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Early observations and preliminary research results show most of the oil spilled from the Macondo well is biodegrading quickly, but more research and analysis is needed to determine long-term effects on marine life, a federal science report said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Department of the Interior released a report Aug. 4 outlining measurement methods and best estimates of what happened to the spilled oil. US Environmental Protection Agency scientists also were involved. More than 25 government and independent scientists contributed to the calculation methods or the calculations. BP PLC, operator of the Macondo well, was...

The Deepwater well has now reached a point where the mud inside the well is applying enough weight to the fluid in the formation that the flow of fluid, when such exists, is now from the well back into the rock. The well is sufficiently secure that, just before 7 pm CST Wednesday, Admiral Allen issued the following press release: Based on the successful completion of the static kill procedure and a positive evaluation of the test results, I have authorized BP to cement its damaged well. I made it clear that implementation of this procedure shall in no way...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The new head of the U.S. Interior Department's offshore-drilling oversight agency vowed to make "aggressive investigations of oil and gas companies" a "hallmark" of the agency going forward. Michael Bromwich, sworn in less than two months ago as director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, also told reporters Tuesday the Obama administration hopes to be able to end a moratorium on deepwater drilling well before Nov. 30, when it is currently scheduled to expire. But Bromwich said any recommendations he makes on the ban will depend on what he learns from experts his agency is consulting in...

This is a second copy of this thread. The previous copy can be found at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6810. Update Wednesday Morning: BP announced that the well had reached a static condition, a 'significant milestone', and it was able to stop pumping mud into the well. BP announced today that the MC252 well appears to have reached a static condition -- a significant milestone. The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, which is the desired outcome of the static kill procedure carried out yesterday (US Central time). Pumping of heavy drilling mud into the well...

BP's blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has reached a "static condition," the company said early Wednesday, meaning that pressure inside the well has been brought under control through a mud-pumping process that began Tuesday afternoon. BP called the achievement "a significant milestone" and said it stopped pumping mud into the Macondo well after about eight hours because the effort had been successful. "The well is now being monitored, per the agreed procedure, to ensure it remains static," the company said in a statement. "Further pumping of mud may or may not be required depending on results observed...

Progress on the relief well at the Deepwater Horizon well has now reached the point that BP have started the procedures for the top static kill of the well. There was a little delay in the installation of the casing for the relief well because, during the time that the well had been left untended during the last storm, the sides sloughed a little, and about 40 ft of debris accumulated in the bottom of the well. This was obviously more than had been expected, since the clearing run to remove this and condition the well took longer than originally...

Overnight Monday night there was a second set of leaks detected in the BOP assembly sitting on top of the Deepwater well in the Gulf, however these were successfully stopped by Tuesday morning and the flow testing of the well began. Oil was pumped into the well at several different rates, starting at 1 barrel/minute and ending at 7 bpm. During this series of tests the pressure in the well was monitored, and the results were sufficiently satisfying – “Textbook”, as Kent Wells noted, that the well is now in process of being killed as mud is fed into the...

At Sunday's press conference, Admiral Allen indicated that static kill could start this evening (Monday evening) or on Tuesday.At the time of the press conference, the pressure had built up to 6,980 pounds per square inch (psi). Admiral Allen indicated this was the type of pattern that would be expected with well integrity. According to his report: As you know we are in the process right now of laying the final casing run for the relief well and with that casing has now been placed at the bottom of the well bore. It is – they are circulating fluids just...

Last week, NOAA released a new study showing that the dispersed oil was not likely to travel far. In order for the oil to be dispersed very far, it would need to reach the Loop Current. At this point in time, the Loop Current is very far away, and there seems to be little chance the oil will travel that far. According to the report: Overflights in the past week have found only scattered patches of light sheen near the Mississippi Delta – an indication that aggressive efforts to capture and disperse the oil have been effective and that the...

