Orbit: The Great Oil Spill

You might have heard about the British petrolum's oil rig exploding and leaking tons of oil into the US gulf.

well you might have also heard about how british petrolum is trying to fix the leak and what effects the oil spill is having on the wildlife there. Well, just incase u had'nt heard about those yet, im here to bring you up to speed on all these stuff.

OK. On April 20th, there was an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon, in which 11 staff died.

2 days later, the rig sank,80km from the south east of Venice. The riser pipe that had connected the rig to the wellhead now lies fractured on the seabed a mile below, spewing out oil at a rate at some 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons, a day. The spill threatens economic and ecological disaster on Gulf Coast tourist beaches, wildlife refuges and fishing grounds. Well if the effects are so grave what is BP doing to try to contain it? well it has considered serveral options like using a oil spill containment dome. and building another rig to drain all the oil but that will take serveral months to build and it would be too late by then. so here's the details to the dome.

At the leak site, the device will be lowered by cable to the site of the leak. Once at the seafloor, underwater robots will place it on top of the larger of two remaining leaks.

* The chamber, 40 feet tall, 24 feet wide and 14 feet deep has steel shelf-like "mud flaps" on the side to ensure it doesn't sink more than 15 feet into the mud.

* The funnel-like top of the chamber will be connected to a drill pipe inside a larger pipe, or riser. That mechanism will then be connected to Transocean's Deepwater Enterprise drillship, which is capable of processing 15,000 barrels of oil per day.

* The dual-pipe mechanism will allow warm water and a chemical, methanol, to be pumped into the space between the drill pipe and larger pipe. That is intended to counteract the possibility of ice- or sludge-like plugs in the larger pipe that could hinder or stop the flow of oil to the ship. Such plugs can form from natural gas, 3,000 cubic feet of which is in each leaking barrel of oil.

A second containment chamber is being built at Wild Well Control in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, to later be placed atop the second leak. In the meantime, underwater robots will continue trying to manipulate valves on the blowout preventer to stop both leaks at the main source.

Unfortunatedly, that doesnt seem to be working. The dome which had sounded like a great idea is failing. A buildup of crystallized gas in the dome forced engineers to delay efforts to place the huge containment device over the rupture and funnel leaking oil to a waiting drillship.

So BP may next try to plug the damaged blowout preventer on the well by pumping debris into it at high pressure, a method called a "junk shot," or by putting a new preventer on top.

Hundreds of boats deployed protective booms and used dispersants to break up the oil again on Sunday, but rough seas are threathening to distrupt the efforts

Forecasts show the giant oil slick moving west, as brisk onshore winds blow from the southeast through next weekend.

On a side note, at least BP has claimed responsibillity and are trying to contain the oil spill as fast as possible unlike some other incidents. And think about how much money BP is losing to contain the oil spill, building the rig and creating sandbags dont come cheap right? The only reason why this is so serious is because it is a major oil rig and its near places with alot of wildlife. Oh and do check out these videos on youtube. They can help u understand the oil spill better.