More Oil

Posted by William M. Connolley on August 3, 2010
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Quark Soup has a post comparing the spill to Niagara; and notes that the spill would be a cube ~93m on a side.

Checkling the share price (still hovering around 4.10, so neither good news nor bad) I see BP are starting to ask others to pay up for their shares. It will be interesting to see how that goes – through the courts, or quiet settlements?

Misc people complained at me when I previously said Incidentally, misc people have called this spill “unprecendented”. That seems dubious (except in the traditional sense that 11 dead in Cumbria is headline news for days; 11 misc folks dead in road accidents are routinely ignored); it certainly isn’t the largest, see [[Largest oil spills]] – it isn’t even close. While that was true at the time, it isn’t now, and is #2 behind the Lakeview Gusher which was a rather different event in terms of impact.

Refs:

* Straw poll: cause of the leak
* Good news for the gulf
* Obama does not impress

[Update: to add image posted to the comments of mt]

[Update: more good news: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/wrapup-2-bp-starts-cementing-gulf-oil-well-shares-revive-targetukfocus-d5455c677378.html]

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Comments

  1. #1 J
    2010/08/03

    As one of those who “complained at you” in the original thread, I appreciate the update. However, it was pretty clear even back then that this would rise to (or at least near to) the top of the list.

    To analogize this with climate change, your comment in early June was reminiscent of those who say “AGW ain’t so bad, we only had 0.7 C of warming in the 20th century.”

  2. #2 Eli Rabett
    2010/08/03

    It was in a very environmentally important area. Besides the Niger delta, the impact was perhaps the largest

    [Not if you believe Singer :-) - check out SEPP - they need someone to :-)) -W]

  3. #3 darwinsdog
    2010/08/03

    The biggest “oil leak” of all is all the oxidized carbon “leaked” into the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels. The amount of reduced oil the BP spill has released into the GOM is equivalent to the amount the US burns in five hours. The environmental damage to the Gulf is miniscule compared to the damage due to anthropogenic global warming. If you don’t like the damage done by oil spills, quit consuming fossil fuels.

  4. #4 PeteB
    2010/08/04

    Looks hopeful

    ‘WASHINGTON — The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated — and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm.

    A government report finds that about 26 percent of the oil released from BP’s runaway well is still in the water or onshore in a form that could, in principle, cause new problems. But most is light sheen at the ocean surface or in a dispersed form below the surface, and federal scientists believe that it is breaking down rapidly in both places.’

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/science/earth/04oil.html

  5. #5 Phil.
    2010/08/15

    Actually you are right that the Deepwater Horizon leak was not unprecedented, if you read the report of the Ixtoc leak the circumstances are uncannily similar, down to preventers blowing out etc., even similar estimated amounts and both in the Gulf of Mexico.