This post was up yesterday, but the discussion may have gotten confusing, because it was part of an open thread. I am putting the post back up, to facilitate discussion in a more organized manner. - Gail Author's Note: Art Berman (aeberman) is an Oil Drum staff member and geological consultant whose specialties are subsurface petroleum geology, seismic interpretation, and database design and management. He has been interviewed on CNN and BNN about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. William Semple collaborated on this post. Mr. Semple is a drilling engineer and independent drilling consultant with 37 years of experience in the...

BILOXI, Miss. – The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have ordered the reopening of Mississippi territorial waters north of the barrier islands to all commercial and recreational finfish and shrimp fishing activities that were part of the precautionary oil spill closures. This order takes effect at 6:01 p.m. today. All commercial and recreational crab and oyster fishing will remain closed in the affected area.

Admiral Allen held a press conference in the Gulf region (rather than recent ones held in Washington), in which he noted that the news of the rapid disappearance of the oil already emitted by the Deepwater well is raising questions as to how long to retain the different parts of the fleet assembled to deal with it. Well pressure continues to slowly build, and there are no signs that the well integrity has been breached. The problem of the skimmer fleet, and the distributed lengths of boom are non-trivial. Should a hurricane appear then the oil-contaminated boom segments can become...

Author's Note: Art Berman (aeberman) is an Oil Drum staff member and geological consultant whose specialties are subsurface petroleum geology, seismic interpretation, and database design and management. He has been interviewed on CNN and BNN about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. William Semple collaborated on this post. Mr. Semple is a drilling engineer and independent drilling consultant with 37 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He worked for 16 years with a major oil company and has 24 years of experience as a drilling supervisor. He has been a guest contributor on The Oil Drum writing about the...

NEW ORLEANS — Preparations for step one of a two-step attempt to plug the Gulf oil gusher are going well and it could start by the weekend, the government's point man for the spill response said Thursday.The so-called static kill is intended to make the job of plugging the well for good easier, and it can begin as soon as crews finish work on the relief well needed for a permanent fix.Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said crews would drop in the casing for the relief well later Thursday, and that could speed up work on the static kill,...

Matt Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert, has long been one of the most famous and influential voices on the subject of peak oil. After the release of his book, Simmons rose to fame as Saudi Arabian oil production declined and global oil prices skyrocketed. However, Simmons has lately been making hyperbolic claims related to the deepwater spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Based on the scenarios Simmons has outlined, he argues for responses such as using a nuclear explosion to seal the well and evacuating 20 million people from the Gulf Coast. Extraordinary responses such as these would...

This thread is being closed. Please comment on http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6789. The work in the Gulf that is moving toward a more permanent solution to the leaking well beyond the current cap on the well is moving forward at a slow and cautionary pace. In his briefing at 2 pm Tuesday afternoon, Admiral Allen noted that the riser has now been connected between the Development Driller III and the BOP on the relief well. When that pipe is put into place it is full of seawater, and for a variety of reasons it is best that this is replaced with drilling mud...

BP does not seem to have gone back to the daily briefings, let alone the twice-a-day ones that were being issued just a couple of weeks ago. Admiral Allen has given permission for the top and bottom kill (through the relief well (RW)) activities to continue. The Admiral also noted that the riser for the RW has been reattached, and the reconnection, removal of the plugging packer, and cleaning of the well is in process. It is estimated that the intersection with the original well will now occur on the 7th August, with the final set of casing being run...

→ Washington’s BlogMatthew Simmons has made a lot of big claims about the oil spill (see videos below).Because of his background, Simmons has been interviewed repeatedly in television, newspaper and radio media. Simmons was an energy adviser to President George W. Bush, is an adviser to the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, and is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is former chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International, an investment bank catering to oil companies.People have become polarized around Simmons as a lightning rod. For example, people who believe all of...

The “Bonnie” storm has passed, and the different vessels are not only returned to the site, but are already making progress in returning to operations. As Admiral Allen noted on Sunday DDIII is now running the riser pipe down. They have 67 joints to complete, they've done 39 of those as of about 10:30 Central Daylight time this morning, need about five more hours to do that. They are planning to latch on to the well around midnight tonight. Development Driller II which was – had drill – was involved in drilling the backup well is returning to site and...

