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Giant Oil Skimmer Undergoing Tests in Gulf
Updated at 11:55 p.m. ET
Gulf of Mexico cleanup crews working to block millions of gallons of oil from reaching land may soon have a giant on their side, if a weekend test of a new skimmer goes well.
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
The Taiwanese vessel dubbed "A Whale," which its owners describe as the largest oil skimmer in the world, began showing its capabilities on Saturday just north of the Macondo Deepwater well site. An April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig there killed 11 workers and began what is now the largest oil spill in Gulf history.
The vessel will cruise a 25-square-mile test site through Sunday, according to TMT Shipping, the company that created A Whale by retrofitting an oil tanker after the explosion sent millions of gallons of crude spilling into the Gulf.
The U.S. Coast Guard, along with BP, are waiting to see if the vessel, which is 10 stories high and as long as 3 1/2 football fields, can live up to its makers' promise of being able to process up to 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water a day.
The ship works by taking in water through 12 vents, separating the oil and pumping the cleaned seawater back into the Gulf.
"In many ways, the ship collects water like an actual whale and pumps internally like a human heart," TMT spokesman Bob Grantham said in an e-mail.
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A Whale is being tested close to the wellhead because officials believe it will be most effective where the oil is thickest rather than closer to shore.
The ship arrived in the Gulf on Wednesday, but officials have wanted to test its capability as well as have the federal Environmental Protection Agency sign off on the water it will pump back into the gulf. Although the ship cleans most of the oil from seawater, trace amounts of crude remain.
The wait has frustrated some local officials, who say the mammoth skimmer would be a game-changer in preventing drifting streams of oil from washing ashore on vulnerable coastlines.
During a Thursday tour of the inlet to Barataria Bay, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said it was exasperating to have A Whale anchored offshore instead of being put to immediate use.
"They've used the war rhetoric," Jindal said aboard a Louisiana state wildlife boat floating in oil-slicked waters near Grand Isle. "If this is really a war, they need to be using every resource that makes sense to fight this oil before it comes to our coast."
A smaller flotilla of oil skimmers was back at work along the Gulf coast Saturday, after being forced to stand down for several days because of nasty weather whipped up by distant Hurricane Alex.
The bad weather also delayed the hookup of a vessel called the Helix Producer at the wellhead. The ship can collect up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day, which would virtually double the amount now being captured at the site by two other vessels and then burned or transfered to other tankers.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point person in the oil spill response, said Friday crews will resume getting the Helix Producer in place over the weekend, with production starting around July 7.
The storm that stranded oil skimmers and mangled containment boom didn't stop drilling work on two relief wells that BP says are the best chance at stopping the leak - in fact, drilling is a few days ahead of schedule, BP America spokesman Daren Beaudo said.
But the company is sticking with its early-to-mid-August timeframe for completing the wells because of the uncertainties of hurricane season and the precision needed as the drills get deeper into the ocean floor.
BP plans to pump heavy mud through one relief well to stop the leak from the broken well. The second relief well is being drilled as a backup.
Elswhere on the Gulf coast, environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson visited Pensacola Beach on Saturday, her first trip to Florida since the explosion and her sixth trip to the Gulf.
Jackson said that despite the level of contamination on the beaches, it should be up to local officials to decide whether they should be closed. Officials in Escambia County have posted oil warnings at beaches but not closed them.
"From a commonsense perspective there is nothing that I am going to be able to tell you in chemical lab that you can't learn about the safety of the water from a bathing purpose by looking at it and smelling it," she said.
Reporters pressed Jackson on whether she would wade into the water Saturday based on what she had seen.
"I would not go into the water today," she said.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Gulf of Mexico cleanup crews working to block millions of gallons of oil from reaching land may soon have a giant on their side, if a weekend test of a new skimmer goes well.
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
The Taiwanese vessel dubbed "A Whale," which its owners describe as the largest oil skimmer in the world, began showing its capabilities on Saturday just north of the Macondo Deepwater well site. An April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig there killed 11 workers and began what is now the largest oil spill in Gulf history.
The vessel will cruise a 25-square-mile test site through Sunday, according to TMT Shipping, the company that created A Whale by retrofitting an oil tanker after the explosion sent millions of gallons of crude spilling into the Gulf.
The U.S. Coast Guard, along with BP, are waiting to see if the vessel, which is 10 stories high and as long as 3 1/2 football fields, can live up to its makers' promise of being able to process up to 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water a day.
The ship works by taking in water through 12 vents, separating the oil and pumping the cleaned seawater back into the Gulf.
"In many ways, the ship collects water like an actual whale and pumps internally like a human heart," TMT spokesman Bob Grantham said in an e-mail.
More Oil Spill Coverage
Gulf Coast Deserted for July Fourth Weekend
Gulf Coast Expecting Glum Fourth of July
Are Deepwater Relief Wells a Guaranteed Fix?
After Rough Weather, Skimmers Back to Work
Model: High Odds of Oil Hitting South Florida
Oil Spill Volunteers Ready, but Many Go Unused
Alex Downgraded, but Hampering Gulf Cleanup
A Whale is being tested close to the wellhead because officials believe it will be most effective where the oil is thickest rather than closer to shore.
The ship arrived in the Gulf on Wednesday, but officials have wanted to test its capability as well as have the federal Environmental Protection Agency sign off on the water it will pump back into the gulf. Although the ship cleans most of the oil from seawater, trace amounts of crude remain.
