A 2nd Anniversary Report on the BP Gulf Oil Spill
Friday, April 20th marks the 2nd anniversary of the BP Gulf Oil Spill. For those of us who live, work and play on the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) coastline, it is not a happy day … at all!
What has happened during the past 2 years which might give us hope that the US Federal Government or BP might be taking this unprecedented oil spill seriously?
If we are to portray the true state of affairs of this worst oil spill in American history, it would look like this excellent report from the Gulf Rescue Alliance.
As you can see from this report, as well as from all the anecdotal evidence gathered to date, we have every reason to believe that the Macondo Prospect well in the GOM is still leaking. A substantial amount of mostly circumstantial evidence has been consistently provided which indicates an oil well and surrounding area which has been irremediably compromised.
Just what exactly does this mean?
Because of the degree to which the sub-seafloor geological formations in the Macondo were undermined throughout the entire process of drilling, experiencing one or more massive explosions, followed by 87 straight days of gushing hydrocarbon effluent, the geological strata was forever altered. These critical geological transformations translated to significant changes in the topograghy of the seafloor around the previously gushing well. New cracks and crevices, fissures and faults, leaks and seeps, craters and clefts were created which allowed for the oil and gas emerging from deep at the source to find numerous conduits through all the way to the GOM seafloor.
The far-reaching ramifications of this predicament are inestimable, because we don’t know two critical points of information: (i.) How much pressure is the hydrocarbon effluent under both at the wellhead and at the source, 18,000 feet deep? (ii.) What volume of hydrocarbon brew currently exists at the source?
Regardless of the answers to these questions, two things remain apparent. (1) Given the very high pressure readings which were estimated during the flowing oil volcano of 2010 (and those taking upon capping the one well), it is certain that the hydrocarbon effluent will attempt to find every way possible through the fractured and unsettled geology and into the GOM. (2) Given the public record evidence of the amount of oil estimated in the immediate area of the Macondo Prospect, BP tapped a well which may never stop leaking in our collective lifetimes.
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