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June 9, 2010 in Nation/World
BP oil collection ramps up; so do claims questions
Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill pools against the Louisiana coast along Barataria Bay.
(Full-size photo)
NEW ORLEANS — BP plans to bring in an oil-burning device and a tanker from the North Sea as it tries to contain the crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, a disaster creating headaches for people who make their money off the sea and those processing their claims of financial loss.
The current oil containment system is catching 630,000 gallons daily, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said at a news briefing in Washington. Officials had previously cited that figure as the system’s general capacity, but Allen said officials now believe it can handle 756,000 gallons daily.
Even so, there’s still more oil eluding capture. BP is bringing in a second vessel that will increase capacity, as well as the North Sea shuttle tanker, which will assist in the transport of the oil, and a device that will burn off some of it. The company previously said it plans to switch out the current containment cap with a slightly larger one that will seal better and trap more oil.
The government is also keeping an eye on how BP is reimbursing people for their losses in the Gulf. Allen has written to BP CEO Tony Hayward demanding “more detail and openness” about how the company is handling mounting damage claims, reminding the beleaguered executive that his company “is accountable to the American public for the economic loss caused by the oil spill.”
Allen has noted that “working claims is not something that’s part of BP’s organizational competence.”
Among the frustrated is fishing guide Mike Helmer of Lafitte, La., who worries about paying his bills now that Barataria Bay, one of the richest fishing grounds along the Gulf, is largely shut down by oil taking the form of a widespread sheen complemented by gooey patches of crude.
Helmer said he filed a personal claim with BP several weeks ago and was told recently the company hadn’t even begun on it. He filed a claim on his business just this week.
“If it’s taking this long on my personal claim, who knows for my business?” Helmer said, adding that in the meantime he’ll have no income — nothing.
“Who’s asleep at the wheel here?” he added. “Everything’s too little, too late.”
Allen noted in his letter that he and other officials are meeting with BP later Wednesday to discuss problems with the handling of damage claims related to the April 20 accident.
“We need complete, ongoing transparency into BP’s claims process including detailed information on how claims are being evaluated, how payment amounts are being calculated and how quickly claims are being processed,” Allen wrote.
Interior Department officials expressed confidence at a Senate hearing Wednesday that more precise numbers on amount of oil leaking out will soon be available from a task force of scientists studying the matter.
“We expect to have a much better estimate very soon,” Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The government has estimated that around 600,000 to 1.2 million gallons are leaking per day, but a scientist on the task force said Tuesday that his group may determine the daily rate is, in fact, somewhere between 798,000 gallons and 1.8 million gallons.
That means an amount of oil equivalent to two Olympic-size swimming pools might still be escaping daily into the open sea.
The oil now being captured is being pumped to a ship on the surface where workers are burning off the natural gas attached to the crude and shipping the remaining oil to shore. In addition, the British oil giant is preparing to deploy a device called an EverGreen Burner that turns the oil-and-gas mixture into a vapor that is pushed out its 12 nozzles and burned without creating visible smoke.
The burn rig will be moved away from the main leak site so the flames and heat do not endanger other vessels, BP spokesman Max McGahan said Tuesday. He did not know when BP might start using the burner, although company officials have said they want the rig that will carry it to start processing oil by mid-June.
Depending on which model is used and its settings, it can handle 10,500 to 630,000 gallons of oil a day, according to promotional materials by Schlumberger Ltd., the company that makes the device and whose website touts it as producing “fallout-free and smokeless combustion.”
Wilma Subra, a chemist with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said BP should avoid burning the captured oil — which she said raises new health risks — and instead bring in more processing equipment.
“This is one of those decisions that will have negative impacts,” she said. “Even though it’s crude dispersed in water, the burning of crude will raise some health issues.”
Officials in President Barack Obama’s administration are talking with BP about a longer-term containment strategy with “built-in redundancies,” Allen said. Obama is scheduled to return to the Gulf Coast on Monday and Tuesday for a two-day update on the spill.
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles insisted no massive underwater oil plumes in “large concentrations” have been detected from the spill. His comments came a day after the government said water tests confirmed underwater oil plumes in low concentrations.
“It may be down to how you define what a plume is here,” Suttles told NBC’s “Today” show. “Those have not been found so far by us or anyone else who’s measured these.”
On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he said: “We haven’t found any large concentrations of oil under the sea.”
It’s been seven weeks since the BP oil rig explosion that set off the catastrophe. The most recent government estimates put the total amount of oil lost at 23.7 million to 51.5 million gallons, making it by far the nation’s largest oil spill.
© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Ancient Roman wrecks found in deep water 
brianth on June 09 at 1:16 p.m.
Just trying to get the word out!!! There is an oil eating enzyme that has been developed for awhile now that has been studied and used on oil spill’s it has been proving SUCCESFUL,100% of the time it has been used. What is great about this product is after it consumes the oil it dies and becomes part of the enviroment again and wild life can safely consume. They have warehouses full of this material ready to go! This product has been shown to clean up large amounts of oil in less then six weeks! Why isn’t this being told to the public? Why hasn’t it been used in the gulf? I believe the media really needs to jump on this and we all need to get the word out. There are other things they can be doing to clean this mess up and they are not doing it!!!!
PhiltheBibliophil on June 09 at 2:22 p.m.
brianth - I don’t doubt you are right. BUT, the oil companies don’t want this anymore than carburetors in the 60’s that got 50+ miles to the gallon! We are constantly lied to and hoodwinked! It is all and only all about the GREED!
effrepublicans on June 09 at 2:25 p.m.
Brianth,
Although you bring up a very good topic of bioremediation there are a few of mistakes in your comment. First off, enzymes aren’t living organisms and they don’t consume anything. They are used, generally speaking, as catalysts for reactions that occur within a cell. You are probably thinking of microbacteria.
Use of bioremediation, particulary using bacteria and algae, has been used, and has shown to be effective in oil spills it is however 1) not 100% effective (nothing is) and 2) any positive effects from applied bioremediation does not work in six weeks. Its more on the order of years to decades. A good summary of these points are show in the following link: http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/cv/grimes.jay/ASM%20oil%20presentation%20complete%205-23-10%20(2).pdf If you want to skip over the technical stuff then scroll down to the summary section. In addition, a kep point of being able to speed up the biodegradation process is that nutrients and oxygen need to be present. The Gulf has one of the largest dead zones in the world where it is often time anoxic. Throw on a bunch of oil and you create an even worse situation for anything to grow or be used to help the bioremediation. Parts of the problem that need to be considered before people start jumping into doing remedies. Dumping a ton of the containers containing the bacteria isn’t going to clean up the oil overnight. We all wish it was that simple. The cleanup process, unfortunately, is going to be a long dragged out one. We will have specials on 20/20 decades from now about the lingering affects this spill has brought on the gulf region.
mikeln on June 09 at 2:39 p.m.
Two years ago BP was fined 300 million-plus for overchargeing the american people for propane. I heard the tape recordings where they, the executives, were really happy to be screwing us. Our government got the money, we, the consumer, got the screw. Last year, to avoid paying a fine, our government allowed them to burn off about half the propane, an environmental disaster in itself, to keep the price artificially high. This propane could have been safely stored for use in the future but our government decided to let us get screwed again for corporate profit. You will be waiting a long time for any of these criminals to do the right thing unless it profits them. The american people need to wise up to the fact that the government that is supposed to represent us is nothing more than a bunch of corporate stoodges. Bush, Obama, back at least 40 years, all criminals, that have killed our young in useless wars and worked relentlessly to empower corrupt and murderous corporate enities.
brianth on June 09 at 4:21 p.m.
Thank you effrepublicans, yes in my haste I said enzymes when I meant bacteria my bad. I have included this link http://spillfighters.com/ for a website that shows a video of this take a look and you make your own judgement. Personally I believe it should be used. Also, I do know that this spill is about greed and the oil companies want to collect as much as they can to cash in, but it’s time they go away and we start applying real solutions.
mikeln on June 09 at 6:41 p.m.
So, Obama, who says he’s in charge, puts the fox in charge of the hen house. The IRS knows who paid taxes on the industries affected and how much they made. It should take no time at all for them to come up with a list of eligibile recipiants, start writing checks and freeze all BP assets untill an agreement is reached. To put BP in charge of paying out damages shows either the complete stupidity of our government or that our government is ran by these crooks. If it came to a choice for our military to protect us or the oil companies we could kiss our asses goodbye.
misjustice on June 09 at 9:24 p.m.
Every time I see Tony Hayward’s lying face, in BP’s newest propoganda campaign, on the tee vee I want to smash it in. And then I want to ‘waterboard’ him with the mucky water from the oil volcano until he screams like a little boy. I can’t say what I’d like to do after that because this is a familly newspaper…I’ll leave it to your imaginations…
This oil volcano has created a dead zone which will last for the next one hundred years, possibly longer. What a tragic waste…all in the name of $$$$
This is an example of the true cost of having an economy that is based on oil. When will we ever learn?