Oil Leaking Underwater From Well in Rig Blast

[Robb]

Source: NYT

NEW ORLEANS — Robotic devices monitoring the deepwater well where a giant oil rig exploded and sank last week have discovered that oil is leaking from the well in two places, a development that a senior Coast Guard official on Saturday called a “game changer.”

The oil is coming from two places in the riser, the 5,000-foot pipe that connects the well at the ocean floor to the drilling platform on the surface. The rig, the Deepwater Horizon, which sank Thursday, detached from the riser. The riser now extends from the well and , follows a circuitous route to 1,500 feet above the seabed and then buckles back down.

On Friday, a remotely operated device began scanning the riser to determine if there were any leaks, said Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, commander of the Coast Guard’s Eighth District. The discovery of the leaks was made Saturday morning.

Roughly 1,000 barrels of oil a day are estimated to be emanating from the riser, officials said. They said that both leaks were on the seabed.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25rig.html