Shell oil spill recovery continues in Gulf of Mexico
LAFAYETTE, La. — Shell Oil Co., continuing to respond Monday to an oil discharge in the Gulf of Mexico, reported it had collected about 76,600 gallons of an oil-water mix through Sunday evening.
Shell said Thursday that a discharge of about 88,200 gallons occurred some 90 miles south of Timbalier Island, off the Louisiana coast, creating an initial oil sheen of about 2 miles by 13 miles. The company identified the source of the problem as a flow line that connects to a tension leg platform at the Glider Field.
The Glider Field lies 165 miles south-southwest of New Orleans in around 3,400 feet of water. Shell bought the lease there in 1995 for $725,000, and holds a 75% working interest in Glider; Newfield holds the rest. Development costs were about $150 million, according to offshoretechnology.com. The website said the well was drilled in 1996 to about 16,000 feet.
Production was shut in initially Friday, but resumed Sunday at the nearby Brutus Field. No additional discharges have been reported following inspection of subsea infrastructures at the Glider Field, where production remained closed Monday. There was no loss of well control.
Shell said in an issued statement that the sheen was moving westward Monday, but was not expected to reach the shore. Air support is tracking the movement. No fisheries had been closed Monday, the company said, and the Coast Guard said there have been no reported impacts to wildlife.
The Coast Guard confirmed the continued presence of the sheen, but could not say if it presented problems unusual for a spill.
Skimming continued in the Gulf using infrared technology, the company said in its statement. That process continued through the night.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement confirmed Monday that it has approved Shell’s plan to recover the damaged flowline segment. A BSEE spokeswoman said the agency would review "any subsequent repair plans" before production restarts.
BSEE also said late Monday it has appointed of BSEE engineers, inspectors and investigators to probe the incident to identify causes and "contributing influences," behind the discharge. The panel will make recommendations in a final report. No timeline was presented.
Through midday Sunday, the Coast Guard said its "unified response efforts" with the oil company involved five vessels and about 130 people, although those numbers often change. The Coast Guard said it and Shell agreed that on-water vessels and "skimming" was the "safest and most effective" way to recover the oil.
Skimming involves trapping the oil within booms and collecting it off the surface.
The spill itself was characterized as being "on the low side" for volume of oil lost, a "relatively minor spill," according to Eric Smith, a professor at Tulane University and associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute in the A.B. Freeman School of Business in New Orleans.
Smith said what was spilled was the equivalent of about 2,100 barrels of oil. The rupture occurred in what Smith said was likely an insulated 6-inch pipe along a pipeline fairly new in the Gulf of Mexico, which has some 31,000 miles of pipe, some more than six decades old.
Smith said skimming is something like using a vacuum cleaner on the water. He said some of the light, sweet crude oil found in the Gulf will evaporate in the sun; some oil will also be consumed by bacteria. Oily water collected by skimming will probably be separated into oil and water components, with the water returned to the Gulf. How much oil was recovered is determined through the oil and water collection and separating process.
Oil may cause some risk to sea life — whales, porpoises — found far offshore, but probably does not pose a risk to shellfish, which are found close to shore, or shrimp, found mostly within 50 miles of shore.
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