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[ HURRICANES AND OIL DRILLING ]

Hurricanes and Oil Drilling: Ike's Toll on Big Rigs


Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 1:07 a.m.

Hurricane Ike's 12-foot storm surge was nowhere near the 20-foot monster that forecasters anticipated, yet it still managed to destroy 52 offshore oil platforms and cripple 32 more.

That is according to The Associated Press, which compiled an environmental score card of the damage caused when Ike hit the upper Gulf Coast on Sept. 13.

The study did not provide a dollar figure for the ruined structures. But in a Sept. 30 report, the U.S. Minerals Management Service estimated that they "produced a total of 13,300 barrels of oil per day and 90 million cubic feet of gas per day."

Of the 32 that were badly damaged (rather than destroyed), repairs could take from three months to six months, the MMS said.

Ike threatened more than 1,400 of the Gulf of Mexico's 3,800 oil- and gas-production platforms, the agency estimates. Damage is still being assessed; at many platforms, evacuated workers have not yet returned.

ONE RELATIVELY BRIGHT SPOT

The platform toll from Ike is a reminder that any plans to expand drilling in the Gulf of Mexico must address the risk of hurricanes, which regularly bombard the area. In 2005, for example, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 113 oil-drilling platforms and 101 large-diameter pipelines, the MMS reports.

That same year, BP's massive Thunder Horse platform sustained serious setbacks after Hurricane Dennis.

One relatively bright spot in the new AP study shows that offshore-drilling operations were not responsible for the vast majority of the crude-oil spills from Hurricane Ike.

Most of the estimated 500,000 gallons of crude that "spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas" came from onshore facilities, tanks and the like, The AP says.

Onshore, dikes and levees protected most oil-related facilities from Ike's storm surge. But that raises the question: What would become of this vital infrastructure in a 20-foot surge?

If global warming does fuel stronger hurricanes, as some scientists believe, the answer might come sooner than we'd like.


This story appeared in print on page A10

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  1. BS Scout says...
    October 14, 2008 1:28:40 pm

    RE: Link
    Come on Folks oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico from wrecked platforms is as guarded as the top secret nuclear weapons systems.
    Do I believe there have been no oil spills other than the on shore disasters that reporters see? When oil companies know that underwater leaks are going to occur and become more possible as hurricane weather deteriorates in the future! the Western and North Shore states have kept the oil slick damage quiet because their oil royalties and big oil has hidden as much as they can.
    I fear the drilling off the western Florida lower coast in 3 mile off shore dome will cause gas and oil film to come ashore pushed by prevailing winds and currents.
    That rainbow colored oilfilm and the rainbow of Florida's often enblazened setting sun after the rain might be an added color to those beach loving residents?
    Cheers :<

  2. Piggy Poo says...
    October 14, 2008 8:34:38 pm

    I don't think there was much of oil spill. May have been a little seepage from the gulf floor.
    The wells are shut down at the floor before they abandon the platforms.
    They don't drop what their doing and get on a choper. The wells have to be shut down by divers.

  3. BS Scout says...
    October 16, 2008 5:39:55 am

    Huh NOT ME old buddy I know oil floats on the surface of water! The first hint of oil on the surface is a film that often is just a rainbow colored film.
    The more activity of close in oil drilling operations will have leaks as accidents do happen! The offshore wells off Catalina Island in Calofornia is an example of what we can expect along Florida's very sought after realestate along Florida's beaches.
    BP's still not in compliance from oil leaks on the Prudoe Bay Alaska's oil tanker sea port!
    The deep ocean wells in the Area 181 are in waters up to 7,000 feet are being punched in the gulf floor with drill stems nearly 1.5 miles from the floating rig to the gulf floor. Divers can't operate at those depths!
    Not Me old buddy I wish that the same amount of money that goes into punching holes in the Gulf and refinement costs of fossil fuels could be allocated to Solar parabolic gensets and the simple extraction of hydrogen gas by electrolysis is a much cleaner energy soure than petroleum!
    You have heard me speak of conservation and other experiments that I have personally done that does save energy.
    My home built Hydrogen/oxygen booster I built and installed on my little car is curbing my gasoline requirments by about 30% as I work to make hydrogen(Brown's Gas)production better!
    American enginuity and the already proven hydrogen technology will rapidly reduce the petroleum gluttony. The new Ceramic capacitor that a Texas company has developed can power an electric car for 300miles for a $9.00 5 minute electric recharge! MIT has developed a nano tube capacitor that they wil make available for production to use in new electric cars with similar recharge range and costs!
    The nation needs to invest billions of dollars in clean alternative renewable fuels that far exceed the potentials of the ethanol production from corn!
    Not Me you know I'm an old aircraft mechanic and tinkering old junkyard dog.
    We'll meet again some day after the election is done.

  4. Cristo39 says...
    October 16, 2008 5:43:34 am

    Well Scout, here is the basic response from big oil when it comes to other forms of energy.

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