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(NewsCore) - Eyeless shrimp, fish with oozing sores and other mutant creatures found in the Gulf of Mexico are raising concerns over lingering effects of the BP oil spill. On April 20, 2010, an explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and spewed an estimated 4.9 million barrels into the Gulf, in the worst offshore oil spill in US history. Two years later, scientists and commercial fishers alike are finding shrimp, crab and fish that they believe have been deformed by the chemicals unleashed in the spill, according to an extensive report by Al Jazeera English.

BP won approval from the Interior Department to drill its first exploratory oil well in the Gulf of Mexico since the blowout of its Macondo well a year and a half ago touched off the country’s worst offshore environmental disaster. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said that BP met more stringent safety requirements devised by the federal government in the aftermath of the disaster. The company also planned to follow even tougher voluntary standards that exceeded the government’s rules. “This permit was approved only after thorough well design, blowout preventer, and containment capability reviews,” said bureau director Michael...

What cost have we paid for the president’s permitorium on new lease auctions (only just ended this summer) and drilling permit approvals which are still well below the levels we need? Unlike many rhetorical questions, this is one which we will eventually learn the answer to. A piece of the puzzle fell into place this week when Chevron, finally getting back to work after long delays, announced the discovery of another, potentially significant US energy deposit in the gulf. SAN RAMON, Calif., Sept. 6, 2011 – Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today announced a new oil discovery at the Moccasin prospect...

In the next week, how many times will you hear that the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the worst environmental catastrophe in American history? This assessment was plausible when first uttered by President Obama almost a year ago, but now it’s clear that the worst never happened. The Deepwater spill has largely disappeared — dispersed, evaporated, and eaten by bacteria. Its impact on sea life appears minimal. Yet politicians, activists, trial lawyers, and environmental journalists persist in perpetuating this myth. Why? Pinning disasters on the environmental lobby’s hobby horse du jour defines the battlespace, increases the power of...

Federal study confirms microbes have eaten most of the Gulf Oil Spill A study by researchers from Texas A&M and University of California in Santa Barbara have found that all of the methane gas released from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico have been consumed by tiny microbes. Methane gas amounts 100,000 times higher than normal at the time of their release have completely disappeared after only 120 days. Some scientists had raised concerns that dissolved methane and other oil residue would continue to plague the Gulf for years or even decades. This is turning out not...

Mindful not to waste a perfectly good crisis, the Obama White House and influential congressional Democrats have seized the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster to assert a continuing stranglehold control over offshore drilling operations. On Dec. 1 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's seven-year extended prohibition on new oil and gas development off the Florida and eastern Atlantic coasts is once again adding enormous penalties to our already ailing economy and employment market. Costs include many thousands of lost high-skilled job opportunities, increased energy and product prices, more industry relocations overseas and greater dependence upon foreign oil imports. The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil &...

The Obama administration on Tuesday plans to announce that it is lifting the moratorium on deep-water oil drilling, after putting in place new rules intended to tighten safety. President Obama imposed the moratorium after the blowout of a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20 led to the largest maritime oil spill in American history. But the White House has come under intense pressure from the industry and from regional officials and businesses that have complained about the economic impact. “The process is coming to its natural end,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, told reporters...

The New York Times devoted a big chunk of its front page one day last week to noting that much of the spilled BP Deepwater Horizon oil has "dissipated." Most of it, in fact. And to scant noticeable ill-effect -- at least so far -- relative to the apocalyptic rhetoric attending weeks of televised video footage that showed oil rushing from the ocean floor. It's not clear how much oil actually spilled; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute expert Dr. Judy McDowell estimates that between 96 million and 184 million gallons made its way into the Gulf before the leak was capped...

"In the chaotic aftermath of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a poorly orchestrated effort to knock down the towering blaze may have inadvertently led to the sinking of the platform, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity and shared with ABC News. As part of an ongoing government investigation, Coast Guard officials are trying to reconstruct the initial response to the rig explosion that unleashed one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. One concern surrounds the use of briny seawater instead of fire-retardant foam to drench the rig. The Coast...

