So you know how BP and various others have been trying to sell us on the idea that the gargantuan oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico had somehow magically disappeared? Well, now some Berkeley scientists have confirmed that this actually may be happening, but it isn’t magic. A newly discovered microbe, a particularly gluttonous form of oil-eating bacteria that have existed for millions of years on the ocean floor, appears to have multiplied rapidly since the April 20 spill and gobbled up so much of the dispersed oil as to render the plume “undetectable.”
That is pretty amazing if this is actually going on. Nature, man. Truly remarkable.
Since scientists know science, I will cede all knowledge on the subject to the researchers doing the researching and hope to hear more good news about the Gulf cleaning itself. But, I think FSist’s take is pretty well aligned with my own.
We remain slightly skeptical, but consider our minds blown.
Says CanOils Database (from which the image comes via press release):
BP stands out with its spectacular $17 billion reported loss in the second quarter, and even if we look at its underlying performance by removing the effects of non-recurring items, growth in adjusted earnings was just 15% – much lower than any of its peers. (see Normalised Net Income graph below). So not much cheer to report here.
Well, BP did at least stop the oil flow and the cemented well seems to be holding. Plus, the digging on the relief wells is not too far from completion so “bottom kill” — the long expected final solution to the leak — may be a reality soon.
I’m not sure that’s worth cheering, but a nice golf clap in probably in order.
In a likely move, investors are demanding improved disclosure of oil disaster response plans. In fact, 58 investors representing $2.5 trillion in assets came together recently to demand just that.
“The April blowout at BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, and the explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers, has led to one of the greatest environmentally-related destructions of shareholder value in history. The shareholder harm that has flowed from the BP spill has focused investor attention on governance, compliance and management systems needed to minimize risks associated with deepwater offshore oil and gas development worldwide.”
The 1-page letter (with 10 pages of questions and signatures) goes on — urging all companies, including Apache, involved in subsea deepwater drilling to be open and transparent with investors and stakeholders regarding the programs they have in place for managing risks. The questions submitted inquire into the amount of money spent on R&D with respect to safer offshore drilling technologies, contingency plans, lessons learned from BP Macondo and the well blowout, contractor selection and oversight and governance and management systems.
With pressure like this, it is hoped that the Exxon’s and BP’s of the world will be forced to answer tough questions regarding managing the extreme risk they encounter. Like every other public company, they must answer to the owners — the shareholders. Let’s hope they do . . . and do so truthfully.
Newsweek has created a great slideshow illuminating some staggering numbers about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. I suggest you head over there and read it in full as they include insightful synopses/explanations of each, but these were the few figures I found the most interesting:
Time it would take the United States to use the oil spilled so far: 4 hours, 24 minutes
Number of response workers: 42,000-plus
Percent of the spill that’s natural gas: 70%
Cubic feet of natural gas set ablaze: 1 billion
Number of suggestions received with ideas to stop the spill: 112,000
Along with that last factoid, Newsweek also included the below video of Kevin Costner talking about his invention that can siphon polluted water from the Gulf, extract the oil from it and dump the clean water back into the sea. He came up with this “oil distiller” while filming Waterworld when he — for God knows what reason — partnered with his brother to create an actual, working version of a prop used in the film. Obviously, the device did not need to work in the movie. It’s Hollywood make-believe and we viewers would have just believed that the theoretical physics they discussed worked considering it is, ya know, a movie set in the distant future that featured a plot where the globe was entirely submersed by ocean and “dry land was a myth.” But, nope, Kevin needed realism within his work of fiction, so the brothers Costner fabricated a working model of this centrifuge-based “Ocean Therapy” technology.
And now, hopefully, we will all owe the man a big round of applause. After conducting a few tests, BP purchased 32 of the machines from Costner a few weeks ago and has already begun using them to aid the clean up efforts. The technology is not perfect (as you can learn about here), but it is helping — which means Kevin has almost certainly done more to help the Gulf of Mexico, marine life and affected coastal communities than you have.
Overall, it’s easily the best thing he has done since Thirteen Days.
