the President that Mr. Bromwich will be provided with a mandate to implement far-reaching change and will have the resources to accomplish that change. Mr. Obama said, "For a decade or more, the cosy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency was allowed to go unchecked. That allowed drilling permits to be issued in exchange not for safety plans, but assurances of safety from oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore."

In particular, Mr. Bromwich has been tasked with overseeing the reorganisation of the MMS to eliminate conflicts among the different missions of the agency which include establishing safety standards, regulating industry compliance, and collecting royalties, the White House noted. Further, InteriorSecretary Ken Salazar announced plans to split the MMS into three new divisions — the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue.

Mr. Bromwich's work will also pick up the threads of the 30-day report by Mr. Salazar’s office, on the safety and environmental precautions for offshore drilling rigs and on the "forthcoming recommendations of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling".

In terms of his background, Mr. Bromwich has specialised in taking "broken agencies, applying rigorous reforms and oversight, and seeing positive results". According to the White House, his work has led to significant improvements in a variety of organisations ranging from Federal agencies to local police departments in Houston and Washington.

Labels: Michael Bromwich, oil spill

From The Hindu

In what might be the most serious setback to date in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis, scientists have suggested that the rate at which the spill is growing could be double the original estimation.

Marcia McNutt, United States Geological Survey Director and leader of the Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) monitoring the spill, said the best estimate for the average flow rate of the leak could be as high as 40,000 barrels per day.

If indeed the true flow rate is 40,000 barrels per day, it would imply that 1.7 million gallons of oil have been flowing daily out of the ruptured well of the British Petroleum-owned Deepwater Horizon offshore rig.

The rig exploded on April 22, killing 11 people, and has been spewing out vast amounts of oil into the Gulf since then. It has already caused extensive damage to marine life and eroded the incomes of those dependent on it, particularly in Louisiana where the oil slick has swamped the state’s fragile coastal marshlands.

Researchers had earlier estimated the amount of oil escaping into the Gulf at between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels — 504,000 to 798,000 gallons — per day. During the most recent attempt to halt and divert the flow, by cutting well’s riser pipe and placing a cap on the well, the experts had said that the rate flow had increased by 4 to 5 per cent.

The latest estimates were, according to Dr. McNutt, based on “additional video that BP was directed to provide” and calculated the lower and upper bound range estimates for a period of time before the Riser Insertion Tube Tool was inserted and before the riser was cut. The scientist team further cautioned that the estimates depended on “limited data available and the small amount of time to process that data”.

Meanwhile BP reported on the containment process currently underway, which has entailed the use of a lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap to collect oil and gas flowing from the MC252 well and transport them to the Discoverer Enterprise drillship on the surface.

In an update the company said, “In the first 12 hours of June 9 (midnight to noon), approximately 7,920 barrels of oil were collected and 15.7 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared. On June 8, a total of approximately 15,000 barrels of oil were collected and 29.4 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.”

BP continues to face pressure from the Obama administration to not only halt and mop up the leak but also compensate fishermen and others along the Gulf coastline for loss of income. On Thursday it announced a second round of block grants of $25 million each to the states of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

Labels: BP oil spill, environmental issues, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill

From The Hindu

U.S. President Barack Obama this weekend reiterated his determination to get BP to pay for the damage caused by the oil spill from their Deepwater Horizon offshore rig, including a preliminary bill of $69 million for the costs of the response thus far. After speaking at Grand Isle, Louisiana, to local residents and small business owners about the hardships that they were facing, he underscored his commitment to helping them recover and rebuild.

Mr. Obama also sought to deflect criticism that his administration had failed to respond rapidly enough to the crisis, arguing “… from the beginning, we have mobilised on every front to contain and clean up this spill. I have authorised the deployment of 17,500 National Guard troops to aid in the response. More than 20,000 people are currently working around the clock to protect waters and coastlines.”

He added that his government had also convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the world, that more than 1,900 vessels were in the Gulf assisting in the clean up, and more than 4.3 million feet of boom had been deployed with another 2.9 million feet of boom available.

His comments came even as BP announced that oil and gas was being received on board the Discoverer Enterprise drill ship at surface level, following the successful placement of a containment cap on top of the rig's failed blow-out preventer (BOP). BP also issued caveats regarding the success of this operation. The company said, “It is expected to take one or more days for flow rates of oil and gas to stabilise and it is not possible at this stage to estimate how much oil and gas will be captured by this containment system.”

