http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6603TK20100701

Thu Jul 1, 2010 2:47pm EDT

Louisiana (Reuters) – A massive ship converted into a “super skimmer” has arrived in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to assist with cleanup of the BP oil spill, a government spokeswoman said Thursday.

The 1,100-foot (335 meter)-long ore and oil carrier, dubbed the “A Whale,” is being provided by the owner, TMT Shipping of Taiwan, and can collect 500,000 barrels (21 million gallons) per day of contaminated water, said Chris Coulon, a spokeswoman for the joint incident command.

Financial arrangements of the deal to provide the ship were not immediately available. Coulon said it had not been contracted but added that BP Plc might begin formal contract negotiations if the ship proved to be useful.

The gray and rust-colored tanker, which has a large blue whale painted on its funnel, was converted in mid-June in Portugal to skim spilled oil from the sea but needs to be evaluated by the Coast Guard and others for use in the Gulf.

It rested at anchor in the Mississippi River north of Venice, Louisiana on Thursday. Three horizontal slits used to skim oil were visible at water level on the tanker’s port side.

The ship has been described as a “super skimmer” because it can scoop up millions of gallons of oily water mix every day, much more than skimming vessels already in use.

Rough seas and winds caused by Hurricane Alex, which went ashore in northeastern Mexico late Wednesday, were delaying plans to test the new skimmer.

“They can’t do their testing until the weather has died down,” Coulon said. “They are in close contact with ship owners to proceed with testing as soon as the weather permits.”

At a White House briefing on Thursday, Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government’s point man for the spill response, said he had “high hopes” for the new skimmer.

About 500 skimmers were in operation prior to the halt of skimming operations as Alex threatened. At the peak, 650 such vessels were in operation.

More than 28 million gallons of oily water mix have been picked up since the beginning of the spill about two and a half months ago, and the cleanup rate has picked up recently. The total a month ago was about 14 million gallons.

Oil from BP’s blown-out well began spewing into the waters off Louisiana after an oil rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.

(Additional reporting by Bruce Nichols and Eileen O’Grady in Houston, editing by Anna Driver and Paul Simao)
Special thanks to Richard Charter

Houston Chronicle
July 2, 2010

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/7090804.html

Scientists using research tools in new ways to look for signs of oil spreading down below, but have turned up nothing
By HARVEY RICE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 2, 2010, 12:37AM

ABOARD THE THOMAS JEFFERSON The 208-foot research vessel Thomas Jefferson slicing through swells off Florida’s Gulf Coast this week has been chasing an elusive ghost hatched from the BP well blowout: oil plumes.

The prospects of these monstrous plumes emerged as a frightening character in the Macando well narrative after limited data suggested that underwater plumes might be the size of some of the Great Lakes. But until BP’s well blew out April 20, no one had tried developing the technology for finding oil underwater.

For the last five weeks, scientists and the rest of Thomas Jefferson Cmdr. Shepard Smith’s crew have been working to develop such a method, using the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel designed for mapping the ocean bottom in shallow water.

Scientists haven’t found a sure-fire method so far, but they are closer to doing so because of this group’s research.

They have found no monster plumes of oil extending dozens or hundreds of miles, as had been feared.

Smith said new data suggest the plumes may be a few miles across. He is reluctant to use the word “plume,” preferring “anomaly,” because scientists are still awaiting lab results to verify their conclusions.

“I’m not aware of a single sample that shows we found oil underwater,” acoustics specialist Lt. Sam Greenaway said.

Clues in the deep

In the commander’s office, Greenaway huddles alongside Smith at computer screens showing dark blue columns turning to purple as they descend toward the ocean depths near where BP’s Macando well is spewing oil.

The officers are looking for clues in sonar data gathered a week ago that will help them figure out how to find underwater oil. The Thomas Jefferson and other research ships are inventing techniques as they look for something they don’t even know how to describe.

“Is it in tiny droplets?” Greenaway wondered aloud. “Is it in large droplets? Is it emulsified? Is it there at all?”

The Thomas Jefferson was two weeks into a five-month mission to chart hazards to navigation along the Gulf Coast when the Macando well erupted. Worries about underwater plumes arose as the blowout continued to spew millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.

To confront the disaster, the NOAA converted the Thomas Jefferson into a plume hunter.

NOAA upgraded the ship’s sonar and equipped it with a “fish,” a device towed behind the ship that can dive and look for a fluorescent light signature given off by oil.

