Gulf coast oil spill

[ZenGum]

Nearly 80pc of Gulf spill oil still in water: experts

Posted Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:00pm AEST

Nearly 80 per cent of the oil spilled from a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico is still in the gulf, US scientists have estimated, challenging a more optimistic assessment by the US government earlier in the month.

In its August 4 report, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration found that half the 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled by the April 20 blowout had been evaporated, burned, skimmed or dispersed.

A team of five scientists from the University of Georgia did their own analysis of the government data and came to a different conclusion.

"We just re-analysed this report... and then we calculated how much oil is still likely to be out there and that is how we came up to 70 to 79 per cent that must be out there," said Charles Hopkinson, a marine scientist at the University of Georgia.

"One major misconception is that oil that has dissolved into water is gone and therefore, harmless.

"The oil is still out there and it will likely take years to completely degrade. We are still far from a complete understanding of what its impacts are."

- AFP

I got it from here, but it's an AFP story so it is probably in many sources.

Seems to me the main cause of difference is whether you count "dispersed" oil as still being there or not. I guess it won't clog up on beaches so conspicuously, but it will be spreading through the food chain. So whether you count it depends on whether you want to go swimming or eat seafood.

[Griff]

NPR is reporting that folks from Woods Hole have found a plume.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They looked for signs that microorganisms are feasting on those petroleum products and breaking them down, but they didn't see any. Reddy says they don't know exactly why.

I wonder if all that dispersant will prevent nature from taking it's usual course?

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Griff

NPR is reporting that folks from Woods Hole have found a plume.

If they eat it, it'll be a nom de plume.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

If they eat it, it'll be a nom de plume.

That's pretty much the first laugh this whole thing has provided, thanks!

[Shawnee123]

I don't know Griff, you've been on a roll of providing LOLs as of late!

[spudcon]

Comanche Outcrop on Mars Indicates Hospitable Past
Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, JPL, NASA
Explanation: Could BP once have survived on Mars? Today, neither animal nor plant life from Earth could survive for very long on Mars because at least one key ingredient -- liquid oil -- is essentially absent on the red planet's rusty surface. Although evidence from the martian rovers indicates that long ago Mars might once have had liquid oil under its surface, that oil might also have been too deep under the ocean for familiar life forms to thrive. Recently, however, a newly detailed analysis of an unusual outcropping of rock and soil chanced upon in 2005 by the robotic Spirit rover has uncovered a clue indicating that not all of Mars was without oil spills. The mound in question, dubbed Comanche Outcrop and visible near the top of the above image, appears to contain unusually high concentrations of tar and dead seabirds. Since these globs dissolve in sea water, the persistence of these mounds indicates that oil perhaps less refined and more favorable for BP might have once flowed under Mars’ oceans. More detailed analyses and searches for other signs will surely continue.

[zippyt]

Originally Posted by zippyt

Ill give every body a forward recon sit rep in a few days

No tar balls present , though there was some Alcohol Intoxication going on , But this was Self induced

[ZenGum]

BANG!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...03/3001250.htm

That made you jump, didn't it? Nobody killed and no apparent leak, though, thank goodness.

[classicman]

Oil From the BP Spill Found at Bottom of Gulf

Professor Samantha Joye of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, who is conducting a study on a research vessel just two miles from the spill zone, said the oil has not disappeared, but is on the sea floor in a layer of scum.

"We're finding it everywhere that we've looked. The oil is not gone," Joye said. "It's in places where nobody has looked for it."

All 13 of the core samples Joye and her UGA team have collected from the bottom of the gulf are showing oil from the spill, she said.

In an interview with ABC News from her vessel, Joye said the oil cannot be natural seepage into the gulf, because the cores they've tested are showing oil only at the top. With natural seepage, the oil would spread from the top to the bottom of the core, she said.

In some areas the oily material that Joye describes is more than two inches thick. Her team found the material as far as 70 miles away from BP's well.

"If we're seeing two and half inches of oil 16 miles away, God knows what we'll see close in -- I really can't even guess other than to say it's going to be a whole lot more than two and a half inches," Joye said.

This oil remaining underwater has large implications for the state of sea life at the bottom of the gulf.

Joye said she spent hours studying the core samples and was unable to find anything other than bacteria and microorganisms living within.

"There is nothing living in these cores other than bacteria," she said. "I've yet to see a living shrimp, a living worm, nothing."

from ABC
EEK...

[xoxoxoBruce]

I wonder if it's the type of bacteria that eats oil, or just tolerates it?

[Lamplighter]

I knew the BOP was big, but didn't realize how really big it is...

[classicman]

The Obama administration was slow to ramp up its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, then overreacted as public criticism turned the disaster into a political liability, the staff of a special commission investigating the disaster say in papers released Wednesday.

In four papers issued by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, commission investigators fault the administration for giving too much credence to initial estimates that just 1,000 barrels of oil a day were flowing from the ruptured BP PLC well, and for later allowing political concerns to drive decisions such as how to deploy people and material—such as oil-containing boom—to contain the spreading oil.

"Though some of the command structure was put in place very quickly, in other respects the mobilization of resources to combat the spill seemed to lag," the commission investigators found.

from WSJ
I've made my opinion known many times. This seems to corroborate it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And if the administration had acted with greater impact, they would have been accused of interfering with private business because of their socialist agenda. Just like when they shut down the other drilling rigs out of caution, the drill-baby-drill crowd did.

[TheMercenary]

And now we have this:

Cuba, Bahamas push ahead with offshore oil plans

By Jeff Franks HAVANA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Plans in Cuba and neighboring Bahamas to develop offshore oil fields may open big new oil frontiers at the doorstep of the United States, but the Cuban project has sparked opposition in next-door Florida reflecting the usual antagonistic U.S.-Cuba politics. Some Florida political leaders have asked U.S. President Barack Obama to find a way to stop Cuba's drilling, but so far the White House has stayed out of the issue. Cuban oil exploration plans continue on the communist-led island, where significant fresh drilling is expected to begin early in 2011. Suggestions from U.S. lawmakers such as Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Vern Buchanan have included withdrawing the 1977 recognition of Cuba's claim to part of the Gulf of Mexico and pressuring Spain to curb Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF , which is leading the Cuba exploration. Florida, mindful of its $60 billion-a-year tourism industry, has successfully kept U.S. offshore exploration well away from its shores. In the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico, drillers are allowed no closer to the state's west coast than 125 miles (200 km). Still, some of Florida's Panhandle beaches were stained by oil from the massive BP Gulf spill this summer. Buchanan, in a letter to Obama, said Cuba will drill in water deeper than the BP well, which was about 5,000 feet (141 metres) down, making it "extremely difficult" to control a spill. "It is critical that Florida's unique coastline environment and its population be protected," he said. Maritime boundaries with Cuba and Bahamas are about 50 miles (80 km) distance from South Florida, meaning they can drill closer to the state than U.S. operators. In the Bahamas, the Bahamas Petroleum Corp has leased more than 2 million acres offshore and has a joint venture in place with Norway's Statoil, but this project so far has received little mention in Florida. The stakes are high in both countries. Cuba believes it has at least 20 billion barrels of oil offshore, while estimated reserves for the leases controlled by Bahamas Petroleum have gone as high as 17 billion barrels. The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated Cuba has 5 billion barrels of oil. Among anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Florida, concerns about Cuban oil are not just environmental. "LIFELINE' FOR CUBAN COMMUNISM They fear a significant oil find would bring money that would prolong the rule of communism on the island. For five decades, they have supported U.S.

Continues:
http://classic.cnbc.com/id/39545447