Gulf
oil full of methane adding new concerns
Breaking News June 18, 2010
As first reported
here on stewwebb.com
http://www.stewwebb.com/us_emergency_methane_hydrate_gas_gulf_region_05172010.htm
http://www.stewwebb.com/us_near_breaking_point_obama_prepares_martial_law_decree_06152010.htm
http://www.stewwebb.com/gulf_ecological_disaster_escalates_06132010.htm
http://www.stewwebb.com/british_petroleum_gate_update_06072010.htm
http://www.stewwebb.com/british_petroleum_goldman_sachs_terrorist_attack_on_america_06032010.htm
Gulf oil full of methane, adding new concerns
By MATTHEW BROWN and RAMIT
PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writers Matthew Brown And Ramit
Plushnick-masti, Associated Press Writers –
18 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS – It is an overlooked
danger in the oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast
amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem.
The oil emanating from the seafloor
contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in
typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University
oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.
That means huge quantities of
methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine
life and creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that
nothing lives.
"This is the most vigorous
methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said.
Methane is a colorless, odorless and
flammable substance that is a major component in the natural gas used to heat
people's homes. Petroleum engineers typically burn off excess gas attached to
crude before the oil is shipped off to the refinery. That's exactly what BP has
done as it has captured more than 7.5 million gallons of crude from the
breached well.
A BP spokesman said the company was
burning about 30 million cubic feet of natural gas daily from the source of the leak,
adding up to about 450 million cubic feet since the containment effort started
15 days ago. That's enough gas to heat about 450,000 homes for four days.
But that figure does not account for
gas that eluded containment efforts and wound up in the water, leaving behind
huge amounts of methane. Scientists are still trying to measure how much has
escaped into the water and how it may damage the Gulf and it creatures.
The dangerous gas has played an
important role throughout the disaster and response. A bubble of methane is
believed to have burst up from the seafloor and ignited the rig explosion.
Methane crystals also clogged a four-story containment box that engineers earlier tried to place on top
of the breached well.
Now it is being looked at as an
environmental concern.
The small microbes that live in the
sea have been feeding on the oil and natural gas in the water and are consuming larger
quantities of oxygen, which they need to digest food. As they draw more oxygen
from the water, it creates two problems. When oxygen levels drop low enough,
the breakdown of oil grinds to a halt; and as it is depleted in the water, most
life can't be sustained.
The National Science Foundation
funded research on methane in the Gulf amid concerns about the depths of the
oil plume and questions what role natural gas was playing in keeping the oil
below the surface, said David Garrison, a program director in the federal
agency who specializes in biological oceanography.
"This has the potential to harm
the ecosystem in ways that we don't know," Garrison said. "It's a
complex problem."
BP CEO Tony Hayward on Thursday told
Congress members that he was "so devastated with this accident,"
"deeply sorry" and "so distraught."
But he also testified that he was
out of the loop on decisions at the well and disclaimed knowledge of any of the
myriad problems on and under the Deepwater Horizon rig before the deadly explosion. BP was
leasing the rig the Deepwater Horizon that exploded April 20, killing 11
workers and triggering the environmental disaster.
"BP blew it," said Rep.
Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House investigations panel that held the hearing. "You cut
corners to save money and time."
In early June, a research team led
by Samantha Joye of the Institute of Undersea Research and Technology at the
University of Georgia investigated a 15-mile-long plume drifting southwest from
the leak site. They said they found methane concentrations up to
10,000 times higher than normal, and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent or
more.
The scientists found that some parts
of the plume had oxygen concentrations just shy of the level that tips ocean
waters into the category of "dead zone" — a region uninhabitable to
fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine creatures.
Kessler has encountered similar
findings. Since he began his on-site research on Saturday, he said he has
already found oxygen depletions of between 2 percent and 30 percent in waters
1,000 feet deep.
Shallow waters are normally more
susceptible to oxygen depletion. Because it is being found in such deep waters,
both Kessler and Joye do not know what is causing the depletion and what the
impact could be in the long- or short-term.
In an e-mail, Joye called her
findings "the most bizarre looking oxygen profiles I have ever seen
anywhere."
Representatives of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration acknowledged that so much methane in the water
could draw down oxygen levels and slow the breakdown of oil in the Gulf, but cautioned that research was still under
way to understand the ramifications.
"We haven't seen any long-term
changes or trends at this point," said Robert Haddad, chief of the agency's assessment and restoration division.
Haddad said early efforts to monitor
the spill had focused largely on the more toxic components of oil. However, as
new data comes in, he said NOAA and other federal agencies will get a more
accurate read on methane concentrations and the effects.
"The question is what's going
on in the deeper, colder parts of the ocean," he said. "Are the
(methane) concentrations going to overcome the amount of available oxygen? We
want to make sure we're not overloading the system."
BP spokesman Mark Proegler disputed
Joye's suggestion that the Gulf's deep waters contain large amounts of methane,
noting that water samples taken by BP and federal agencies have shown minimal
underwater oil outside the spill's vicinity.
"The gas that escapes, what we
don't flare, goes up to the surface and is gone," he said.
Steven DiMarco, an oceanographer at
Texas A&M University who has studied a long-known "dead zone" in
the Gulf, said one example of marine life that could be affected by low oxygen
levels in deeper waters would be giant squid — the food of choice for the
endangered sperm whale population. Squid live primarily in deep water, and
would be disrupted by lower oxygen levels, DiMarco said.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard signaled
a shift in strategy Friday to fight the oil, saying it was ramping up efforts
to capture the crude closer to shore.
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said an
estimated 2,000 private boats in the so-called "vessels of
opportunity" program will be more closely linked through a tighter command
and control structure to direct them to locations less than 50 miles offshore
to skim the oil. Allen, the point man for the federal response to the spill,
previously had said surface containment efforts would be concentrated much
farther offshore.
____
Brown reported from Billings, Mont.
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