Lt. Denise Gruccio, the executive officer, kept watch on the bridge Wednesday. She recalled that because the ship lacked computer steering assistance, it was difficult to keep it stationary for as long as two hours when the fish was cast deep. “It was nerve-wracking,” Gruccio said.

Never done before

The ship had borrowed a “rosette,” tubes clustered in a circle resembling a rose. Each tube in the rosette is set to sample water at a certain depth.

Although the crew knew how to operate each one of the devices, no one had ever used them in combination to find oil plumes, Smith said.

“We don’t normally do this type of work,” Smith said. “Nobody ever does this type of work because this deepwater blowout is an unprecedented challenge.”

During its first plume-hunting voyage, the Thomas Jefferson headed for the site of the blowout. But the ship was forced to stand off at a distance of five miles so that its sonar wouldn’t interfere with equipment being used in the effort to cap the well.

Weeks later, allowed within a half mile of the blowout, they found data suggesting a wake was forming behind the oil column as it spirals to the surface. Greenaway sat at a computer Wednesday and calculated the top of the column, a blue swath on the screen, as about 3,600 feet wide. A U-shaped bump on the screen indicated the possibility of a wake formed by currents pushing against the plume.

“This tells us where to find the oil,” Smith said, because any that broke off into plumes would be pushed in the direction of the wake.

Microbial mystery

He said the wake appeared to extend more than 3,000 feet from the bottom of the 5,000-foot column of oil.

The Thomas Jefferson also found data suggesting that microbes were eating the oil as it moved away from the blowout site. Smith said it appears that microbes are breaking down the oil, but it’s not clear what remains after they finish dining.

The ship also discovered that, rather than a river of oil, the plumes are more like clouds of oil droplets being pushed through the depths by currents.

harvey.rice@chron.com
Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/02/dispersants-flow-into-gulf-in-science-experiment/

By Ed Lavandera, CNN – July 2, 2010 – http://tinyurl.com/2avhnyo

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
· Chemical dispersants keep flowing at virtually unchanged levels
· EPA directive says level should be cut by 75%
· CNN analysis shows flow down by 9% per day
· Dispersant use called “science experiment”

Chemical dispersants keep flowing into the Gulf of Mexico at virtually unchanged levels despite the Environmental Protection Agency’s order to BP to “significantly” scale back, according to a CNN analysis of daily dispersant reports provided by the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command.

When the May 26 directive was issued, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said dispersant use should be cut by 75%.

Public statements at the time made by the EPA administrator gave the impression that federal officials were trying to cut down overall dispersant use.

“We expect to see a substantial reduction in the overall amount of dispersant used,” Jackson said in May.

Before May 26, BP used 25,689 gallons a day of the chemical dispersant Corexit. Since then, CNN’s analysis shows, the daily average of dispersant use has dropped to 23,250 gallons a day, a 9% decline.

Gulf Coast environmentalists say it’s another sign that the federal agencies monitoring dispersant use are not being tough enough with BP.

“I think the EPA has been struggling to respond to this crisis,” said Aaron Viles with the Gulf Restoration Network. “It’s all really a giant science experiment and we’re terribly concerned that in the long run the impacts are going to be significant and we really don’t know what we’re doing to the ecosystem.”

But the EPA argues it deserves credit for getting alarming dispersant use under control. The directive states that BP must ramp down dispersant use by “75% from the maximum daily amount used.”

And that’s the catch. The highest recorded amount of dispersant used occurred on May 23, when 70,000 gallons were injected into the Gulf of Mexico. EPA officials say they feared that number would have become the norm and that’s why, they say, the directive was issued.

“This escalation was quickly reversed, ensuring BP only uses the lowest volume of dispersant needed,” said Adora Andy, a spokeswoman for the EPA.

But even by the EPA’s own standards, BP still routinely exceeds the daily threshold. The EPA and Coast Guard say they’re trying to keep dispersant use to around 18,000 barrels a day.

But according to CNN’s analysis, BP has gone over that amount 50 percent of the time since the May 26 directive was issued. To do so, BP must request permission from the U.S. Coast Guard.

Coast Guard officials say dispersant use is “evaluated daily” and that it’s using the “safest and most effective methods available” to protect the sea environment.

“The EPA-Coast Guard directive has been successful in ensuring that BP uses the lowest volume of dispersant necessary,” U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Erik Halvorson, a spokesman with the Unified Area Command.

The EPA continues testing the chemical dispersant Corexit 9500, which has been used by BP since the beginning of the oil disaster. So far more than 1.6 million gallons of the chemical have been injected into the Gulf of Mexico.

