Gulf Oil Spill Update – May 13th, 2010

Ocean Power Magazine

Gulf Oil Spill Update – May 13th

Posted: 13 May 2010 04:47 PM PDT

The news regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico goes from bad to worse,to completely unbelievable when watching companies executives pass the blame to others. The only good news has been that the wind has kept most of the spill from reaching shore. Here are the latest details:

- Five oil and gas production platforms in the gulf have shut down operations voluntarily – Yay!

- BP PLC continues to stockpile and deploy oil-dispersing chemicals manufactured by a company with which it shares close ties, even though other U.S. EPA-approved alternatives have been shown to be far less toxic and, in some cases, nearly twice as effective. So far, BP has told federal agencies that it has applied more than 400,000 gallons of a dispersant sold under the trade name Corexit and manufactured by Nalco Co., a company that was once part of Exxon Mobil Corp. and whose current leadership includes executives at both BP and Exxon.(New York Times).

- Transocean, which owns the BP-leased offshore rig gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, filed a petition in a US court today to limit its liability in the spill to 27 million dollars. While British energy giant BP is responsible for the cost of the cleanup, BP executives told a congressional hearing Tuesday that Transocean was responsible for the failure of a key giant valve system. Transocean chief executive Steven Newman passed the buck back, saying: “All offshore oil and gas production projects begin and end with the operator.” Newman also pointed the finger at Halliburton, saying the US oil services behemoth was responsible for the cement work that may have failed to seal the exploratory well correctly.(AFP).

- Senate Democrats today lost a bid to raise the liability cap for oil companies to $10 billion when Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski raised objections. They vowed to try again. Murkowski said she supports lifting the cap from $75 million, but contends the $10 billion figure would prevent smaller, independent companies from drilling along the Outer Continental Shelf.

- According to Repower America, the well has leaked approximately 4 million gallons of oil to date.

- Six West Coast senatorsinstroduced legislation today that would ban permanently new oil-and-gas drilling off of the California, Oregon and Washington state coasts.

- Video of leak at the source, which BP was forced to release publicly – they did not want it to be seen by the public.