Divers identify broken pipeline as source of Gulf oil spill

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MICHAEL BIESECKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have identified the source as one-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and sheared in half by Hurricane Ida.

Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued Sunday evening that the busted pipeline does not belong to them.

The company said it is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline.

The Associated Press first reported Wednesday that aerial photos showed a miles-long brown and black oil slick spreading about 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.



In a satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies, an oil slick is shown on Sept. 2, 2021 south of Port Fourchon, La. The U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday, Sept. 4, that cleanup crews are responding to a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida. (Maxar Technologies via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-oil-spills-1c41bfc63b17f35cf699c45ab0d77c02

[monkeyman1]

1. omg , this belong's to nobody ! paying for clean -up & don't belong to ya !

[milestogo]

2. oh thats gonna be fun to fix

Oil is so wonderful.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

3. No one owns this pipe, huh?

Trace it back to the wellhead, shut it down and lock it. Then revoke the lease for that area of seafloor.

[Blue Owl]

4. The Gulf of Mexico is royally fucked thanks to these goddamned underwater wells/pipelines

What a disaster...

[tclambert]

5. Not to worry! The PR people for the pipeline companies all say they are perfectly safe.

Nothing can break them, certainly not anything as predictable as a bad storm. And you know, the oil companies have a financial incentive to make sure they never spill any, because all that oil is worth money. And they want to sell every drop of oil on this planet just as soon as possible.

[LT Barclay]

6. Right now they are saying the same thing about a pipeline under the straights of Macinac

In Michigan.
No one is even talking about the other ongoing leak that has discharged more than the BP spill because it is smaller leak but has been going on for years.
Similar story, no one owns it.
The tax on oil that sustained the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund was removed some years ago and the fund is supposed to be self sustaining on interest.

[tclambert]

7. Oh, yes, Enbridge Line 5. In 2018 a tugboat dropped an anchor on it and caused minor damage.

It's 67 years old, and the section under the Mackinac Strait consists of two separate pipes running 4.5 miles along the lakebed. In 2020, they found a support for one of the pipes had shifted. They are supposed to build a tunnel around the pipes to protect them, expected to be complete in 2024.

But there is a lawsuit from 2019 asking the court to shut down the part under the Strait due to the environmental risks it presents. That has prompted a lot of scary political ads complaining about the governor and how people are going to get propane to heat their homes. Weird how responding to a lawsuit isn't just making arguments in court, but running political ads to try to scare voters. Is that how court cases are supposed to work?

[VGNonly]

11. The 2010 Kalamazoo oil spill

was the largest fresh water oil spill in US history. At least 843,000 gallons spilled, more likely a million. Costs are at $1.21 billion, and still climbing. The company in charge; Enbridge.

[LT Barclay]

12. Well when I think about things like that, the only way I can make sense of it is to remember the

wheels already came off of the democracy bus and we are in full blown fascism. Sounds harsh but right now the corporations are in control. We have a spark of hope right now, but will it turn in to the flame we need?

[monkeyman1]

8. find the well head & shut down ! the owners will show up real quick !

[argyl]

9. Companies that are particularly derelict in safety hazards should have their permits revoked.

In particular parts of the world. A case in point:BP. These #s may not be exact but they're enough to make your skin crawl.In the Gulf of Mexico two years before the Deepwater Horizon disaster over 700 safety violations were written up for these disasters waiting to happen. The citations issued to BP, all but two. And they were allowed to use those chemical dispersal agents that made the beaches look so clean and the fish caught in the Guif so inedible.

A number of years ago there was a place in Dallas where I loved to eat oysters on the half shell. I think they're since out of business; they don't get any more of mine.

[Farmer-Rick]

10. Those damn pipelines always rupture.

When solar energy spills out it just leads to sunshine, not horrific death and destruction.