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One Leak Stopped, Well Still Leaking 5,000 BPD, Could Hit 60,000 BPD

BP Stopped One Leak From Gulf of Mexico Oil Well

BP Plc has stopped one of three oil leaks from its well in the Gulf of Mexico, advancing efforts to end a spill after a drilling rig sank last month, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Crews successfully closed a valve installed yesterday, stopping leakage from a section of drill pipe severed from the well when the rig sank, John Curry, spokesman for London-based BP, said today. There is no change in the official estimate that the well is leaking 5,000 barrels of oil a day, he said.

The leak that’s been stopped was much smaller than the primary source of the spill which is coming from severed drill pipe still attached to the well, Curry said. Brandon Blackwell, a Coast Guard spokesman, said earlier today the valve had stopped a leak near the well head.

BP and the Coast Guard have said there’s potential for greater leakage from the well because something has kept it from flowing at a full rate. Cause of the constriction may be a partially closed valve or a kink in the pipe, Suttles has said.

The leak could surge to 60,000 barrels a day if plans to cap it with a containment dome fail, Representative Edward Markey said yesterday after meeting with industry executives.

Using Detergent-Like Chemicals to Breakup Spill

British Petroleum is using detergents to breakup oil into microbe digestible snacks. The only problem is it will take a thousand years to work.

Please consider Detergent-Like Chemicals Turn Oil Into Microbe Snacks

BP Plc is fighting the oil slick menacing the Gulf Coast with more than 160,000 gallons of a detergent-like chemical intended to break the oil down into tiny digestible particles.

The chemicals use the Gulf waves as a giant washtub to scrub the oil from the water, eventually dropping it to the seafloor where deep-sea microbes will feast on it for centuries, said James N. Butler, a professor emeritus of applied chemistry at Harvard University who has studied dispersants.

While dispersants can help reduce the thick oil slick, the oil will still be out there, said Carl Hacker, resident ecologist at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. The oil molecules could linger for a “geologic” period of time, perhaps thousands of years, said Terry Wade, deputy director at the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

BP is mounting a multipronged defense against the oil slick, using skimmer boats to scoop oil from the water’s surface, placing booms to repel it from shorelines, and burning the oil at sea. None of those methods, including dispersants, will be able to eliminate the oil threat, according to researchers who have studied cleanups.

“Once the oil reaches the shore, there are very few options,” said Pedro Alvarez, chairman of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University in Houston.

It takes five to 10 years for a shore to recover when oil reaches it, said Alvarez at Rice University. Using dispersants and other biotechnology can cut that time to two to four years, he said.

The chemicals are low in toxicity, but spread the oil further, potentially exposing more sea life, Henry said. The agencies decided that using chemicals at sea was preferable to allowing the oil to come ashore, where it would have a more deadly effect on wildlife and fisheries, he said