On The Edge Of The Storm

.


June 25, 2010

Tropical weather could exacerbate Gulf Coast woes

Posted: 07:00 AM ET

Add a comment [to AC360º blog]

CNN Wire Staff

NewOrleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- The disaster thousands of feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico could be exacerbated by a different type of calamity from the sky above in the coming week -- but there's a promising new development on the oil spill front.

BP said Friday its "ranging" process, by which it sends an electrical current that puts out an electromagnetic field down the well bore, detected Wednesday where the leaking well is in relation to the first relief well, at a depth of 16,275 feet. BP said subsequent ranging runs will be needed to more precisely locate the leaking well and figure out how to best intersect the two.

Drilling and ranging operations will continue over the next few weeks toward the target intercept depth of approximately 18,000 feet. "Kill" operations are expected to begin when the relief well reaches the leaking well. Drilling also continues on the second relief well, which recently measured 10,500 feet deep, the statement said.

It's unclear if the weather will cooperate with the drilling and cleanup efforts. There is a 70 percent chance that a weather system in the western Caribbean will better organize and form at least a tropical depression in the next 48 hours, the National Hurricane Center said Friday morning.

The tropical disturbance's rains have become more concentrated, surface air pressure is dropping and upper-level winds are becoming more conducive to storm development, said the hurricane center. An Air Force "hurricane hunter" plane is scheduled to head into the system Friday afternoon to determine if it has evolved into a tropical cyclone, with closed circulation around a center of low pressure.


Some forecasting models show that by early next week the system could head into the Gulf of Mexico, where it could disrupt the oil cleanup operations. Adm. Thad Allen, who's heading the federal cleanup operation, said on CNN's "American Morning" he'll have to redeploy people and equipment to safer areas 120 hours (five days) in advance of gale-force winds (at least 32 mph).

Allen said that, in potentially dealing with both the oil spill crisis and severe weather, "There is no playbook. But I will tell you there's been an extraordinary amount of planning being done... We are going to try to merge two response structures. One has proven effective in the past, and that's a central coordination of search and rescue and how operations are conducted, and that's done out of Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida for hurricanes. And we are in the process of integrating our planning processes so the oil spill response is integrated fully within the search and rescue recovery operations."

If a tropical cyclone moves into the Gulf of Mexico, it could have either positive or negative effects on the threat posed by the oil spill, said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers Thursday night. He said if the weather moves to the east of the gushing crude, the rotating winds would spin the oil-contaminated water out to sea. But if the storm heads west of the leak, the winds will blow the oil right onto the shore with the storm surge, Myers told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Costs associated with the Gulf oil disaster have gone up more than $300 million in less than a week, BP said Friday.

"The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately $2.35 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs," a company statement said. BP put the tab at $2 billion on Monday.

The company previously agreed to set aside $20 billion in an escrow account for spill-related costs, a sum that does not cover fees and penalties that could be imposed by the federal government.

"To date, almost 74,000 claims have been filed and more than 39,000 payments have been made, totaling almost $126 million," the company said.

According to BP, approximately 37,000 personnel, more than 4,500 vessels and some 100 aircraft are involved in the response effort.

Paving the way for drilling to resume, a federal judge Thursday denied a request to keep a six-month moratorium in place pending a government appeal.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, Louisiana, issued a preliminary injunction against the ban Tuesday. The government had asked Feldman to delay lifting the ban until an appeals court reviewed the issue later this summer.

The moratorium was imposed by President Barack Obama on May 27. It prohibited drilling in more than 500 feet of water and prevented new permits from being issued.

In an emergency hearing Thursday, the judge denied the government's motion to stay his decision pending appeal "for the same reasons given" Tuesday for issuing the injunction.

Government lawyers did not file an appeal to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday, though the expected move could come as soon as Friday.

In Tuesday's ruling, Feldman wrote, "An invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs (oil drilling support companies), the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country."

The government has 30 days to show it is beginning to comply with Feldman's order and start issuing permits. The appeals process can continue, but until the appeal, the government must act as if Feldman's order will be upheld.

CNN's Brandon Miller contributed to this report