The damage inflicted by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill keeps on growing as it is now claiming young children among its innocent 'victims.' Faith-based organizations and bureaucrats are rushing to help limit the psychological damage that the disaster has wreaked on youngsters who are said to be exhibiting "behavioral changes" due to stress and anxiety, but it seems federal funds are being improperly used by Florida officials to pay for a portion of the mental 'relief' efforts. Beginning this week, children in grades K-6 who have shown signs of emotional stress and anxiety due to the oil spill are...

Droshky project in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico has started production. Located about 160 miles southwest of New Orleans, Droshky is expected to produce approximately 50,000 net barrels of oil per day at its peak, consisting of approximately 45,000 barrels per day of liquid hydrocarbons and 30 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

Spanish firm plans exploratory drilling Florida Keys residents may be breathing a collective sigh of relief now that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been capped, but the threat of oil reaching local shores is far from over, as there is a new threat looming. A foreign oil company plans to drill off Cuba, just 60 miles south of Key West, the Wall Street Journal has quoted Repsol spokeswoman Maria Ritter as saying. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson in May sent President Barack Obama a letter stating he was "greatly concerned by reports that Spanish oil giant Repsol has contracted with...

Politics: The Export-Import Bank wanted to stop the export of U.S. coal-mining equipment to India. But it seems coal isn't so bad, and green isn't all that special, when the re-election of a senator is affected. President Obama journeyed to Wisconsin last Wednesday ostensibly to tout the success of his failed stimulus package(s). On the same day, the Ex-Im Bank announced it was reconsidering a denied loan guarantee affecting a Milwaukee-based company that sought to export coal-mining equipment to India. A coincidence? We think not. Wisconsin is in play in November and so is the Senate seat held by incumbent...

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been designated the lead state agency for responding to potential impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill along Florida’s shoreline. This website will serve as the primary location for updates and information on response actions and impacts to the state of Florida. On Tuesday, April 20, 2010 an offshore oil drilling platform, Deepwater Horizon, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana. The rig, owned by Transocean Ltd, was under contract to BP. Submerged at the bottom of the Gulf, the rig continues to discharge in the range of 35,000 to 60,000...

I’ve been meaning to write a more comprehensive post about the Gulf oil spill for more than a week and this post is my attempt to do so. But first I want to quickly note President Clinton’s comments about blowing up the well, and why some engineers think it’s a bad idea.

HOUSTON — BP says the rig drilling the relief well that's the best hope of stopping the Gulf oil spill has made it within about 20 feet horizontally of the blown-out well that's gushing crude. BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells said Monday that the rig is going to drill an additional 900 feet down before crews cut in sideways and start pumping in heavy mud to try to stop the flow from the damaged well. It's currently about 16,770 feet down. Wells says BP is moving extremely cautiously to make sure everything is lined up correctly and the...

President Obama and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were informed that BP would drill an unprecedented 35,000 feet well bore at the Macondo site off the coast of Louisiana. In September 2009, the Deepwater Horizon successfully sunk a well bore at a depth of 35,055 below sea level at the Tiber Prospect in the Keathley Canyon block 102 in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of Houston.

Louisiana Says Deep-Water Drilling Moratorium Would Cause "Economic Catastrophe" Gus Lubin Jun. 21, 2010, 11:50 AM Louisiana is drawing battle lines against the federal government over the six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling. Governor Bobby Jindall and Attorney General Buddy Caldwell filed papers yesterday in support of Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC's lawsuit, saying an extended ban would turn "an environmental disaster into an economic catastrophe." Bloomberg: The drilling ban may cost Louisiana’s economy, “which was already weakened by Katrina and is now crippled by the Deepwater Horizon disaster,’’ almost 11,000 direct and indirect jobs in five months, Caldwell said in papers...

