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This Week in the Gulf

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This Week in the Gulf Vol. 33 No. 30 15 July 2010 This Week in the Gulf The past week’s biggest news regarding the spill at BP’s by the end of July, with shut-in complete in mid- Macondo/MC252 well in the Gulf of Mexico is the August. The Development Driller II, which had been removal of the top cap containment at the failed blowout drilling a second relief well, has been put on standby preventer (BOP), and its replacement with a new “sealing during DDIII’s last phase of drilling. The Macondo/ cap” system. The top cap was removed midday on MC252 well has been spilling since the 20 April 2010 Saturday, 10 July 2010, and the Discoverer Enterprise explosion at the Deepwater Horizon MODU, which mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU), to which it was left 11 workers dead. connected, moved off station. Although this operation left oil spilling unabated from the top of the non- working BOP, the Q4000 MODU remained connected Cleanup Activities to the subsea mud manifold, or “kill line,” and continued The calmer seas that allowed for the change in flaring collected oil and gas at the surface. Monday, containment devices at the wellhead also made 12 July 2010, saw several successes a break in the additional skimming in the area possible. Because the weather allowed the Helix Producer to finally connect flow to the surface was expected to increase during the with a new floating riser system (installed at the end of cap change-out process, skimmers were “surged” to June; see OSIR, 30 June 2010), and later in the day, the the Macondo/MC252 well site. As of Monday, 12 July installation of the new sealing cap system was completed 2010, 46 skimmers were operating in the vicinity of the when several remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) placed well. According to the Unified Command, more than the three ram capping stack over the wellhead. 570 additional skimmers are currently deployed to protect coastlines. Testing of the skimming capabilities Figures released early Tuesday indicated that the of A Whale, a high-capacity, converted combination Q4000 and Helix Producer containment systems carrier (see OSIR, 8 July 2010) was extended until were collecting a total of around 8,300 barrels Thursday, 15 July 2010, after last week’s testing (348,600 gallons) per day, well below the Helix during heavier weather proved inconclusive. National Producer’s anticipated production capacity of 20,000 Incident Commander, US Coast Guard Admiral to 25,000 barrels (840,000 to 1,050,000 gallons) Thad Allen, has expressed some skepticism regarding per day. The latest estimates put the total spill the behemoth’s likely skimming effectiveness on the rate at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels (1,470,000 to degraded and widely dispersed oil present in the Gulf. 2,520,000 gallons) per day. BP hopes to perform a well integrity test this week, which may take Favorable weather also enabled responders to conduct up to 48 hours to complete. During the test, the four consecutive days of controlled burns over the two collection systems will be placed in standby last week. The Unified Command reports that a mode. The integrity test will help determine whether total of more than 330 controlled burns have been the well casing is intact, and whether the sealing cap performed to date, esulting in the removal of more can be safely used to shut in the well until the relief than 245,000 barrels (10,300,000 gallons) of oil. wells are complete, or in the event the containment system has to be taken offline during a hurricane. Wildlife The sealing cap system is not designed as a permanent The 13 July 2010 Deepwater Horizon Response solution for shutting in the well. In a 12 July 2010 Consolidated Fish and Wildlife Collection Report technical briefing, BP Senior Vice President Kent puts the number of oiled birds collected alive from Wells said that the Development Driller III (DDIII) the US Gulf states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, is expected to intercept the Macondo/MC252 well and Mississippi at around 1,102, all of them visibly oil spill INTELLIGENCE REPORT oiled. In addition, 1,828 dead birds have been Fish Biology. Halieutichthys intermedius, one of the collected and, although the cause of death for many newly discovered species, is found only in the Gulf of of these has not yet been determined, 671 were visibly Mexico, including coastal Louisiana. A third species oiled. The species most affected by the spill are of batfish, the previously identified H. aculeatus, is brown pelicans and northern gannets. Thanks to the also only known to live in spill-impacted areas of efforts of wildlife rehabilitation workers, 505 birds the Gulf, according to study authors. Author John have been cleaned and released. As for turtles, Sparks, Associate Curator and Curator-in-Charge of 197 have been collected alive and 461 