It added that a complex operation such as this one entailed the use of remotely operated vehicles at 5,000 feet under water and the containment cap had never before been deployed at this depth. Thus the “containment system's efficiency, continued operation, and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured,” BP warned.

Top priority

However, in another statement to shareholders issued on Friday, BP's Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and Chief Executive Tony Hayward said that the company's response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was their “top priority,” along with rebuilding trust and confidence in BP and “ensuring that such an accident never happens again.” A press release said that both Mr. Svanberg and Mr. Hayward expressed their deep regret and sorrow for the tragedy.

The Obama administration has nevertheless sought to keep up the pressure on the oil major, with the President noting over the weekend that he had “… ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and we will make sure they pay every single dime owed to the people along the Gulf Coast.” He said that in addition, after an emergency safety review, his administration would be putting in place “aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling.”

In that context he emphasised the key role of the bipartisan commission that he had appointed last month to look into the causes of this spill. Mr. Obama said, “If laws are inadequate – laws will be changed. If oversight was lacking – it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken – those responsible will be brought to justice.”

Labels: environmental disaster, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill

From The Hindu

It is possible that the oil from a damaged offshore rig may continue leaking into the Gulf of Mexico until August and cause the largest environmental catastrophe in the United States' history. The grim prognosis emerged even as rig owner British Petroleum (BP) admitted that its much-touted "top kill" operation had failed to stem the surge of oil from the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20.

The enormity of the damage that has already occurred combined with the inability of the administration to stop the leak, has led to the possibility that "Oilgate" may have a significant political fallout and irreparably damage the Obama presidency as well.

In a statement BP said, the "top kill" procedure intended to kill the well by injecting heavy drilling fluids through the blow-out preventer (BOP) on the seabed, into the well. However it said that despite pumping over 30,000 barrels of heavy mud in three attempts, and deploying a wide range of different bridging materials, "the operation did not overcome the flow from the well".

While there are several further steps that BP will take to halt the flow of oil, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, leading the effort to curtail the spill, said, "The ultimate solution is going to be to drill a relief well, take the pressure off that well and cap it. That will be sometime in August. We don't want to wait that long."

"Assault on the people"

President Obama echoed some of the frustrations of those affected in states such as Louisiana, when he said that every day that the leak continued was an assault on the people of the Gulf Coast region and their livelihoods.

He added, "It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimised by this manmade disaster are made whole."

On the unsuccessful efforts to stop the leak Mr. Obama said, "While we initially received optimistic reports about the procedure, it is now clear that it has not worked. Rear Admiral Mary Landry today directed BP to launch a new procedure whereby the riser pipe will be cut and a containment structure fitted over the leak."

BP confirmed that it had received government permission to move to the next step in the subsea operations, the deployment of the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap Containment System. This procedure would entail cutting and removing the damaged riser from the top of the failed BOP to leave a cleanly-cut pipe at the top of the BOP's LMRP, BP explained.

The cap designed to connect to a riser of a surface-level drillship, will be placed over the LMRP "with the intention of capturing most of the oil and gas flowing from the well". BP added the LMRP cap would be connected in approximately four days.

"This operation has not been previously carried out in 5,000 feet of water and the successful deployment of the containment system cannot be assured," BP warned.

Since the crisis unfolded, the Obama administration has come under fire from various quarters, including Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, who recently expressed frustration at the delays in containing the damage to his state's coastline, which had seriously endangered its marine life and associated livelihoods.

Labels: BP, Gulf Coast, LMRP, oil spill, President Obama

From The Hindu

In a pitched battle to shut off the MC252 well that has been spewing vast amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for over a month, British Petroleum (BP) announced plans to use a new technical manoeuvre called a “top kill” operation.

The announcement was made even as the Obama administration came under fire from various quarters, including Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, who expressed frustration at the delays in containing the damage the spill was doing to his State’s coastline. BP CEO Tony Hayward was reported to have said the manoeuvre had a “60 to 70 per cent chance of success”.

The top-kill operation entails the use of heavy drilling fluids that would be injected into the well to stem the flow of oil and gas and, ultimately, kill the well, according to a statement by BP. The petroleum major noted that preparations for this operation were already under way, with a view to deployment “within a few days”.