Louisiana Says Deep-Water Drilling Moratorium Would Cause "Economic Catastrophe" Gus Lubin Jun. 21, 2010, 11:50 AM Louisiana is drawing battle lines against the federal government over the six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling. Governor Bobby Jindall and Attorney General Buddy Caldwell filed papers yesterday in support of Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC's lawsuit, saying an extended ban would turn "an environmental disaster into an economic catastrophe." Bloomberg: The drilling ban may cost Louisiana’s economy, “which was already weakened by Katrina and is now crippled by the Deepwater Horizon disaster,’’ almost 11,000 direct and indirect jobs in five months, Caldwell said in papers...

Taking Issue: My Two Cents On Oily Assurances By David J. Aland /// 16 June 2010 The head of a Gulf oyster company recently put it thus: “This oil spill isn’t an ‘issue’, it’s a [freaking] disaster!” Plainly put, but it is increasingly obvious that the President doesn’t see it that way, and his Oval Office address on Tuesday merely reinforced that impression. Instead of showing a trademark steely-eyed resolve, this President’s trademark tin ear was predominantly in evidence. Apologists grouse that blaming the President for the Deepwater Horizon disaster is unfair, but it was the President himself who made...

It goes without saying that most people no longer believe what British Petroleum is saying publicly about the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf and the condition of the well structure. The reality is much more frightening... In a few crevices in Cyberspace, experts in the industry are whispering what they think is really going on..."OK let's get real about the Gulf of Mexico oil flow. There doesn't really seem to be much info on TOD [The Oil Drum - an online site where oil industry people congregate] that furthers more complete understanding of what's really happening in...

BP CDS Blow Through The Roof As Investors Prepare For The Worst Gregory White Jun. 10, 2010, 8:51 AM BP's market cap has been halved by the fallout from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but the company's debt is also bearing the burden of the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The spike in quote volume and spread level on BP's CDS is shocking. From CMA Datavision: Oddly, it looks something like this:[snip]

A second rig unrelated to the Deepwater Horizon spill has been leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico since late April, according to reports that appear to show a clearly visible slick at the second location. The slick from the Ocean Saratoga rig appears to be several miles long off the coast of Louisiana, according to satellite images visible from space and posted on the website of Skytruth.org, a group that monitors environmental issues. The company that operates the rig has been working to plug the leak, which Skytruth reported on May 15, according to local news reports.

The Economy: As if the latest measly numbers on our jobless recovery weren't bad enough, along comes the administration to pile disaster upon disaster by slapping a six-month ban on deep-water drilling. When President Obama visited Louisiana on May 1, he talked about the possibility that the oil gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon well could "jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home." Now the administration's response could jeopardize the livelihoods of tens of thousands more. In a letter sent to Obama on Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal challenged the president's decision to suspend deepwater drilling...

Is it just me, or has anyone noticed that the triangular flanges on the oil cap are more visible than they were a few hours ago. This would indicate that the oil plume has receded slightly. Anyone notice this? Is it true that the cap has valves which will be gradually closed once pressure is equalized? Any experts on this care to comment? I can't find much information on this aspect of the cap.

Looks like the cutter is working on the riser pipe.

That has far eclipsed the 11 millions gallons released during the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska's coast in 1989. But there is no camera to capture what happens in the rest of the vast Gulf, which sprawls across 600,000 square miles and reaches more than 14,000 feet at its deepest point. Every night, the denizens of the deep make forays to shallower depths to eat — and be eaten by — other fish, according to marine scientists who describe it as the largest migration on earth. In turn, several species closest to the surface — including red snapper, shrimp and...

Three years ago, the national laboratory then headed by Steven Chu received the bulk of a $500 million grant from the British oil giant BP...Chu received the grant from BP's chief scientist at the time, Steven E. Koonin, a fellow theoretical physicist whom Chu jocularly described as "my twin brother."...Obama administration has relied too heavily on BP's assessment of the blowout and its solutions for addressing it...John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said: "From what I've seen, the Energy Department's response has been less than rapid to this oil spill. This whole thing just underscores that corporate interests have created, over...

