Gulf oil spill in early May. It’s much worse now but a solution used in Kuwait might be the key for containing the contaminated.
As the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill continues to saturate the Gulf of Mexico with millions of barrels of crude oil and natural gas, company engineers have begun to turn to even more bizarre methods to plug the well that has now been creating ecological havoc for over a month now. The newest attempt to seal the well, according to articles in CNN is by using what is being called a “top kill” method, that involves pumping mud into the site of the oil leak to slow it’s flow, and then afterwards to plug the well with cement, making it a “dead well”.
The method was used successfully to plug some of the scores of Kuwait oil wells that were sabotaged by the retreating Iraqi Army at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
Kuwait, in which these surface wells are located, is still cleaning up the damage created by these wells, which created large oil sludge “lakes” in the desert, causing havoc to Kuwait’s wildlife as well as polluting underground aquifers.
The only problem with using this method on the Deep Horizon well, however, is that the leak is located 5,000 feet under water; where the water pressure on the well plugging equipment being used is around 2,500 pounds per square inch.
After more than 38 days of continuing oil leaks (which appears to be more like a gusher, instead of a “spill”) the ecological disaster to the Gulf of Mexico and to Louisiana’s $2.5 Billion annual fishing industry is being called America’s “worst oil spill disaster ever, and far worse than the Alaskan Exxon Valdez oil spill in the late 1980’s (which only came from one oil tanker).
Green Prophet has already tried to note what the environmental implications of a similar oil well blow out could be in locations like the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea; where a Russian ship emptied its oil bilge waste into the Red Sea.
All of BP’s previous attempts to cap this well have ended in failure, and experts are saying that there is only a “30 to 4 percent chance” that this latest method will work. There is also fear that the attempt could rupture the broken end of the pipe from which the oil is now spewing out, making the oil spill even larger.
As we have noted before, regional areas like the Persian Gulf have very fragile eco-systems, and what remains of these natural wildlife habitats, such as Abu Dhabi’s Bu Tinah island atoll could be devastated if a similar well blowout should occur to one of many offshore oil platforms.
BP Senior VP Kent Wells commented a few days ago that “normally you’d spend weeks or months to do what we’ve done in days here” in regards to the company’s efforts to plug the well. Whatever they’ve tried, though, hasn’t worked; and the result is pea soup thick layer of oil now floating in some of the Gulf Coast’s treasured wildlife estuaries. We at Green Prophet hope that oil companies in our region learn from this disaster and take necessary measures to ensure such a disaster will has less of a chance of occurring here.
Photo via NASA
Read related articles on oil spills and oil caused pollution:
Will Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Open Pandora’s Box on Oil Sands Drilling?
Kuwait Still Cleaning up After Saddam’s Mess
Russian Vessel Fined for Dumping Oil Bilge into Red Sea
Author: Maurice Picow
Maurice Picow grew up in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., where he received a B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Following graduation, Maurice embarked on a career as a real estate broker before making the decision to move to Israel. After arriving in Israel, he came involved in the insurance agency business and later in the moving and international relocation fields. Maurice became interested in writing news and commentary articles in the late 1990’s, and now writes feature articles for the The Jerusalem Post as well as being a regular contributor to Green Prophet. He has also written a non-fiction study on Islam, a two volume adventure novel, and is completing a romance novel about a forbidden love affair. Writing topics of particular interest for Green Prophet are those dealing with global warming and climate change, as well as clean technology - particularly electric cars.
Oil Spill Eater II is the first response bioremediation product that is safe for humans, non toxic to marine species clean up tool that actually removes oil from the environment by converting oil to Co2 and water, without any secondary clean up required. OSE II has cleaned up 27000 spills since 1989.
What a terrible tragedy this is for all the caring citizens of the world , and even more importantly , the poor marine life that is devastated from this man made disaster…
There is a lesson to be learned here , there needs to be limitations set fourth to mans greed when it comes to the well being of the sacred and cherished planet we live on , that should never be taken for granted. This catastrophe and others alike could end up doing irreparable harm and havoc to the world ecosystem .
These a-holes of the world that create these disasters need to be held accountable for there actions , and should never again be allowed to operate in such an obviously foolish and reckless manner , thereby jeopardizing the well being of all.
I have read and seen all the recent attempts and ludicrous ideas to stop the flow of oil , however i think there is a much simpler solution to 1 . Stopping the spill , and 2. Preventing future similarities from happening ..
There is a catch however ,,I want 2.5 million dollars (payable of course upon successful completion of my idea) to tell these stupid sobs of the world how to fix the problem they have created .
The way i see
it this is a cheap price for them to pay as “time is money ” like the old saying goes , and obviously there ticker is running at full speed ahead .
This may not be the appropriate venue to advertise my services ,so i would appreciate if any readers could fwd my submission to the proper venue , if known and or contact me at [email protected] with any relevant sites that might offer a reward for a solution to the problem. Until then , good luck……..