By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: June 30, 2010
The first major storm of the season in the Gulf of Mexico continued to disrupt oil spill cleanup and containment work on Wednesday, officials said.
Hurricane Alex was bearing down on Mexico and the southern Texas coastline, far from the spill but generating waves big enough to hamper the cleanup effort 500 miles away. Dozens of vessels used for things like skimming and supplies were idled. Rough seas make it impossible to contain oil so that skimmers can pick it up or it can be ignited.
But the storm was not expected to delay efforts to plug BP’s runaway well 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, and it could help disperse some of the tens of millions of gallons of oil that have spewed into the gulf since late April.
The disruptive weather was expected to last through Thursday.
High waves at the well site delayed surface work to prepare for the next phase of BP’s system to collect oil at the wellhead, said Toby Odone, a company spokesman. That phase, in which up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day would be collected through a free-standing riser pipe that could be quickly disconnected if a hurricane threatened, is now expected to be completed in early July.
But BP said existing systems that are collecting about 25,000 barrels a day were not affected by the rough seas, nor were efforts to drill two relief wells that are considered the ultimate solution to plugging the well.
Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said winds from the storm might tend to push oil toward the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts. But there was little possibility of oil being pushed inland.
“We’re not dealing with a situation where we’re running the risk of having a storm surge with oil in it,” he said.
Mr. Vaccaro said the winds and higher seas may help “weather” the oil, breaking it up into smaller droplets that are more easily consumed by microbes. While some weathering occurs in all conditions, he said, a major storm “helps by stirring up the water and literally pounding away at it.”
In addition to higher winds and waves, the gulf was due for heavy rains as moisture brought into the region by the tropical storm encountered a cold front from the north, said Eric Wilhelm, a meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College, Pa.
The rainfall may flush marshes and other sensitive coastal areas, Mr. Vaccaro said.