It also explained that the equipment was also in place to combine this operation with the injection under pressure of bridging material, aimed at sealing off the upward flow through a blow-out preventer (BOP).

Speaking alongside Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu and others, Mr. Jindal told the media gathering on the coastline, “For over two weeks we have been asking the United States Army Corps of Engineers to issue an emergency permit. We have answered every set of questions the same day they have asked those questions.”

However, Mr. Jindal reportedly said he had not yet obtained a permit to dredge up large amounts of sand to build massive booms along the coastline. He added, “Every day we do not fight this oil on a barrier island, every day we are not dredging sand means one more day this oil has a chance to come into our ecosystem, into our wetlands that are home to some of the nation’s most important fisheries.”

Govt determined to clean up spill

Ken Salazar, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, had strong words on the government’s determination to ensure that BP took the necessary actions. He said, “We will keep our boot on their neck until the job gets done. And… we will make sure that all of their responsibilities are fulfilled to the people of the Gulf Coast and to the U.S. government.”

Janet Napolitano, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary added, “We are going to stay on this and stay on BP until this gets done and it gets done the right way.”

Doug Suttles, COO for Global Exploration, BP, said the government was “clearly” expecting BP to “get this flow stopped and to get this cleanup done as quickly as possible”. However, he said, “We are putting everything we [can into] this. We have got the best people, the best scientists, whether it is from our own company or across the industry or from the government. So, I think everyone is frustrated.”

Providing technical details on the operation planned in parallel to the top-kill, BP said it was developing a “lower marine riser package” (LMRP) cap containment option. This would first involve removing the damaged riser from the top of the BOP, leaving a cleanly-cut pipe at the top of the BOP’s LMRP, BP said.

Then, as per the process proposed by BP, the LMRP cap, an “engineered containment device with a sealing grommet,” would be placed over the LMRP with the intention of capturing most of the oil and gas flowing from the well and transporting it to the drillship on the surface.

Labels: blow-out preventer, BP, Gulf Coast oil spill, oil spill, top-kill operation

From The Hindu

President Barack Obama today announced the establishment of a bipartisan National Commission to investigate the oil spill from British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon rig. The rig exploded on April 20 and has since been spewing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico seriously endangering its marine life and the coastlands of Louisiana.

As per an executive order signed by the President, the Commission, which will also closely examine the activities the offshore drilling industry, will be co-chaired by former two-term Florida Governor and former Senator Bob Graham and also former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency William Reilly

In essence, the Commission is tasked with “providing recommendations on how we can prevent – and mitigate the impact of – any future spills that result from offshore drilling”. It will focus on the necessary environmental and safety precautions that must be built into regulatory frameworks in order to ensure an accident like “never happens again,” Mr. Obama said in his weekly televised speech.

Emphasising his administrations efforts to contain the spill Mr. Obama said the government has deployed over 1,100 vessels, around 24,000 personnel, and more than 2 million total feet of boom to help contain it. “And we’re doing all we can to assist struggling fishermen, and the small businesses and communities that depend on them,” he noted.

Breakdown of responsibility

Apportioning the blame for the spill between its operators and owners, the President said, “First and foremost, what led to this disaster was a breakdown of responsibility on the part of BP and perhaps others, including Transocean and Halliburton. And we will continue to hold the relevant companies accountable not only for being forthcoming and transparent about the facts surrounding the leak, but for shutting it down, repairing the damage it does.”

He noted, however that even as they continued to hold BP accountable, his administration also needs to hold Washington accountable: “If the laws on our books are inadequate to prevent such an oil spill, or if we didn’t enforce those laws – I want to know it. I want to know what worked and what didn’t work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down.”

Reiterating his earlier criticism of the regulatory framework for the industry he said that there was a “cosy” relationship between oil and gas companies and agencies that regulate them, which has long been a source of concern.

Labels: Barack Obama, British Petroleum, oil spill

From The Hindu

A long “tendril” of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig that exploded last month has entered the Gulf loop current and this could carry the oil to the Florida Keys and even up the Atlantic Coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said today.

Meanwhile even as the spill reached the fragile marshes and wetlands on the Louisiana coast the state’s governor, Bobby Jindal, said, “It is past time to act,” and reportedly rebuked the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard and rig owner British Petroleum for delays in finalising proposals to construct over 80 miles of sand berms along the coastline.

