Second Gulf Oil Spill Releasing 'Small Amounts,' Federal Officials Say - NOLA.com

Second Gulf oil spill releasing 'small amounts,' federal officials say
By Paul Rioux, The Times-Picayune
June 08, 2010, 4:36PM

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Responding to reports of a 10-mile-long slick from a second Gulf of Mexico oil spill, federal officials said "small amounts of oil" have been leaking from wells that were connected to a production platform destroyed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

An average of less than 14 gallons per day have been leaking from the wells about 10 miles off the southeastern Louisiana coast, said Kendra Barkoff, a federal Interior Department spokeswoman.

The 26 wells are controlled by New Orleans-based Taylor Energy, which has been working to plug and abandon them since an undersea mudslide spawned by Ivan toppled the oil platform nearly six years ago.

"Small amounts of oil -- an average of less than one-third of a barrel per day -- have been leaking from these Taylor Energy owned wells," Barkhoff said in an e-mail message. "There are hundreds of small oil leaks every year in the Gulf of Mexico, and each is reported immediately to the National Response Center to ensure appropriate actions are taken to mitigate all potential environmental impacts."

The Mobile Press-Register reported that a 10-mile-long slick emanating from the Ocean Saratoga rig at the site is visible in satelite images gathered by Skytruth.org, which first reported the leak on its website May 15.


In this photo-image, acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite on June 7, at
least part of the oil slick is pale gray. A large area of oil is
southeast of the Mississippi Delta, at the site of the leaking BP
well. Traces of thick oil are also visible farther north.

The newspaper reported that the Southwings environmental group flew over the Ocean Saratoga and took photos that appear to show dispersants being sprayed into the water at the spill site.

Taylor Energy officials said they planned to release a statement this afternoon. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is overseeing the federal government's response to the massive BP oil spill, said he would look into the matter and planned to issue his own statement.

Minneral Management Service officials have called Taylor's well-abandonement job the most challenging ever attempted in the Gulf because the mudslide buried the platform beneath the ocean floor. Experts have said the costs could easily exceed $500 million.

In 1979, Patrick Taylor, a native Texan and Louisiana State University alum, founded Taylor Energy, which became one of the largest privately owned oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf.

Taylor specialized in buying oil fields that had already been tapped by major companies, such as Exxon and BP, and wrenching out any oil that remained. Many large energy companies leave oil behind in older wells as they move on in search of new discoveries.

The Ocean Saratoga wells were previously controlled by BP, which is responsible for the Deepwater Horizon leak that has spewed millions of gallons of oil since the rig exploded April 20 and sank two days later.

Taylor, who twice made Forbe's list of the 400 richest Americans, kept the company private and was its sole shareholder until his death in 2004. He left the company to his wife, Phyllis, who sold most of its energy assets to a Korean joint venture in 2008.

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Link: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/second_gulf_oil_spill_releasin.html

:wtf:

:kick:

:crazy:

So that's like, what, 2 VW bugs/hour?

Interesting...

:shrug:

to this point. :crazy: