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Saturday, June 29th, 2019

New Estimate for an Oil Leak: A Thousand Times Worse Than Rig Owner Says

Author:     Lisa Friedman
Source:     The New York Times
Publication Date:     June 25, 2019
 Link: New Estimate for an Oil Leak: A Thousand Times Worse Than Rig Owner Says
Stephan:   Unbeknownst to almost all Americans another pollution crisis has been going on for over a decade in the Gulf of Mexico. Think about this: 4,500 gallons a day, 1,642,500 gallons a year times 14 years equals 22,995,000 gallons of toxic petroleum spreading out across the floor of the Gulf, as this report describes. The Taylor Energy Company, as well as the company that bought its assets should, in my opinion, be fined out of existence, and its senior executives tried, convicted and sent to prison for the rest of their lives.  What will actually happen under the Trump administration? Probably nothing.

A supply ship crossed an oil slick near the site of the Taylor Energy accident in the Gulf of Mexico.
CreditGerald Herbert/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A new federal study has found that an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico that began 14 years ago has been releasing as much as 4,500 gallons a day, not three or four gallons a day as the rig owner has claimed.

The leak, about 12 miles off the Louisiana coast, began in 2004 when a Taylor Energy Company oil platform sank during Hurricane Ivan and a bundle of undersea pipes ruptured. Oil and gas have been seeping from the site ever since.

Taylor Energy, which sold its assets in 2008, is fighting a federal order to stop the leak. The company asserts that the leaking has been slight — between 2.4 and four gallons per day. Oil plumes from the seafloor, Taylor executives have said, are from oil-soaked sediment that has formed around the platform, and any gas rising from the bottom is the natural product of living organisms.

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Saturday, June 29, 2019 at 10:43 am

    How in the world could this situation be ignored for so long? What a terrible leak which will destroy many fish and corals in the gulf. These people responsible should be made to cap the leak and sent to prison for life for their misrepresentation of the immensity of the leak.