The U.S. Coast Guard and regulators continue to investigate the source of a light oily sheen that appeared on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico late last week near two plugged BP exploration wells and undersea pipelines owned by other companies.
Over the weekend, BP deployed remotely operated vehicles to survey the two wells, located in a deep water area roughly 100 miles off the coast of Louisiana known as Green Canyon, company spokesman Daren Beaudo said in an interview this morning. But it found no evidence of hydrocarbons leaking into the Gulf, he said.
One well was confirmed to be secure. At the other, samples were collected of “silty water” found near the well head, and preliminary test results showed no trace of oil or natural gas, Beaudo said.
BP has been under scrutiny since last year, when a blowout at its Macondo well in the deepwater Gulf killed 11 workers and unleashed the worst oil spill in U.S. history. But BP today sought to dispell any speculation that the source of the new surface sheen was tied to Macondo.
Beaudo said Macondo was killed and plugged last July and it is “at least tens of miles away” from the sheen spotted by the Coast Guard.
Upon seeing the sheen, the Coast Guard notified BP, as well as Enterprise Products Partners and Shell Oil, which both operate subsea pipelines in the vicinity.
A spokesman with Houston-based Enterprise said this morning that the company sent a remotely operated submarine down over the weekend to check the integrity of one oil pipeline and one natural gas pipeline it has in the area. “The inspections turned out clean,” said Rick Rainey, a company spokesman, adding that operations were never interrupted by the tests.
Shell Oil stepped up inspections of pipelines in the region as a precaution after being notified, but so far has found no indication that its equipment is the source of the sheen, company spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh said.
Cheri Ben-Iesau, commander of Coast Guard District 8 in New Orleans, said a Coast Guard plane was doing flyovers Thursday afternoon of the Green Canyon site as well as the Macondo well and was awaiting an update.
But she said the agency had so far found no evidence at the Green Canyon site that the sheen was linked to a leaking well head or subsea pipeline, nor that oil was still spilling into the water.
She said the Coast Guard gets roughly 10,000 reports a year of surface sheens in the Gulf, some of which are caused by natural oil seeps on the sea floor. Given the hot weather, the sheens tend to dissipate quickly, she said.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which regulates the offshore oil and gas industry in federal waters, is still collecting information about the incident, bureau spokewoman Melissa Schwartz said.
“BOEMRE is working with area operators to determine if the sheen is associated with any permanently abandoned wells in the area. We will continue to investigate the situation and coordinate with the Coast Guard as needed,” she said.
The Green Canyon leasing area of the Gulf is home to plenty of oil and gas development. Since Jan. 1, 2009, the government has issued 182 different permits for drilling, sidetrack wells, bypasses and other projects in the region, according to a federal database.
In addition to BP, other leaseholders with operations in the Green Canyon area include BHP Billiton Petroleum, Chevron, Mariner Energy, Marathon Oil, Noble Energy, Nexen, Anadarko, Cobalt International, LLOG Exploration Offshore, Murphy Exploration and Production Co., and Shell Offshore Inc.
Separately, BP on Wednesday reported a two-foot-by-30-foot silvery sheen near its Thunder Horse oil platform. After more study overnight, Beaudo said the total amount of what appeared to be oil and produced water discharged was .000108 gallons.
I did not know there was “a large square-shaped area of water north of Louisiana”.
How funny is that? BP and Washington allowed the gulf to die because of their negligence. Why is BP allowed to do business when they are intent on destroying America?
Why didn’t the article explain that the sheen was 2 feet by 30 ft? Another attempt at spinning a story?
As the article points out, there is a lot of “natural” seepage, but let’s not discount the fact that there is a huge amount of shipping traversing the Gulf and that some of these ships do occasionally (albeit illegally) pump their bilges and thus discharge both fuel and engine oil residues. To me this is just more of the Lame Stream Media pointing fingers at an industry they do not like.
BP has named it Charlie.
A new Charlie Sheen? Winning!!!
DNA samples indicate it is what is left of Osama Bin Laden.
This is a LEAD story today?! get real people!!!!
Green Canyon is a minerals lease protraction area, not simply an area of water. And it’s roughly trapezoidal in shape, not square. Good lord…. even saying that it’s rectangular would have been better.
Journalists just aren’t any good these days!
I like how they just assume that is from a leaking BP well. There are many causes for oily sheens, anything from ships, wells, and even fish create an oily sheen when they are feeding. This story is ridiculous.
Thanks for the spin story Brett Clanton.
BP deploys ROV’s to inspect a BP well and BP tests water near another BP well but BP says BP is not at fault…imagine that.
I guess before some people will ever start placing any blame at all on BP, Hayward himself, or Dudley, would have to show up at their house and pour corexit directly into their child’s milk. Then all the “Big Oil over Environment” supporters would post…
“It really wasn’t their fault… it was the cow that made the milk! What… do people expect to live forever??? pfft!”
Time for a new moratorium on shipping, seeps, and duck tail haircuts!
Time for Obama to shut off all production and drilling again.
Really only 0.000108 gallons? Thats 6 drops of oil. Six drops of oil can cause a 2′ X 30′ sheen? BS.
It’s a Green Peace throwdown.
Yes, six drops of oil can cause a 2′ X 30′ sheen. I have personally seen an eye dropper dripped and create a 10′ X 15′ sheen with about 5-6 drops of oil going in the water.
An oil “sheen” is less than .01mm thick.
Probably from one of the thousands of ships out there…from their engines. It happens all over the world, then it dissipates.
“the Coast Guard continues to refer to the discharge as a sheen, which would imply a release of hydrocarbons, but said it could also be silt or biological material.”
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So they don’t even know. And it’s news?
Wow.
Just a couple of drops of Menhaden oil can create a sheen nearly half the size of a football field.