<p>THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be "far preferable" to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.</p> <p>Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.</p>

The Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.Mr Salmond said the documents would vindicate the Scottish governmentThe Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.The Sunday Times claimed to have seen a letter from the US administration to the Scottish government before the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.It said the US government did not want Megrahi released from prison.

Desperate White House Sends Political Team To The Gulf, After Blowing It For The Past Three Months Joe Weisenthal | Jul. 25, 2010, 8:41 AM | 43 | comment 1 The Deepwater Horizon blew up on April 20. It's now almost August. Apparently it took nearly all this time for The White House to realize it was taking a beating over the politics of the situation, and that it ought to start getting head of the controversies. POLITICO: The White House has quietly launched an effort to confront the political backlash along the Gulf Coast over its handling of the...

A critical alarm system that should have warned workers of danger aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig had been disabled before the rig erupted into flames on April 20,

BP PLC's board is set to name managing director Bob Dudley as the company's new chief executive if, as expected, the board on Monday approves the negotiated departure of current chief Tony Hayward, people familiar with the matter said. The plan before the board would elevate Mr. Dudley to the CEO spot on Oct. 1, allowing for a roughly two-month transition from Mr. Hayward, according to someone familiar with the plan. Mr. Hayward would stay on the board for the rest of the year. As expected, he will discuss BP's second-quarter results on Tuesday.

KENNER, LA. -- If there is no smoking gun in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, it is because there is smoke coming from so many places.After months of oil-spill misery and endless recriminations about what happened and why, it is increasingly clear that the complex operation of drilling an exploratory well in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico failed in a complex way. No single decision or misstep in isolation could have caused the blowout, but any number of decisions might have prevented it had they gone the other way. The calamity, the evidence now suggests, was not an...

NEW ORLEANS — Some ships prepared to move back to the site of BP's broken oil well Saturday as the remnants of a weakening Tropical Storm Bonnie rolled into the Gulf of Mexico. The rough weather is still expected to hit the area directly, but the storm - now barely a tropical depression - broke apart as it crossed Florida and moved into the Gulf. Dozens of vessels evacuated the Gulf Friday ahead of the storm on the orders of Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's spill chief. But by Saturday morning, the rig drilling the relief...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Some 750 boats drafted in to scoop up oil from the Gulf of Mexico are having "trouble" finding any crude in the sea, a top US official said Wednesday, almost a week after a busted well was capped. "We are starting to have trouble finding oil," US pointman Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of handling the government's response, told reporters. The boats, which have been drafted in to skim oil off the surface of the Gulf, are "really having to search for the oil in some cases" around the area of the capped well, he...

There is a certain frustration in hearing some of the officials who act as spokesmen for the management team handling the spill from the Deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico. Their evaluation of the situation is bound around a full collection and compilation of the existing evidence, a comprehensive and contemplative understanding through a scientific explanation of the causes of whatever anomalies and other behavior that is not following the model anticipated, and subsequently then working out the best steps forward and determining the potential benefits relative to alternative approaches.

Because of the number of comments, this is a new thread. The previous thread was http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6754. Update 2:30 pm EDT: Original leak on the pipe has been sealed, but there are two major leaks on the stack now. One is at the bottom of the new "cap" and the other is on both sides of the BOP just underneath the flex joint. Lots of hydrates above the leaks. Update 1:00 pm EDT: Chuck Watson has an update on the potential for a tropical storm, added to the end of this post.

Update 2:30 pm EDT: Original leak on the pipe has been sealed, but there are two major leaks on the stack now. One is at the bottom of the new "cap" and the other is on both sides of the BOP just underneath the flex joint. Lots of hydrates above the leaks.

