Leak Increase

.
N e w Z e a l a n d
Oil leak efforts 'will increase spill'

AP

Last updated 13:12 -- 31/05/2010


CONTAMINATION: CNN reporter Anderson Cooper lays down on the bow of an air boat to take a picture as Governor Bobby Jindal, right, removes a fishing net from the oil contaminated water in Pass A Loutre near Venice, Louisiana.
BP's next effort to contain the oil spewing from a damaged well in the Gulf could result in a temporary 20 percent increase in the flow, warns White House energy czar Carol Browner.

BP's latest attempt to stem the leak involves cutting and removing a damaged pipe. Browner said in a news release Sunday that government scientists believe the oil gusher would increase as much as 20 percent from the time the pipe is cut to when a containment valve is in place.

BP spokesman John Curry did not know how much time would pass between the procedures. The operation began Saturday and is expected to take four to seven days.

With BP declaring failure in its latest attempt to plug the uncontrolled gusher feeding the worst oil spill in US history, the company is turning to yet another mix of risky undersea robot maneuvers and longshot odds to keep crude from flowing into the Gulf.

Six weeks after the catastrophe began, the oil giant is still casting about for at least a temporary fix to the spewing well underneath the Gulf of Mexico that's fouling beaches, wildlife and marshland.

The relief wells currently being drilled - which are supposed to be a better long-term solution - won't be done until August at the earliest. That would be in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins Tuesday.

The crude probably won't affect the formation of storms, but the cyclones could push the oil deeper into coastal marshes and estuaries and turn the oil into a crashing black surf.

BP said Saturday that the procedure known as the "top kill" failed after engineers tried for three days to overwhelm the crippled well with heavy drilling mud and junk 5000 feet (1.5km) underwater.

Robert Dudley, BP's managing director, said on Fox News Sunday that company officials were disappointed that they "failed to wrestle this beast to the ground." But scepticism is growing that BP can solve the crisis.

Rep Ed Markey, who leads a congressional committee investigating the disaster, told CBS Face the Nation on Sunday that he had "no confidence whatsoever in BP."

"So I don't think that people should really believe what BP is saying in terms of the likelihood of anything that they're doing is going to turn out as they're predicting," he said.

'NO PLUMES'

BP chief executive Tony Hayward has disputed claims by scientists that large undersea plumes have been set adrift by the Gulf oil spill and said the cleanup fight has narrowed to surface slicks rolling into Louisiana's coastal marshes.

During a tour of a company staging area for cleanup workers, Hayward said BP's sampling showed "no evidence" that oil was suspended in large masses beneath the surface. He didn't elaborate on how the testing was done.

"The oil is on the surface," Hayward said. "Oil has a specific gravity that's about half that of water. It wants to get to the surface because of the difference in specific gravity."

Scientists from several universities have reported plumes of what appears to be oil suspended in clouds stretching for kilometres and reaching hundreds of metres beneath the Gulf's surface.

Those findings - from the University of South Florida, the University of Georgia, Southern Mississippi University and other institutions - were based on initial observations of water samples taken in the Gulf over the last several weeks. They continue to be analysed.

WORST DISASTER

The spill is the worst in US history - exceeding even the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster - and has dumped between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates. The leak began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people.

"This scares everybody, the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven't succeeded so far," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Saturday. "Many of the things we're trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5000 feet."

He said cutting off the damaged riser isn't expected to cause the flow rate of leaking oil to increase significantly.

Experts have said that a bend in the damaged riser likely was restricting the flow of oil somewhat, so slicing it off and installing a new containment valve is risky.

"If they can't get that valve on, things will get much worse," said Philip Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama.

In the days after the spill, BP was unable to use robot submarines to close valves on the massive blowout preventer atop the damaged well, then two weeks later, ice-like crystals clogged a 100-ton box the company tried placing over the leak. Last week, engineers removed a mile-long siphon tube after it sucked up a disappointing 900,000 gallons of oil from the gusher.

Word that the top kill had failed hit hard in fishing communities along Louisiana's coast, where the impact has been underscored by oil-coated marshes and wildlife.

The top official in coastal Plaquemines Parish said news of the top kill failure brought tears to his eyes.

"They are going to destroy south Louisiana. We are dying a slow death here," said Billy Nungesser, the parish president. "We don't have time to wait while they try solutions. Hurricane season starts on Tuesday."


OIL SLICK: Workers clean up oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Pass a Loutre, Louisiana.