A Sea in Flames - Carl Safina [57]
On the first day of June 2010, BP is trying to cover the leak with the new top hat. Akin to applying condoms after they’re pregnant. To defeat ice formation this time, technicians will inject heated water and methanol into the cap. To capture more oil, they begin closing the vents.
The Coast Guard Thadmiral tells us the goal is to gradually capture more of the oil. For anybody who didn’t grasp that, he compares the process to stopping the flow of water from a garden hose with your finger: “You don’t want to put your finger down too quickly, or let it off too quickly.” A rather odd analogy. What does he mean?
After robots place the cap, video shows plenty of escaping oil still billowing around the cap’s lip. “A positive step but not a solution,” says the Thadmiral. “Even if successful, this is only a temporary and partial fix and we must continue our aggressive response operations at the—”
Okay, never mind. The plan is to capture most of the spewing oil and bring it up to a surface ship.
The Thadmiral says the “ultimate solution”—relief wells—is not likely till August.
Relief wells, alternate take: “The probability of them hitting it on the very first shot is virtually nil,” says the president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, David Rensink, who spent thirty-nine years in the oil industry, mostly in offshore exploration. “If they get it on the first three or four shots they’d be very lucky.”
BP shares lose 15 percent of their value on news that its attempted stop-from-the-top hasn’t worked, indicating that the leak—and BP’s liabilities for economic and environmental damages—will likely continue mounting for months.
The Justice Department announces criminal and civil investigations into the Gulf oil disaster. “All possible violations of the law,” including the Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act, Endangered Species Act.
About 15,000 barrels of oil a day begin finding their way out the high end of the pipe and into the ship Discoverer Enterprise.
BP’s Tony Hayward, sounding like he’s trying to convince even himself, says the cap will likely capture “the majority, probably the vast majority” of the gushing oil. Ever the cheerleader for the sheer magnificence of the enterprise, he himself gushes, “It has been difficult to predict because all of this is a first. Every piece of this implementation is the first time it’s been done in 5,000 feet of water, a mile beneath the sea surface.”
Yes, Tony, that’s what people mean when they say “total lack of preparedness.”
As for BP’s statement that the present cap might be capturing “the vast majority” of the spew, Purdue’s Professor Wereley—who’d initially busted BP and the Coast Guard with his estimate that the blowout was spewing at least 56,000 barrels daily—says, “I don’t see that as being a credible claim. I would say to BP, show the American public the before and after shots of the evidence on which they’re basing that claim.”
Similarly, a University of California researcher says, “I do not know how BP can make that assertion when they don’t know how much oil is escaping.” He believes that cutting the kinked riser pipe in order to install the cap increased the flow by far more than the 20 percent BP and government officials had predicted. He speculates it may be spewing what BP had called the “worst case”: a 100,000-barrels-a-day blowout. He says the video feed now appears to show “a freely flowing pipe,” adding, “From what it looks like right now, it suggests to me they’re capturing a negligible fraction.”
BP says “the vast majority,” the academic says “a negligible fraction.” Let’s see if the Thadmiral can mediate. Ready? Go: “They continue to optimize production,” Allen tells reporters. Then, digging himself an alternate escape route, he adds, “I have never said this is going well. We’re throwing everything at it that we’ve got.”
BP intends to