Shell today produced its first oil and natural gas from the Perdido Development, the world’s deepest offshore drilling and production facility. Located in an isolated, ultra-deep sector of the Gulf of Mexico, Perdido marks a new era in innovation and safely unlocks domestic sources of energy for US consumers. The facility sits in approximately 2,450 metres (8,000 feet) of water, which is roughly equivalent to six Empire State Buildings stacked one atop the other, and will access reservoirs deep beneath the ocean floor. Perdido smashes the world water depth record for an offshore platform by more than 50%. “Perdido is...

JEFF YASTINE, PBS NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Prepare for another impact from the deep water Horizon accident: higher energy prices. It`s not the rupture of the well itself that`s going to influence prices, but a six-month extension of the moratorium on new deep water drilling projects declared yesterday by the Obama administration. Bernstein Research predicts if the moratorium continues for a year, it would cut global oil supplies by 500,000 barrels a day between 2013 and 2017. That may not seem like much, but it`s nearly the margin right now between world oil production -- at 84.1 million barrels a...

Efforts to contain the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill will reach a crucial moment today, when engineers for BP hope to learn if a high-risk attempt to plug the leaking oil well with heavy mud has been successful. BP executives expressed cautious optimism over the attempted "top kill", which involves pumping thousands of gallons of mud and chemicals into the ruptured Macondo exploration well. However, BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, said it would be 24 hours before engineers would know if the operation, which started at 1pm (1800 GMT) last night, would work. snip BP's latest attempt to control...

Folks I guess it is no secret to the Freepers that this evil thing out there has scared the s*** out of me from day one.

Jason Anderson was just a few hours away from heading to a new job. The Texas father of two had packed up his locker – making sure to take all of his family photos – and would have been on the first helicopter off the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig the morning of April 21, on his way to being the senior toolpusher on the Discovery Spirit. But the helicopter never came. During Anderson’s last shift on the Deepwater Horizon, a well blew out, exploding and killing 11 workers, including Anderson, 35. National attention for the past month has focused...

BP admits higher leak rate: 2010 Gulf oil spill now 20 times worse then Exxon Valdez British Petroleum has now admitted that the amount of oil being spilled has actually been much higher than previously reported. According to an MSBNC report today, estimates of the total amount of oil spilled so far is 20 times more than the 10.8 million gallons spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster in March 1989. Right now, the spill is roughly the size of Pennsylvania. That represents one-fifth of the entire amount of water within US borders. snip This is - without question - the...

"I'm hearing hissing. Engines are over-revving. And then all of a sudden, all the lights in my shop just started getting brighter and brighter and brighter. And I knew then something bad was getting ready to happen," Williams told Pelley. It was almost ten at night. And directly under the Deepwater Horizon there were four men in a fishing boat, Albert Andry, Dustin King, Ryan Chaisson and Westley Bourg. "When I heard the gas comin' out, I knew exactly what it was almost immediately," Bourg recalled. "It was scary. And when I looked at it, it burned my eyes. And...

In the first progress in containing the oil gushing from a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers on Sunday inserted a tube into a leaking pipe and began siphoning some of the oil to a drilling rig at the surface The deep-sea plumbing did not do anything to close the well, and a substantial amount of oil continues to leak at the bottom of the gulf, but the day's efforts were a rare bulletin of good news about 3 1/2 weeks into the crisis. On Sunday, a four-inch-wide pipe was inserted into the broken...

Marine scientists were carefully viewing footage of oil and gas billowing out of a ruptured well on the ocean floor today, to try to deliver the first reliable estimates of the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico – it could be as much as 70,000 barrels a day. snip Independent marine researchers have suggested the spill could be much larger. snip Its analysis was conducted by Steve Werely, an associate professor at Purdue University, using a technique called particle image velocimetry, a method was accurate to 20%. That puts the range of the oil spill from 56,000 to 84,000...

