Shell International reported an accidental spill of nearly
5,000 gallons of drilling mud into the Gulf of Mexico on July 31. This is way out there in a cluster of deepwater fields known as the
Perdido project, in water more than 7,800' deep about 150 miles off the Texas coast (
195 workers were evacuated from the project last week when tropical storm Don rumbled through):
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| Map showing location of drilling mud spill reported by Shell on July 31, 2011 |
Perdido is an
awesome development project. Production from several separate fields in the region will be tied into a single, massive
floating spar. Be sure to check out the jaw-dropping promotional
video.
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| Schematic diagram of Perdido spar and subsea tie-ins with wells in surrounding fields. |
And yes, "perdido" is indeed Spanish for "lost."
Atlantis?
Macondo? Maybe it's not wise to tempt fate...
Keep up with all the latest pollution incidents at the
SkyTruth Alerts page.
Jeffrey posted this comment:
ReplyDelete"So now we will have like 50 wells that would need to be capped? We are so F'd"
It certainly is a new level of complexity and challenge, and (we think) vulnerability. That's why we'd like to see a whole lot more investment, R&D and industry-government focus on oil spill cleanup technology and capacity.