But the struggle over daily dispersant use has caught the eye of Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, one of the loudest critics of BP’s response in cleaning up the oil spill.

“I think it is obvious we can never again allow for a repetition of what is happening right now, where the science experiment is being conducted without having any idea what the impact on marine life long term will be,” said Markey.

Special thanks to Ashley Hotz.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-13/lifting-drilling-moratorium-too-risky-bromwich-says.html

July 13, 2010, 4:30 PM EDT
–

(Updates with comments from commission in the fourth paragraph. For more on the Gulf oil spill, see SPILL .)

July 13 (Bloomberg) — Lifting the moratorium on deep-water oil drilling is too risky as companies have yet to show they are capable of preventing and containing spills following the BP Plc disaster, the main regulator for U.S. offshore drilling said.

Drillers must do a better job, and investigators must gather more data on the causes of BP’s Macondo well leak in the Gulf of Mexico before drilling can resume, Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said today at a hearing in New Orleans.

“So long as the spill is out there and has not been contained and the oil-spill response capabilities are all being consumed by the current spill,” Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar finds it too risky, Bromwich told a presidential commission. “He hopes that prior to Nov. 30 he will have the comfort level to allow some deep-water exploratory drilling to continue, but he is not there yet.”

The commission, formed to investigate the spill that began in April, will also review the moratorium following two days of testimony about the ban’s economic effect on the Gulf Coast. Commission co-Chairman William Reilly questioned why regulators couldn’t increase inspections and take other steps that would allow the six-month moratorium to be lifted sooner.

“I’m less comprehending of the problems in determining that the rigs are safe than I have been,” the former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told reporters. “We’ve had almost three months already to make some determinations.”

‘Bully Pulpit’

Reilly said he was moved during the two-day hearing by testimony about the effect of the spill and moratorium on the local economy, including from Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, who told the commission yesterday that the ban would drive Gulf residents to the unemployment line.

“Whether you call it a moratorium, a suspension, a pause, the result will still be substantial loss of jobs,” Landrieu said. She told the panel that idling drilling rigs in the Gulf could affect as many as 46,000 workers.

Charlotte Randolph, president of Lafourche Parish in Louisiana, told the commission that the area is suffering a “slow death” as the drilling moratorium squeezes local businesses that support the oil industry.

Bob Graham, co-chairman of the commission, said the panel wouldn’t likely have the resources to evaluate the safety of the rigs or the ability of the oil industry to respond to another spill as BP’s well continues to leak oil. The panel could use its “bully pulpit” to ensure that the Obama administration knew the region’s concerns about the drilling ban, he said.

Moratorium Adjustments

Salazar has said the Interior Department will consider any recommendations made by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling.

The moratorium on deep-water drilling may be adjusted to allow some new wells to go forward before Nov. 30, Bromwich told the commission. Bromwich said he plans public hearings over the next 60 days to determine what additional safety measures are needed.
Salazar announced the new moratorium yesterday after a federal judge rejected an initial ban imposed in May. The ban was in response to the April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

The damaged Macondo well has been gushing as much as 60,000 barrels of oil a day, according to government scientists. BP had spent about $3.1 billion on containment efforts, cleanup and legal claims as of July 6, company data show.

Job Losses

The new moratorium identifies at-risk wells based on drilling configurations and technologies instead of water depth. The previous version barred drilling deeper than 500 feet (152 meters), a distinction U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman questioned in rejecting the ban.

“This second suspension of deepwater drilling is a clear sign that the administration is unwilling to follow the advice of their own scientists,” Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said today in a statement. “The ultimate effect of this second moratorium is the same as the first — to shut down drilling operations in the Gulf and risk killing an estimated 20,000 jobs in Louisiana.”

The new ban has idled 21 rigs in the Gulf, 12 fewer than the number affected by the original moratorium, Bromwich said. Companies including Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., the largest U.S. deep-water oil driller, have said they will move rigs to other countries as a result of the U.S. ban.

Reorganizing MMS

Reilly asked Bromwich if inspectors could be placed on affected rigs as a way to ensure the safety needed to lift the moratorium.

“Inspections leave a margin for error,” Bromwich said.

Bromwich is charged with reorganizing the renamed Minerals Management Service, the agency within the Interior Department that oversaw oil and gas development on federal properties prior to the BP disaster.

“The industry has been too casual in the oil spill response plans they’ve submitted,” Bromwich said. “Frankly, I think my agency has been too casual in approving them.”

“We’re not going to politely ask industry anymore to fix things,” Bromwich said. “We’re going to demand that they fix things.”

