BP Gulf oil disaster continues

This video is called Wildlife Apocalypse: Video of Gulf birds, fish caught in BP oil spill.

By Hiram Lee in the USA:

Gulf slick matches oil from BP spill

30 August 2011

Independent scientists have confirmed that oil spotted on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico last week is a chemical match to oil from BP‘s Macondo well, the source of last year’s horrific oil spill disaster.

Reports of oil visible in the area surrounding the Macondo well, permanently sealed since September of last year, began to emerge on August 19 when members of the Gulf Restoration Network observed patches of oil sheen during a flyover tour of the site.

Following this, on August 24, journalist Ben Raines of Alabama’s Press-Register reported having seen hundreds of oil patches, roughly 4 to 5 feet across, spread over the surface of the water, all within a mile of the Macondo wellhead. “Most of the oil,” Raines wrote, “was located in a patch about 50 yards wide and a quarter of a mile long.” Oil rising to the surface was accompanied by a “pronounced and pungent petroleum smell,” he added.

Samples of the oil collected by Press-Register reporters were sent to Louisiana State University chemists Ed Overton and Scott Miles for testing. “After examining the data, I think it’s a dead ringer for the MC252 [Macondo well] oil, as good a match as I’ve seen,” Overton told the Press-Register. He added, “My guess is that it is probably coming from the broken riser pipe or sunken [Deepwater Horizon] platform… However, it should be confirmed, just to make sure there is no leak from the plugged well.”

Robert Bea, a petroleum engineer at the University of California who has studied the Deepwater Horizon disaster, responded to photographic evidence of the oil and eye-witness reports of the scene by telling the Press-Register: “Looks suspicious. The point of surfacing about one mile from the well is about the point that the oil should show up, given the seafloor at 5,000 feet… natural circulation currents would cause the drift.” He continued: “A remote operated vehicle (ROV) could be used to ‘back track’ the oil that is rising to the surface to determine the source. This should be a first order of business to confirm the source.”

See also here.

BP prepares to drill Great Australian Bight: here.

The Scottish National Party boosted its love affair with big business today by attacking as “cack-handed” a decision by Westminster to levy a windfall tax on oil companies: here.

China says ConocoPhillips failed to completely clean up oil spills: here.