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BP's response to oil spill called inadequate
本帖最後由 peter236 於 2010-5-1 01:12 編輯
BP's response to oil spill called inadequate
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar ... 4/30/MNRB1D7PQB.DTL
Jennifer A. Dlouhy,Monica Hatcher, Hearst Newspapers
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Workers secure inflatable oil containment booms on the de...
While the growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico threatened marshes, wildlife and commercial fishing operations Friday, top federal and state officials sharply criticized BP for what they characterized as the company's "inadequate" response to the spill.
At the same time, President Obama ordered the Interior Department to conduct a thorough review of the safety steps and precautions that energy companies must employ in future offshore drilling to prevent a repeat of the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig.
Vow to stop drilling
The administration also promised to halt newly proposed drilling along the nation's coasts until federal agencies complete a probe of what caused the incident.
After a helicopter tour of oil-covered Gulf waters, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he was worried "that BP's current resources are not adequate to meet the ... challenges we face" protecting the coast, quickly cleaning up the region and stanching the oil gushing from a leaking well about 50 miles southeast of Venice, La.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar insisted the company needed to work "harder, faster and smarter to get the job done," even as choppy sea conditions curtailed efforts to collect oil floating on the surface of the water and final preparations were under way for the potentially months-long process of drilling a relief well.
So far, engineers have been unable to seal the leaks that were discovered after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank.
'Largest response'
BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, defended the company's performance, saying it had launched "the largest response effort ever done in the world" to halt the leak and minimize the impact.
Although BP and government officials estimate that 5,000 barrels - or 210,000 gallons - of oil are leaking into the Gulf daily, Suttles emphasized the calculations are highly imprecise.
The unchecked leak threatens to become the nation's worst environmental disaster, eventually overtaking the spills from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker accident and a 1969 blowout off the coast of Santa Barbara.
It imperils the fishing industry in Louisiana, fragile coastal ecosystems and residents throughout the region.
Bad weather
Nearly 2,000 workers struggled to contain the widening spill Friday using chemical dispersants, and floating booms and skimmers. But bad weather conditions and high waves hampered the efforts and prevented them from burning oil floating on the surface of the water.
Continuing winds and high tides could cause oil to penetrate deeper into marshes and inlets along southeastern Louisiana.
Also on Friday, Halliburton Inc., the oil field services giant, responded to speculation that the disaster might have been related to cementing - the process of installing casing to secure the walls of a well.
A federal study found that cementing problems were associated with almost half of the 39 offshore blowouts from 1992 to 2006, almost all in the Gulf of Mexico, Hearst Newspapers reported earlier this week.
Halliburton, which performed a number of functions on the rig including cementing, said in its statement that it had completed the casing about 20 hours before the accident. It said it also had conducted tests demonstrating the integrity of the casing.
This article appeared on page A - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle |
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發表於 2010-5-1 01:09
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