–Editors: Romaine Bostick, Margot Slade.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net; Jim Snyder in New Orleans at jsnyder24@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net

Special thanks to Richard Charter

July 3, 2010

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20100703,0,1038308.story

Those shorelines will probably see tar balls in the months ahead, NOAA finds. Also, skimming boats prepare to go back to work, and efforts to help turtles and migrating birds are announced.
By Richard Simon and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times
July 3, 2010
Reporting from Washington and New Orleans

Hundreds of skimming boats prepared Friday to return to calmer gulf waters in the wake of Hurricane Alex and resume cleanup of the massive BP oil spill, which scientists now predict is likely to reach the Florida Keys and Miami in the months ahead.

Using computer simulations based on 15 years of wind and ocean current data, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report
http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/dwh.php%3Fentry_id=815
Friday showing a 61% to 80% chance of the oil spill reaching within 20 miles of the coasts of the Florida Keys, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, mostly likely in the form of weathered tar balls.

Shorelines with the greatest chance of being soiled by oil 81% to 100% stretch from the Mississippi River Delta to the western Florida Panhandle, NOAA scientists said in a
statement on its projections
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100702_longterm.html
for the next four months.

Other areas of Florida have a low probability of oil hits. The Florida Panhandle has already seen tar balls wash up on beaches.

But the chances of oil reaching east-central Florida and the Eastern Seaboard are less than 1% to 20%, NOAA said. And it is “increasingly unlikely” that areas above North Carolina will be hit.

Meanwhile, officials were moving skimming vessels back to sea and were trying to protect the ecologically sensitive Chandeleur Sound area, said Coast Guard Adm. Paul Zukunft.

“It’s going to be a long weekend from an oil spill response perspective,” Zukunft said Friday. All skimming boats from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle had been idle for three days because of dangerously high waves.

Officials hoped to move another containment ship above the gushing well by Wednesday to nearly double the 25,000 barrels of oil being recovered daily. As many as 60,000 barrels a day are spewing from the well, according to government estimates.

An operation to drill a relief well, the ultimate solution to stopping the leak, is seven to eight days ahead of its mid-August target date for completion.

But Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander, said Friday: “I am reluctant to tell you it will be done before the middle of August because I think everything associated with this spill and response recovery suggests that we should under-promise and over-deliver.”

BP and the Coast Guard worked out an agreement Friday with wildlife groups in response to concerns that sea turtles were being incinerated when oil slicks are burned. The parties agreed to convene a group of scientists to develop plans for monitoring future controlled burns, said Cathy Liss, president of the Washington-based Animal Welfare Institute, lead plaintiff in a lawsuit on the issue.

Liss said the officials also agreed to notify her group of any burns conducted after Tuesday and whether they have a biologist or other trained observer nearby to protect the turtles. Officials had halted such burns through Tuesday because of the weather.
The environmental groups had initially requested a temporary restraining order to prevent the burns.

Meanwhile, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials were making plans to start shipping thousands of sea turtle eggs marked for collection along the shores of Alabama and western Florida to the Kennedy Space Center this month.

Starting July 12, turtle eggs will be removed from nests, placed in boxes and shipped in special climate-controlled, vibration-resistant FedEx trucks to a climate-controlled, predator-proof warehouse at the space center, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fish and Wildlife spokesman Chuck Underwood said. Hatchlings will be released at various locations and times along the nearby Space Coast to avoid drawing predators, he said.

Federal officials also announced that stopover grounds would be created along the Gulf Coast in an effort to assist some of the millions of birds that will soon begin their fall migration.

Paul Schmidt, assistant director for migratory birds at the Fish and Wildlife Service, said it would be impossible to redirect vast numbers of migrating birds around the still-expanding oil slicks. But he said safe grounds for feeding and breeding could be created in coastal marshes and up to 100 miles inland.

He said conservation groups would work with private landowners to flood crop fields, cut out invasive plants that have overgrown some habitats and burn off some plants to open more ground for the birds.

On the economic side, new efforts were underway in the courts and Congress to deal with the financial effects of the spill.

A coalition of business groups and Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) filed a brief urging the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a judge’s ruling striking down the Obama administration’s six-month deep-water drilling moratorium in the gulf.

Also, a bipartisan group of Gulf Coast lawmakers launched a drive to pass a package of tax breaks to aid struggling businesses hurt by the spill.

richard.simon@latimes.com

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Times staff writers Bob Drogin in New Orleans and Nicole Santa Cruz in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Special thanks to Richard Charter.