BP engineers tried to activate a huge piece of underwater safety equipment but failed because the device had been so altered that diagrams BP got from the equipment's owner didn't match the supposedly failsafe device's configuration The oil well also failed at least one critical pressure test on the day that gas surged up the drill pipe and set the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig aflame, killing 11 and setting off a spill that has spewed 210,000 gallons of crude into the gulf every day for three weeks, according to BP documents provided to congressional investigators. Who ordered the alterations in...

A focus of the Senate hearing into the Deepwater Horizon disaster was why the final step in the cementing process—putting a cement plug in the well more than a mile below the sea surface—wasn't performed. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that rig officials had taken the unusual step of postponing the installation of the plug while they removed heavy fluid that serves to keep oil and natural gas from surging up through the well pipe. Usually, the plug is set into place below the heavy fluid, or mud, which isn't removed until after the cement hardens. But experts at...

This is the video of the Deepwater Horizon BP Rig leak. For those who want to bypass the news services, it has been blogged here. With MANY THANKS to both FixedNewsChannel and YouTube.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Concern grew Sunday that the US Gulf coast is facing a whole new level of environmental disaster after the best short-term fix for a massive oil spill ran into serious trouble. BP's giant containment box lay idle on the seabed as engineers furiously tried to figure out how to stop it clogging with ice crystals. The British energy giant, which owns the lion's share of the leaking oil and has accepted responsibility for the clean-up, has tried to banish the notion that the dome is a "silver bullet" to end the crisis. But should efforts...

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — With success uncertain, a boat carrying a 100-ton concrete-and-steel contraption designed to siphon off the oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico arrived at the scene Thursday in an unprecedented attempt to cap a blown-out well spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons a day. Another boat with a crane would start lowering the box to the seafloor later in the day. Engineers hope it will be the best short-term solution to controlling the leak that has only worsened since it began two weeks ago. The waters at the spill site Thursday morning were calm...

NEW ORLEANS - Leaders of several energy-related companies avoided talk about a rebound in oil prices Monday and suggested it could be a long, slow recovery even as the search in deep waters goes on. Companies in all aspects of energy production likely will be dealing with tighter budgets well into 2010 as supplies of oil and natural gas exceed demand. "We think recovery is going to be modest over a long period of time," ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva said during a presentation to investment analysts at the Howard Weil Energy Conference. The number of fringe projects are in decline...

The Coast Guard just rolled out the most sophisticated ship it’s ever commissioned, packed with new technology to help in the hunt for drug smugglers and terrorists.The cutter Bertholf — 418 feet from stem to stern — is set to patrol the Pacific from California to Ecuador — a patch of ocean as large as the United States.“The bubble that’s around this ship that we can see and hear and respond to is much larger than any cutter we've ever built,” said Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard, referring to the range of the guns, fast boats,...

A powerful Pacific storm is drenching parts of the Southwest.In Arizona, flooding has forced hundreds of people to evacuate homes in low-lying areas of Sedona, where scenic Oak Creek rose 11 feet during the night. Authorities say the rain is causing some rock slides, making conditions unsafe for emergency crews.Recreational vehicles were seen floating in the water southwest of Sedona. The creek hit 14 feet by mid-morning Wednesday and was expected to rise another few feet. Forecasters warned that storm runoff could lead to flash flooding elsewhere, which could prompt more evacuations.About 300 people in Sedona were evacuated. AP Image...

The track is widening.And it is getting faster.Scoopsville has learned that powerful United States Senator Joe 'Hair Plugs' Biden (Democrat-Deleware) is preparing to enter the Presidential fray.Word is that Sen. Biden, a top Democrat leader who was once President of the powerful Senate Foriegn Relations Committee, met privately with former President Bill Clinton in New York recently to discuss entering the Presidential sweepstakes.