BP's Deepwater Oil Spill - White House Press Secretary Gibbs Confirms "Ruptured Oil Well Leaking from Top" and a Seep Two Miles Away (and Open Thread 2)Because of the number of comments, this is a second copy of this post. The previous post can be found at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6749. The White House says the well is leaking at the top and a seep is 2 miles away. Here is the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38304846/. At the end of last week, BP began the testing of the Deepwater well cap, closing all the valves and stopping the flow of oil and natural gas into...

HOUSTON/LONDON (Reuters) – Energy giant BP Plc said on Monday that seepage near its Gulf of Mexico well was unrelated to the massive oil leak that has at least temporarily been capped. BP shares, which had dropped more than 6 percent after engineers detected seepage on the floor of the Gulf after the well was capped on Thursday, recovered in late trade on the news. They were down 3.9 percent in late afternoon trading in New York.BP spokesman Mark Proegler told Reuters: "Scientists have concluded that the seep was naturally occurring."

Seepages Near The Leaking BP Oil Well 'May Be Natural' Seepages on the sea floor near the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well may be unrelated to the well itself, the government's incident commander says. Adm Thad Allen said there were concerns over three areas of "anomaly" during monitoring for a pressure test on the well. The well has been capped to see if the flow of oil can be stopped without provoking leaks in the sea bed. If the test fails, the well will be re-opened and oil will flow out again. Adm Allen outlined the three areas of...

Spill Investigators Focus on 20 'Anomalies' Aboard Doomed Deepwater HorizonFederal authorities investigating BP PLC's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are zeroing in on bad decisions, missed warnings and worker disagreements in the hours before the April 20 inferno aboard the Deepwater Horizon that spawned one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. In particular, the panel is examining why rig workers missed telltale signs that the well was close to an uncontrolled blowout, according to an internal document assembled by the investigators and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The document lists more than 20 "anomalies" in...

AP has released this story (link here), entitled "(Anonymous) Official: Seep found near BP's blown out oil well." The last open thread where this was being discussed (all throughout, but especially towards the bottom) was http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6745. Doug Suttles was the BP representative on this morning's (Sunday morning) technical update. Mr. Suttles said that pressure is now at 6,778 psi, and continues to build at one to two psi per hour, and this is encouraging. BP still does not see any problems. BP now thinks that there is a possibility that the test can continue from now until the well is...

The Gulf of Mexico's gushing oil well remained shut off Sunday afternoon, as BP and federal officials conferred over when -- and whether -- it should ever be re-opened. The leaking BP well was the subject of dueling media announcements on Sunday, as BP and the government offered different glosses on the same basic facts. The well was still capped, as it has been since Thursday, and it hasn't shown signs of a feared underground leak. Sunday morning, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told reporters that, because a new mechanical cap seems to be holding, "there is no target...

Doug Shuttles was the BP representative on this morning's (Sunday morning) technical update. Mr. Shuttles said that pressure is now at 6,778 psi, and continues to build at one to two psi per hour, and this is encouraging. BP still does not see any problems. BP now thinks that there is a possibility that the test can continue from now until the well is killed by the relief well, probably in August. But this is not a decision that can be made all at once. Instead, careful monitoring will be continued, and a decision made on a day by day...

At this morning's press briefing, Kent Wells of BP reported that pressures have now reached 6,745 psi, and are building at about 2 psi per hour. BP is estimating ultimate pressure will be around 6,800 psi. While this is not as high as originally expected, there are several reasonable explanations for this lower pressure reading, including the possibility that the well is now somewhat depleted, and therefore has lower pressure. BP seems to be encouraged by the results. Mr. Wells said several times, "We are encouraged that we have integrity," and "We find no evidence of lack of integrity."

As a team of scientists works to interpret pressure readings inside the blown-out Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, a geologist who has been following the gusher said a pressure reading of lower than the 8,000 to 9,000 pounds per square inch target that officials have said they are hoping for does not necessarily indicate bad news. The 6,700 pound- per-square inch pressure reading logged inside the blown-out Macondo well this morning may suggest that the well has lost power over the almost three-month-long period it has flowed into the Gulf of Mexico and not that the well is leaking somewhere beneath the sea floor, a geologist who...

