A lot of people are paying attention to the incident in the Gulf Of Mexico that is actually being termed as the “worst environmental disaster of its Kind” and rightly so. The Gulf Oil Spill at an oil platform managed by BP is at the centre of this incident and for those who have not been able to keep up to speed with the issue at hand, here is a round up of the events. And this is all in hope that the brilliant minds might be able to actually come up with a solution for the increasing problem.

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The Deepwater Horizon was a 9-year-old semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU), a massive floating, dynamically positioned oil drilling platform (drilling rig) built by Hyundai Heavy Industries that could operate in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep and drill down to 30,000 feet (9,100 m). It was owned by Transocean, operated under the Marshalese flag of convenience, and was under lease to BP until September 2013. While writing this post it is to be noted that a solution for this massive ecological and environmental disaster is still being chased. Elusive as it might seem, it is a definite issue. So here is the timeline for the events:

April 20 : News broke that an explosion occurred at 11 p.m. EST on BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 52 miles southeast of the Louisiana port of Venice. According to the Coast Guard, 11 to 15 crew members were reported missing, of the total 126 workers aboard the rig at the time of the blast. The rig was drilling, but not in production.

April 22: Helicopters and ships resumed the search for 11 missing workers. The oil rig is still burning, leaving a huge plume of smoke that is more than 30 miles long. Later that day, the fire was extinguished, after which the oil rig sank. NASA images of the oil spill show aerial photos of the pluming, boiling black smoke. Environmental damage is believed to be minimal, due to the fact that Deepwater Horizon is an exploration rig, as opposed to a production rig.

April 26 Search-and-rescue operations come to a close with 11 people still missing, while underwater robots have discovered at least two leaks that are dumping an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil per day in the sea. Officials warn it could take “months” to stop the what is technically a “leak,” as opposed to a “spill.” This being the official line, the engineers from BP are already working on a containment dome, that can be placed on top of the leaking tubes to close the leak. Wikepedia picture. The containment dome would later be one of 6 failed attempts by BP to stem the flow of the oil.

April 28 : Stopping the leak is so technically challenging that experts realize it could take months. U.S. Coast Guard was to suggests best possible solution is to set the oil slick on fire. Later, they do so, releasing a huge plume into the sky.

April 29 : It is discovered that the leak is not spewing the equivalent of 1,000 barrels of oil per day, but rather 5,000. By end of day, the oil slick has reached the Mississippi Delta, with the risk of joining in the loop current and make the mixing of Oil in the water even faster.

May 1st : SkyTruth, a small non-profit, analyzed radar and satellite imagery and estimated that the oil was leaking much faster than the original official estimates. The initial figure was 1,000 barrels/day, which they successfully challenged with a new estimate of 5,000 barrels/day. But even that proved too optimistic, and they revised their estimate to 25,000 barrels/day! Options for the containment of the Oil are charted.

May 2nd : BP starts first of its many attempts at stemming the flow of Oil. The rig’s blowout preventer, a fail-safe device fitted at source of the well, did not automatically cut off the oil flow as intended when the explosion occurred. BP attempted to use remotely operated underwater vehicles to close the blowout preventer valves on the well head 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below sea level, a valve-closing procedure taking 24–36 hours. By the end of the day they had tried 6 attempts at closing the valve and none had worked.

May 5th : BP announced that the smallest of three known leaks had been capped. This did not reduce the amount of oil flowing out, but it did allow the repair group to focus their efforts on the two remaining leaks. Tomorrow, if all goes well, they’re going to lower a 100-ton metal containment dome on one of the other leaks to siphon the oil.

May 7th : BP deployed the containment dome system on May 7 but it failed when gas leaking from the pipe combined with cold water to form methane hydrate crystals that blocked up the steel canopy at the top of the dome.The excess buoyancy of the crystals clogged the opening at the top of the dome where the riser was to be connected.

May 11 : a smaller containment dome, dubbed a “top hat”, was lowered to the seabed. Like the first containment dome, the dome has been deployed successfully in the past but not at such a depth. The “top hat” dome originally was planned as BP’s next attempt to control the spill and that failed too.

May 12th BP finally decided to release pictures of the underwater oil leak, allowing independent scientists and engineers to have a look.

May 14, engineers began the process of positioning a 4-inch (100 mm) wide riser insertion tube tool into the 21-inch wide burst pipe. After three days, BP reported the tube was working. Collection rates varied daily between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels, the average being 2,000 barrels.

May 26: After over a month since the explosion started the Oil Leak, BP now tries another method called Top Kill, The process involves pumping heavy drilling fluids through two 3-inch (7.6 cm) lines into the blowout preventer that sits on top of the wellhead. This would first restrict the flow of oil from the well, which then could be sealed permanently with cement.

May 29 : After three consecutive failed attempts at the top kill, BP announced that the last attempted method had also finally Failed.

BP moved on to their next contingency option, the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap Containment System. The operational plan first involves cutting and then removing the damaged riser from the top of the failed blowout preventer to leave a cleanly-cut pipe at the top of the BOP’s LMRP. The cap is designed to be connected to a riser from the Discoverer Enterprise drillship and placed over the LMRP with the intention of capturing most of the oil and gas flowing from the well. During the cutting of the pipe, the diamond blade saw became stuck and was later freed, but BP had to use shears instead and the cut is “ragged”,meaning the cap would be harder to fit. The cap was finally attached on June 3.

The Oil leak has not stopped yet, and some experts say could continue until the end of the year. Long term efforts from BP are now being seen as the next action. While people all over the world are helping come up with solutions and criticize the efforts from BP.

http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com/ has come up with an interactive map to show the world, if they were around a similar leak what would have happened. Famous politicians, scientists and websites are all coming up with solutions that might help BP make better decisions on their next effort. However it is going to take a lot of time and effort, until then what is the state of the sea life and birds in the region is anyones guess. In fact, there are picture galleries that will take the guess work out of the picture, including the most famous Picture Galleries of Boston Big Picture.

All I can say is Watch this space.