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New Setback in Attempt to Contain the Gulf Oil Spill
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| Contributor | particleman |
| Last Edited | particleman May 08, 2010 10:23pm |
| Category | News |
| News Date | May 08, 2010 10:00pm |
| Description | The latest effort to contain the oil spill that has poured millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico encountered a setback 5,000 feet underwater, officials said Saturday, meaning oil will continue gushing into the ocean for at least several more days, and possibly months.
Workers on Friday night maneuvered a containment dome — essentially a 98-ton steel box with an opening at the top — over the worst of two remaining leaks on the seabed to funnel the oil through a pipe to the surface, where it would be collected by a drill ship. With efforts to stop the leak by sealing the well at its source having proved unsuccessful, the dome was considered the most immediate way to limit the leak’s damage until the well is permanently closed.
But response crews discovered that the dome’s opening was becoming clogged with gas hydrates — crystal structures that form when gas and water mix and are found in the low temperature and high pressure at the ocean floor, officials said Saturday at a news conference here.
“I wouldn’t say it has failed yet,” said Doug Suttles, the operating officer for exploration and production for BP, the company that was leasing the oil rig when it exploded April 20. “What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn’t work.”
The hydrates accumulated into a kind of slush that clogged the opening through which the oil was to be funneled to the surface.
That is only one of the problems presented by the hydrates, Mr. Suttles said. Since hydrates are lighter than water, a large accumulation threatened to increase the buoyancy of the dome and lift it out of place. |
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