Current estimates of the amount of oil being spewed from BP's Deepwater Horizon rig blowout, the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico near Lousiana's coast, range between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels a day. Assuming the low end of that range of 12,000 barrels a day, at 42 US gallons per barrel of oil, over 24 million gallons of oil have already leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. By comparison, the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska's Prince William Sound spilled 11 million gallons of oil and the 1979 Ixtoc 1 disaster, also in the Gulf of Mexico, spilled 173 million gallons of oil [1]. Oil is supposed to be gushing at an incredible pressure of 23,000 lbs/square inch. Combine that with inhospitable depths of over 5000 ft of water and the Deepwater Horizon disaster becomes quite a challenge to counter.
Both the Ixtoc and Deepwater Horizon disasters involved a failure of the blowout preventer. The Ixtoc 1 site was located in only 160ft of water (divers were dispatched to implement remedies) but Pemex had no contingency plan set up in case of a blowout [4]. Even after 20 years, BP didn't have a contingency plan. These aren't the only two incidents when blowout preventers failed. Within a few months after the Ixtoc blowout, there were two more such failures - an incident on Funiwa-5 off Nigeria's coast and on Ekofisk Bravo in the Norweigian North Sea [3]. While I don't support BP's utter lack of disaster preparedness, that BP received its drilling permits from Obama government's agency makes the administration's PR offensive campaign against BP hypocritical.
The Macondo Prospect, site of the Deepwater Horizon, has estimated reserves of 50 million barrels of oil, compared with 800 million barrels of reserves [2] at the site of the Ixtoc disaster.
Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos), the culprit in the Ixtoc spill, drilled two relief wells to reduce pressure in the main well so it could be capped off. This is the same strategy being attempted at Deepwater Horizon. Drilling relief wells was estimated to take 3 months [5] (same time as is projected in the current disaster) but it actually took over 5 months to complete.
While you may or may not consider BP's actions adequate to combat the disaster, Shell and other major oil companies seemingly have carte blanche to spill in the oil fields of the Niger delta that supplies 40% of US crude oil imports. This is too high a cost to pay for "economic development".
I hope the Deepwater Horizon disaster does become this generation's Three Mile Island. I'd like to see three actions come out of this incident. US government reducing oil subsidy thus raising fuel prices, regulating auto manufacturers to significantly and quickly improving fuel efficiency and investing in and subsidizing public transportation.
[1] Nancy Rabalais, Executive Director and Professor of Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, on NPR Science Friday, May 7, 2010
[2] Oil & Gas Journal, March 31, 1980, pg. 54
[3] Oil Spills - Summing up the big one, The Economist, June 7, 1980, pg. 81
[4] Mistake by Mexican drilling crew is blamed for world's worst oil spill, The Globe and Mail (Canada), August 1, 1979
[5] Blowout in the Gulf, Newsweek, June 25, 1979, pg. 67
Monday, June 7, 2010
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