With all of our problems in the Gulf of Mexico, we think about importing more from elsewhere. Let's look at some graphs of net imports of crude oil and refined products, and of some US production amounts, to see what is happening now. Perhaps this will give us insight as to what to expect going forward, and how many options we really have with respect to oil imports. Figure 1. US net imports of oil and oil products, using an EIA chart As one can see, US net imports peaked in 2005, and have been declining ever since. The year...

After busy making several outrageous comments regarding BP (BP: 37.48 -1.44 -3.70%) and the Gulf oil spill as recent as last evening, Matt Simmons abruptly announced today that he would retire from the board of Simmons & Co.–the company he founded in 1974–effective June 30. Meanwhile, Simmons & Co. also issued a statement in an apparent attempt to distance itself from its founder.  As Houston Business Journal reports: “..on June 14, [Simmons & Co] issued a statement dated May 12 in which [CEO Mike Frazier] distanced himself from the founder, saying that the former chairman’s views were not those of Simmons & Co. Frazier referred...

This is a second thread for this post. Please see http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6731 for previous comments. Update Thursday Afternoon, 4:00 pm : BP has at least temporarily capped the well, and oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf. BP will now be carefully monitoring the pressure levels. Admiral Allen reports: "We're encouraged by this development, but this isn't over. Over the next several hours we will continue to collect data and work with the federal science team to analyze this information and perform additional seismic mapping runs in the hopes of gaining a better understanding on the condition of the well bore...

NEW ORLEANS -- After fixing a leak on a cap designed to plug up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP engineers readied Thursday to see if the new top is enough to contain the gusher. Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing in Houston that the leak, which was discovered late Wednesday, was fixed by replacing the pipe called a "choke line" on the side of capping device. The work set back the testing process on the cap's capabilities.

When things are going well down at the Deepwater oil spill site in the Gulf there are press conferences, data flows in a timely manner and the public can understand what is going on. When there are problems, these get delayed. Then as I noted yesterday we become dependent on the videos that BP release, to get a closer and more immediate view of the actual situation. That can at least show the occasional something significant. Today’s such topic is the picture of the well from the Skandi ROV that I took at around 6:15 pm CDT Wednesday (though Admiral...

This is a second copy of this thread. The previous copy can be found at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6726. Update: Permission to go forward with the test was given to BP Wednesday afternoon.

On that little note of caution, there does seem to be some delay, or perhaps “slow, methodical, unseen progress” in regard to closing the valves etc in order to test the integrity of the well. At roughly 10 pm Eastern, the flow does not appear to have changed much, if at all, and the BP site notes that the test has not yet started. (Nor has it two hours later having finished writing this post). The white pipe is injecting dispersant that changes the color of the oil/gas to more brown and seems to be coming in spurts rather than...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Investors pressured shares of BP PLC on Wednesday, with the company stuck in a holding pattern on a crucial test of a new containment system over its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.An unnamed Obama administration official told the Associated Press that the government was acting with an "abundance of caution" on the test. Officials had expressed some optimism that a tighter well cap installed over the weekend could have stopped the flow of oil from the well by now, but plans to deploy it remain in limbo, with more updates expected in the...

BP's work on capping the Gulf of Mexico gusher was frozen Wednesday after the federal government raised concerns the operation could put damaging pressure on the busted well that could make the leak worse. An administration official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks with BP, said the government was acting out of "abundance of caution" and didn't want potentially dangerous pressure tests on a tighter containment cap that has been placed over the well to go ahead until BP answers questions about possible risks. At the same time, BP on its own halted...

BP's work to cap its Gulf of Mexico gusher was in limbo Wednesday after the federal government raised concerns the operation could put damaging pressure on the busted well and make the leak worse. An administration official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks with BP, said the government was acting out of an "abundance of caution" and didn't want potentially dangerous pressure tests on a tighter cap that has been placed over the well to go ahead until BP answers questions about possible risks.