The wait has frustrated some local officials, who say the mammoth skimmer would be a game-changer in preventing drifting streams of oil from washing ashore on vulnerable coastlines.
During a Thursday tour of the inlet to Barataria Bay, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said it was exasperating to have A Whale anchored offshore instead of being put to immediate use.
"They've used the war rhetoric," Jindal said aboard a Louisiana state wildlife boat floating in oil-slicked waters near Grand Isle. "If this is really a war, they need to be using every resource that makes sense to fight this oil before it comes to our coast."
A smaller flotilla of oil skimmers was back at work along the Gulf coast Saturday, after being forced to stand down for several days because of nasty weather whipped up by distant Hurricane Alex.
The bad weather also delayed the hookup of a vessel called the Helix Producer at the wellhead. The ship can collect up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day, which would virtually double the amount now being captured at the site by two other vessels and then burned or transfered to other tankers.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point person in the oil spill response, said Friday crews will resume getting the Helix Producer in place over the weekend, with production starting around July 7.
The storm that stranded oil skimmers and mangled containment boom didn't stop drilling work on two relief wells that BP says are the best chance at stopping the leak - in fact, drilling is a few days ahead of schedule, BP America spokesman Daren Beaudo said.
But the company is sticking with its early-to-mid-August timeframe for completing the wells because of the uncertainties of hurricane season and the precision needed as the drills get deeper into the ocean floor.
BP plans to pump heavy mud through one relief well to stop the leak from the broken well. The second relief well is being drilled as a backup.
Elswhere on the Gulf coast, environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson visited Pensacola Beach on Saturday, her first trip to Florida since the explosion and her sixth trip to the Gulf.
Jackson said that despite the level of contamination on the beaches, it should be up to local officials to decide whether they should be closed. Officials in Escambia County have posted oil warnings at beaches but not closed them.
"From a commonsense perspective there is nothing that I am going to be able to tell you in chemical lab that you can't learn about the safety of the water from a bathing purpose by looking at it and smelling it," she said.
Reporters pressed Jackson on whether she would wade into the water Saturday based on what she had seen.
"I would not go into the water today," she said.
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http://www.newser.com/story/88793/hey-bp-supertankers-could-clean-up-spill.html
The Oil should have never got to our beaches, our marshes, our coast. Is there censorship in the USA - Why isn't this story in every newspaper, on every News Broadcast, on every News Web page.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/tardy_response_4m5nGcWB4gztrRpLg3pxsM?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=
" . . . an examination of the American tax code indicates that oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process.
"According to the most recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, released in 2005, capital investments like oil field leases and drilling equipment are taxed at an effective rate of 9 percent, significantly lower than the overall rate of 25 percent for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry."
Note the percentages. These figures are the latest available, from 2005, and are in place today. The administration is working to increase these tax rates. Here is the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/business/04bptax.html?_r=1&hp
These tax breaks are an obscenity. Read the article; it will give you an in-depth look at just how great the system of tax breaks are. The oil companies are making out like bandits; in fact they are bandits. Thank you.
When you inject dispersant into the well head, it creates those floating plumes under the water, the best chance is to get it close to the well. I hope this ship does well. I believe that fishing boats with screen lined nets could bring in a lot of that oil floating below the surface. The more they bring in the less can be blown into the coastlines during the next storm.
The Solomon Case:
The Solomon case is about a woman who steals a baby. The real mother goes to court stating that the baby is hers. The problem is that there is no proof. There is no proof as to the baby being stolen.
The Judge asks the two women in the case to decide who the baby belongs too. Both women state the baby is theirs. The Judge asks that a sword and the baby be brought forth. The Judge takes the sword and acts as though he will divide the baby in two.
One of the women claiming to be the mother screams out no, yelling that the other women can have the baby! The other woman is silent. The Judge takes the baby and gives the baby to the woman that screamed knowing that she is the real mother.
Many people have raised concerns that our President does not have a legitimate U.S. birth certificate. Our founding fathers stated that as part of the U.S. Constitution the President must be born in the U.S.A. In order to be President a person must meet all the criteria of the United States law with respect to the law of being born in the United States. The founding fathers created this law so that a foreign power and or country would not rule over the United States in the form of one of their people born to their nation ruling over anything in the U.S.A. as President.
Apply the Solomon Case process to the question, does the President have a legitimate U.S. birth certificate?
Let an unquestionable U.S., birth certificate represent the legitimate mother. Let the baby be represented as this our great land the U.S.A. Now ask yourself how would a legitimate mother react if she saw her baby being covered in oil!? Would she react quickly or on a slow basis? Think about the oval office speech as cap and trade was emphasized, not the gulf oil crisis! Also think about the time it has taken now seventy days and counting and still many processes are not being employed to stop the onslaught of oil from reaching our beaches and killing our birds and marine life!
Many state representatives have asked the President to simply show his legitimate U.S., birth certificate; he has not done it. If the mother is not legitimate then we must remove the baby from her illegitimate arms and give the baby over to a President that is legitimate. We the taxpayer have a right to know the truth! We the taxpayer must know the truth. Again let this question be asked of your state representatives. Does the President have a legitimate U.S. birth certificate? If he does let us see the legitimate U.S. birth certificate. The peoples concerns are not being formally addressed with respect to this question. It is time that these concerns be addressed!