dead. the Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History (New York, USA) noted, “If we Eggs from turtle nests located along the Florida are still finding new species of fishes in the Gulf, panhandle and on Alabama beaches are being collected imagine how much diversity, especially microdiversity, and delivered to the Merritt Island National Wildlife is out there that we do not know about.” Refuge and the Canaveral National Seashore near the Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s eastern coast for incubation and release. FedEx Custom Critical Tar Balls is providing transport. Tom Strickland, Assistant The US Coast Guard (USCG) initially reported that tar Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, balls that washed onto Galveston (Texas, USA) beaches described the effort as “an extraordinary rescue over the 4 July 2010 weekend came from the Macondo/ mission to deal with an unprecedented threat to iconic MC252 spill, but new forensic analyses performed and endangered sea turtles.” Strickland continued, at the USCG Marine Safety Laboratory in New “Nothing on this scale has ever been attempted, but London, Connecticut have since proved the same tar the scientific consensus is that it is worth the risk given balls to be unrelated to the spill. Texas General Land the magnitude of the threat.” Approximately 700 nests Commissioner Jerry Patterson took the news in stride. are laid each year on Florida’s panhandle, and an “It doesn’t matter where the oil came from,” Patterson additional 80 nests are typically laid on Alabama’s told reporters. “We’re going to clean the beaches.” beaches. This represents an annual cohort of as many as 50,000 hatchlings, of which 25,000 to 40,000 typically Tar balls collected on 5 July 2010 at another survive. Loggerhead turtles are the primary targets of Galveston County, Texas beach, east of Bolivar the relocation program, but there may be a few other sea Peninsula, were, however, found to carry the signature turtle species with nests in the collection areas, including of oil from the Macondo/MC252 well. Because Kemp’s Ridley, leatherback, and green turtles. they did not show the level of weathering expected given the distance traveled from the spill site, officials Also making the news last week was the discovery believe they may have been carried from the spill of two new species of pancake batfish in the Gulf area by ships. Analyses of tar balls collected last of Mexico. The new species were actually identified week from Cocoa Beach, Florida (also by the USCG prior to the Macondo/MC252 spill, and will be Marine Safety Laboratory) found no match to oil described in an upcoming issue of the Journal of from the Macondo/MC252 well. Group Publisher: Paul Gibson Managing Editor: Vicki Dean Editor: Martha Hyder Designer: Laila Gaidulis © 2010 Aspen Publishers. All Rights Reserved. Oil Spill Intelligence Report (ISSN 0195-3524) is published weekly by Aspen This material may not be used, published, broadcast, rewritten, copied, redis- Publishers, 76 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10011. Subscription price, tributed or used to create any derivative works without prior written permission $879/one year. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without from the publisher. permission is strictly prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Frederick, MD, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to OSI, Permission Requests: For information on how to obtain permission to repro- Aspen Publishers, 7201 McKinney Circle, Frederick, MD 21704. duce content, please go to the Aspen Publishers website at www.aspenpublishers. com/permissions. Oil Spill Intelligence Report is sold with the understanding that it is not engaged in rendering legal counseling or other professional services. If legal Purchasing reprints: For customized article reprints, please contact Wright’s Reprints counseling or other professional assistance is required, the services of a at (877) 652-5295 or go to the Wright’s Reprints website at www.wrightsreprints.com. competent practitioner in the relevant area should be sought. Subscription Services: To subscribe, call 1-800-638-8437. For customer service, Editorial Offices: Contact the editor, Martha Hyder, at martha.hyder@ call 1-800-234-1660. windriverenvironmental.com. Page 2 For subscriptions call 1-800-638-8437 15 July 2010 oil spill INTELLIGENCE REPORT Results are still pending from oil and tar balls the Macondo/MC252 well site. The Commission collected in the Rigolets and Lake Pontchartrain was created by a 22 May 2010 executive order (Louisiana) on 5 July 2010. Response signed by US President Barack Obama (see OSIR, crews, including 19 skimming vessels and 3 June 2010), and charged with three primary four decontamination craft, were immediately tasks: determining the cause of the rig’s explosion, dispatched to the area in response to reports of sheen recommending preventative measures to avert and tar balls.
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