Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 'Very Serious'

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Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill 'Very Serious'
According to the US Coast Guard
By Tudor Vieru, Science Editor
April 26th, 2010, 13:58 GMT




The oil spill that resulted from the incident on April 20 involving the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform is constantly increasing in size. Officials in the United States say that the extent of the damage is still unclear, but add that as much as 1,000 barrels of crude may be seeping into the Gulf of Mexico each day. At this point, estimates place the size of the contaminated area at around 1,500 square kilometers, and the oil stain is currently very close to the coast of Louisiana, the BBC News reports.

The drilling rig wasn't located too far off from Venice in the first place. According to official documents from British oil company BP, which had a lease on the platform until September 2013, the installation was located some 84 kilometers (52 miles) southeast of the city when the powerful explosion occurred, on April 20. In spite of efforts from the Coast Guard, the semi-submersible platform sunk into the waters of the Gulf two days later, on April 22.

Originally, it was believed that the wellhead the engineers on the rig drilled some 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) under the surface of the sea was contained and not leaking crude. However, as boats were conducting rescue missions in the area, it was revealed that the structure was not fully closed, and that it was leaking oil at a very high rate. BP responded to this emergency by deploying submersible robots (ROV) to seal the wellhead remotely, and also sent hundreds of workers, four airplanes and more than 3 ships at the location, in order to contain the spill. However, efforts appear to be in vein for now.

Unfortunately, during the weekend, the oil company had to ground its airplanes and retire its clean-up vessels due to poor atmospheric conditions. However, at the same time, waves were favorable to the rescue effort, keeping the oil stain away from the sensitive shores beyond. Inspections of the Deepwater Horizon, carried out by workers of the US Mineral Management Services over the past three months evidenced no sings of wrongdoings on the platform, and so the cause of the explosion is still under investigation. For now, efforts are being focused on containing the oil, and breaking up the heavy crude. If this is successful, the oil will harden and sink into the ocean.