{"id":3312,"date":"2011-11-26T02:02:23","date_gmt":"2011-11-26T02:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/?p=3312"},"modified":"2011-11-26T02:02:23","modified_gmt":"2011-11-26T02:02:23","slug":"the-stuart-smith-blog-breakthrough-in-the-macondo-mystery-bp-admits-to-new-activity-at-deepwater-horizon-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/2011\/11\/26\/the-stuart-smith-blog-breakthrough-in-the-macondo-mystery-bp-admits-to-new-activity-at-deepwater-horizon-site\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stuart Smith Blog: Breakthrough in the Macondo Mystery: BP Admits to New Activity at Deepwater Horizon Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.stuarthsmith.com\/breakthrough-in-the-macondo-mystery-bp-admits-to-new-activity-at-deepwater-horizon-site#comments
\n
\nThis makes a lot of sense but is another new awful thing to contend with. The perils of offshore oil continue….<\/em> DV<\/p>\n

Finally, some answers. After months of trying to make the fresh oil surfacing at the Deepwater Horizon site a \u201cnonissue,\u201d BP has finally copped to what\u2019s really happening at ground zero of last year\u2019s massive oil spill \u2013 where just last week, flyover surveillance footage captured a small fleet of large \u201coil-related\u201d vessels working the waters. It\u2019s hard to hide those ships the size of football fields, even in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

In a bombshell revelation that\u2019s going viral, BP has admitted to conducting a study to \u201ctrack oil from seabed to surface\u201d in the Macondo Prospect. Sounds to me like they\u2019ve found a leak.<\/p>\n

Not so fast. A leak would suggest BP is to blame (perish the thought), but a \u201cnatural seep\u201d would imply an act of God, conveniently out of the hands of mere mortals. Here\u2019s how Sabrina Canfield covered the BP disclosure for Courthouse News Service on Nov. 21:<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement late Friday, a representative from BP verified that several vessels are in the vicinity of the Macondo well: \u201cThere are several vessels there participating in a study of natural oil seeps. This study has been ongoing for the past month or so. Data continues being collected and we provided an update on the natural oil seeps at the SETAC [Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry] conference in Boston this week. \u2026 The study is documenting the specific locations of these seeps and is seeking to track oil flow from seabed to surface,\u201d BP wrote.<\/p>\n

If there are seeps in the area, they are not natural. I can assure you of that. BP was required to conduct a seafloor survey prior to applying for a permit to drill. If these seeps were not discovered during the survey \u2013 which they apparently weren\u2019t \u2013 they must be related to the disaster and the heavy-handed methods used to attempt to seal the well. Consider this from my Oct. 13, 2011, post:<\/p>\n

As you may recall, back in late August, BP lowered an ROV down to inspect the Macondo wellhead. The video feed, viewed by federal officials in New Orleans, confirmed that the well itself isn\u2019t leaking. Although I\u2019d like to see that video released to the public (to assuage the cynics), for now I\u2019ll take the feds at their word.<\/p>\n

If the riser, the rig and the wellhead aren\u2019t leaking oil, where is it all coming from? As I and others have suggested before, the oil may be seeping through cracks and fissures on the seafloor. Remember, BP was banging around down there with heavy machinery and massive pieces of equipment during its many unsuccessful attempts to stem the flow of oil. One of the containment domes BP lowered over top the gushing well last year was four stories high and weighed more than 70 tons. That\u2019s a lot of weight and stress being applied.<\/p>\n

Back in August, I called for a full survey of the seafloor surrounding the Macondo wellhead. And today I am renewing that call. It\u2019s not enough to say the wellhead itself isn\u2019t leaking. As noted above, my guess is the heavy stress BP applied to the seafloor created cracks and fissures around the wellhead, and they are the source of all this fresh oil we\u2019re seeing at the site and coming ashore more than 100 miles away.<\/p>\n

The truly devastating part of the \u201cseafloor crack\u201d scenario is that kind of leakage can\u2019t be stopped. You can\u2019t plug a crack or a fissure, all you can do is try to contain and recover the oil.<\/p>\n

So although BP has confessed to conducting a study at the epicenter of last year\u2019s 200-million-gallon spill, its disclosed focus is just another example of the oil giant\u2019s inability to tell the whole truth.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned, we\u2019ll be bringing you updates as details emerge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.stuarthsmith.com\/breakthrough-in-the-macondo-mystery-bp-admits-to-new-activity-at-deepwater-horizon-site#comments This makes a lot of sense but is another new awful thing to contend with. The perils of offshore oil continue…. DV Finally, some answers. After months of trying to make the fresh oil surfacing at the Deepwater Horizon site a \u201cnonissue,\u201d BP has finally copped to what\u2019s really happening at ground zero of … Continue reading The Stuart Smith Blog: Breakthrough in the Macondo Mystery: BP Admits to New Activity at Deepwater Horizon Site<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3313,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions\/3313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}