BP prepares to divert more leaking oil from spill in gulf
Paula Dittrick
OGJ Senior Staff Writer
HOUSTON, June 11 -- BP PLC on June 11 prepared enhancements to collect more oil and gas leaking from the deepwater Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, and executives plan to meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington, DC, on June 16.
Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible was drilling in 5,000 ft of water on Mississippi Canyon Block 252 when a well blowout resulted in a fire and explosion to the semi, killing 11 crew members.
On June 11, BP reported oil spill response costs of $1.43 billion, including the first $60 million in funds for the Louisiana barrier islands construction project. It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident, BP said.
National Incident Commander and retired Adm. Thad Allen asked BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg to meet with Obama and other administration officials. Allen said both the administration and BP have concerns that will be addressed in the meeting.
“The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the largest environmental disaster in our nation’s history,” Allen said. “The potential devastation to the Gulf Coast, its economy, and its people require relentless efforts to stop the leak and contain the damage.”
More oil collected
Response crews tentatively planned June 12-13 to test the Q4000 direct connect, a system using hoses and a manifold deployed for the failed “top kill” operation. The direct connect will take oil and gas from the failed Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer (BOP) through a separate riser to the Q4000 on the surface.
The Q4000 direct connect, in addition to the existing lower marine riser package (LMRP) cap system, is intended to increase the amount of oil and gas collected and diverted from the spill (OGJ Online, June 10, 2010).
Allen said the Q4000 direct connect, tentatively expected to be operational by mid-June, is expected to collect 5,000-10,000 b/d of oil.
The LMRP cap, lowered June 3 onto the failed Deepwater Horizon BOP stack, has a capacity to collect 15,000-18,000 b/d. Oil and gas from the LMRP cap system goes through a fixed riser to Transocean’s Discoverer Enterprise drillship.
A more-permanent LMRP containment cap system is being planned to direct the oil and gas to a new free-floating riser ending 300 ft below sea level. A flexible hose will attach the free-floating riser to a containment vessel.
This long-term containment option is designed to permit disconnection and reconnection of the riser in case of a hurricane. It is expected to be implemented in early July.
In the meantime, work on the first relief well, which started May 2, continues and has currently reached a depth of 13,978 ft of its 18,000 TD target. The second relief well, which started May 16, is at 8,576 ft.
Both wells are still estimated to take 3 months to complete from commencement of drilling.
Surface efforts continue
Work continues to collect and disperse oil that has reached the surface of the sea, protect the gulf’s shoreline, and collect and clean up any oil that has reached shore, BP said.
Almost 3,600 vessels are involved in the response effort, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels. Operations to skim oil from the surface of the water have recovered 383,000 bbl total of oily liquid.
The total length of containment boom deployed as part of efforts to prevent oil from reaching the coast is more than 2.3 million ft. Nearly 2.7 million ft of sorbent boom also was deployed.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].