Speaking to reporters Mr. Jindal was quoted to have held up a plastic bag full of sticky brownish liquid, and said, “What we are seeing yesterday and today is literally this heavy oil coming into our wetlands… These are not tar balls, this is not sheen, this is heavy oil.”

NOAA meanwhile said that it had extended the boundaries of the closed fishing area in the Gulf of Mexico into the northern portion of the loop current as a “precautionary measure” to ensure that seafood from the Gulf would remain safe.

In a statement, Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA administrator, said, “The BP oil spill is unprecedented and quickly changing. The administration’s response since the beginning has been aggressive, strategic, and science-based.”

She noted that as NOAA expanded the fishing-closed area, they were doing what science demanded and were acting with caution. NOAA stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Gulf coast fishermen and their families during these challenging times, she added.

Her comments came even as media reports of tensions between the White House and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill heightened, with key oceanography experts faulting the Obama administration for conducting an inadequate scientific analysis of the impact of the spill.

According to a report in the New York Times, scientists were especially concerned about “getting a better handle on problems that may be occurring from large plumes of oil droplets that appear to be spreading beneath the ocean surface”. The report further stated that in the one month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the government has “failed to make public a single test result on water from the deep ocean”.

Further, it noted that scientists say the administration has been too reluctant to demand an accurate analysis of how many gallons of oil are flowing into the sea from the gushing oil well. The report quoted Sylvia Earle, a reputed oceanographer as saying on Wednesday from Capitol Hill, “It seems baffling that we don’t know how much oil is being spilled… [and] where the oil is in the water column.”

Labels: British Petroleum, Deepwater Horizon, NOAA, oil spill

From The Hindu

Scientists have discovered enormous plumes of oils lurking beneath the surface of the water after leaking out of the critically damaged Deepwater Horizon rig. The plumes, which scientists said measured ten miles long and over a mile wide, were noticed even as British Petroleum's latest attempts to stem the flow of oil from the rig into the Gulf of Mexico failed yet again.

The discovery of the plumes may embarrass British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward, who recently argued that given the size of the Gulf of Mexico the “amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”

The plumes suggest that it is in fact the oil visible on the surface which is a tiny fraction of all the oil that spilled since the rig blew up on April 20, according to an assessment by the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology. The NIUST report said that significant amounts of oil were spreading at various levels throughout the water column.

On its blog the NIUST reported on its scouting trip in the spill area, noting that scientists “started seeing an increase in fluorescence just below the surface and this was related to a marked increase in oil on and near the surface.”

The latest attempts by BP to stop oil from gushing into the sea failed on Saturday, as the company tried to fit a narrow tube into the damaged oil pipe a mile beneath the surface. The tube would have siphoned the oil directly to a ship on the surface and sealed the pipe as well.

According to government estimates the spill has so far caused 210,000 gallons, or 5,000 barrels, of oil per day to leak into the ocean. President Barack Obama earlier underscored his determination to end the “cosy relationship” between regulators and oil companies and to ensure that BP mopped up the cost of the clean-up.

Labels: Barack Obama, British Petroleum, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill

From The Hindu

On the rapidly worsening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. President Barack Obama said: “British Petroleum [BP] is ultimately responsible under the law for paying the costs of response and cleanup operations.”

But he urged “out of an abundance of caution and mindful of the new information,” that the U.S. should position its resources to “aggressively” confront this incident.

The Deepwater Horizon rig, operated by BP, sank on April 22 following an explosion that killed 11 workers. It has reportedly been leaking nearly 5,000 barrels a day, prompting fears that it could equal the environmentally devastating Exxon Valdez spill near Alaska in 1989.

And the President dispatched his Secretaries of Interior and Homeland Security and other officials to the Gulf Coast.

He said he expected their reports from the ground immediately.

Mr. Obama said there were five “staging areas” to protect sensitive shorelines. Approximately 1,900 federal personnel, more than 300 response vessels and aircraft were on the scene and approximately 217,000 feet of protective boom — a surface level barrier to contain the slick's spread — had been laid already, he said.

Response

The administration repeatedly underscored that it would hold the oil giant BP responsible rather than the taxpayer.

Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said, “We will continue to push BP to engage in the strongest response possible. We will continue to oversee their efforts, to add to those efforts where we deem necessary, and to ensure, again, that under the law, that the taxpayers of the United States ultimately are reimbursed for those efforts.”

Labels: Barack Obama, Gulf Coast, oil spill