UK Today News: Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Skimming Back On Track After Huricane Alex Threat
Gulf Coast Oil Spill: The skimming of the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico has commenced again after Hurricane Alex made several oil platforms and BP to halt their work in the Gulf. BP had to put their work on hold for two days and now their cleanup process has begun. The work of skimming of the surface oil, burning off the spilled oil and also the pumping process had been stalled for two days due to the strong winds and high seas caused due to the Hurricane Alex.
On Friday, the skimmers were back to work as the strong seas died out and their clean process restarted. US Coast Guard helicopters were back in the air surveying the sea to find out the extent damage done by the hurricane.
As BP resumed their work on Friday, the company has been deciding on the issue of replacing the low marine riser package which has been collecting the spewing oil since the 3rd of June and to replace it with a larger one which would have a bigger capacity of collecting oil. But the worry here is, that during the process of installation, lots of oil will be spewed again into the sea. The decision would be taken by the end of the next week, when another vessel will be called in to replace the existing collector, and would help BP double the oil collection process.
According to officials, replacing the cap would help the company cap oil from 53000 barrels to 80000 barrels a day. The collecting vessel ‘Discover Enterprise’ would be replaced by another vessel and during the replacement process both the vessels would not be able to cap any amount of oil. This process would let some 35000 to 60000 barrels of oil escape in a day. And to speak of the oil cleanup progress till date, around 28.2 million gallons of water has been skimmed off the oily water.
