'Status Quo': Shell Spews Nearly 90,000 Gallons of Oil into Gulf of Mexico in Latest Spill

[kadaholo]

Source: CommonDreams by Staff Writer Jon Queally

Royal Dutch Shell's offshore drilling operations were pouring oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, ultimately releasing nearly 90,000 gallons of oil into the water off the Louisiana coast. "We have allowed the Gulf to be perpetually treated as a sacrifice zone—a place where we tolerate pollution and disasters to continue our dependence on fossil fuels."—Michael Brune, Sierra Club.

The company said the spill was spotted above an underwater pipeline system, although specific details regarding the leak's cause were not made public. The spill left a 13-by 2-mile sheen on the water, NBC reports. While the company assured reporters and government agencies that wells in the area had been shut off and the spill was being contained, local observers expressed deep skepticism.

"What we usually see in oil industry accidents like this is a gross understatement of the amount released and an immediate assurance that everything is under control, even if it's not," said Anne Rolfes, founding director of anti-offshore drilling group the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. "This spill shows why there is a new and vibrant movement in the Gulf of Mexico for no new drilling."

Locals opposed to offshore drilling argue that oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico have become tragically commonplace. "According to the federal National Response Center, the oil industry has thousands of accidents in the Gulf of Mexico every year," the Louisiana Bucket Brigade said. This latest disaster occurred mere weeks after the six-year anniversary of BP's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf and on the very same day that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held a hearing on the agency's next Five Year Plan for the Gulf of Mexico.


Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/13/status-quo-shell-spews-nearly-90000-gallons-oil-gulf-mexico-latest-spill

[StarTrombone]

1. Natural leaks annually seep

42 million to 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico

It's as natural as rain water

The dispersants that they use are more of a problem than the crude as they interrupt the bacteria that would normally clean up the seeped oil

In the Gulf of Mexico, there are more than 600 natural oil seeps that leak between one and five million barrels of oil per year, equivalent to roughly 80,000 to 200,000 tonnes. When a petroleum seep forms underwater it may form a peculiar type of volcano known as an asphalt volcano.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_seep

[Sunlei]

3. 30,000 old capped wells, loophole regulations to check them if they may resume use 'someday'

One would think states next to gulf would have the finest schools and roads in America from revenue and use, from oil drilling the last 100 years, but no, about the lowest ranked schools in America and worst infrastructure.

[StarTrombone]

4. I'm sure all that means something to you

I'd like to know what the hell we're doing to close up more than 600 natural seeps that we know are spewing 42 to 210 million gallons of crude oil every year, year after year, forever and ever

Think how much damage that must be doing if 90 gallons thousand is a crisis

[Sunlei]

5. The BP oil disaster was 'about' 200 million gallons.

Natural seeps didn't disease the dolphins, kill 80% of their offspring or ruin the ecosystem of the Gulf.

edited to place in, check your link, natural seeps are not "crude oil".

[Nihil]

7. Psst ... your ignorance is showing!

Leakage from "capped" wells and "dormant" pipelines is not classed as "natural seep" (*).

Mind you, if you're concerned about the damage that the oil (and dispersants) do to
the wildlife of the Gulf every day, you must be absolutely livid about the effects of the
agriculteral runoff that has created & maintained a dead zone of amazing proportions ...





(*) except by the PR department of oil extraction corporations of course.

[valerief]

2. When are they going to rename it the Gulf Oil of Mexico? nt

[Shandris]

6. Maybe it's about time we took the Chinese approach to corporate malfeasance.

I can assure you, we'd have FAR less oil spills if, every time we did, we chain-catapulted some executives into a brick wall and tweeted it from the White House.

I know, I know, it'll never happen. Our """""government""""" (I wonder what that word derives from?) isn't in the business of doing things to actually help people, it's in the business of making money. But one can dream!