Second Attempt To Cap BP Well

BP has successfully capped its oil well at the bottom of the seabed. A well that was left during the first attempt was connected with a long pipe with a cap. At first, there were mixed results, because oil came out of the well at high pressure, a great deal of oil escaped. However, when the cap moved in closer, less oil escaped and the first barrels of oil started to reach the Q4000 Platform, in which the oil will be burned immediately because the platform does not have storing space. Methanol is being injected throughout the pipe to prevent ice crystals from forming in the pipe near the botton of the Gulf of Mexico. Two days ago, the well worked as planned and between 5,000 to 10,000 barrels of oil was being pumped up to the Q4000 Platform every day.

I believe that this is not such a good idea because burning the oil will cause a great deal of atomospheric pollution. I think that bioremediation is better for we can let nature clean up after itself, which is usually much more effective and cheaper. However, I am glad that BP was able to cap the well and pump oil to the platform. By Y.J. Kim

Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizons Oil Spill

BP is using numerous tactics in order to capture and get rid of the crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico spilling from the Deepwater Horizons accident. They tried to capture the oil with floats, then used a massive dome to suck up the oil, and now is dumping mud and cement to stop the oil from spreading. All of the oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico have stopped operating for some time while the Deepwater Horizons oil well is spilling about 12,000 to 25,000 barrels (1.4 to 6 million liters) every day. This is said to be the worst oil spill accident in the history of the United States, releasing twice the amount of the Exxon Valdez spill.

Although, I appreciate that the US government and BP are using all sorts of chemicals to stop the oil from spreading, bioremediation is also a very helpful tool. An excessive amount of chemicals is hazardous to the environment, whereas an abundance of microbes has no effect on the Earth. By Y.J. Kim

http//topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/o/oil_spills/gulf_of_mexico_2010/index.html