Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
 
The Transocean Rig, Deepwater Horizon, on fire, as a result of a blow out of the Macondo well, April 20, 2010. Spill maps

Marine Board investigation's next hearing to begin Jan 24, 2011 and deadline for report extended until March 27, 2011.

Read Press Release

Marine Board Hearing's Videos (C-Span Links)

Oct 4

Oct 5

Oct 6

Oct 7 - Oldfather (Weatherford), Walz (BP), Guide (BP)

Oct 8

October testimony transcript

Probably the best summary to date

Energy Training Resources Summary

My comments

BP's Biggest Errors (Sept 18)

What the Marine Board is Missing? (Aug 2, 2010)

New Comment (June 1)

News Comment (May 30)

Archive - News

Environmental/ Oceangraphic Related to Spill:

EPA Website

University of South Florida - Oil Spill Simulation Models - 2 day advance forecast

Oil Spill/ Surface Water Interactions (in general)

Oil spill fate in Marine Environment (short summary)

Flow Rate Technical Group- Preliminary estimated flow rate

Notes of Interest

On currents and eddies (May 28)

Frequently Asked Questions

Hot Topics

Hurricanes and the oil spill - not all bad news (NOAA Update)

BP Technical Update (May 31)

Top Kill

Estimation of flow rate

Timeline of Events (Apr 20 to present, based on Unified Command)

See: Other Links

Useful Links:

Marine Board (MMS/USGC) Joint Investigation

 

British Petroleum

Deepwater Horizon Unified Control

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA)

Wikipedia - Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

US House - Committee on Energy and Commerce investigates the Deepwater Horizon Accident

President Obama announces Bipartisan National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Deepwater Drilling (May 22, 2010)

Macondo Well Diagram (per Halliburton, submitted to House Committee)

Other Links

 
   
 

Top Kill Option:

26-May 2:00 pm

Top kill underway. Mud seen streaming out the riser, based on ROV streaming video. No junk shot used.

BP officials have repeatedly stated that their was a significant chance of failure. Top kills have been successful but never in 5,000 ft of water.

Links:

BP Explains Top Kill Procedure (video)

Animation of Top Kill (May 24, 2010)

 

 

 

Estimation of Flow Rates

This subject perhaps has been very overblown. Per the first link:

"If you've already amassed all of the resources, booms and skimmers that you can, knowing the amount doesn't make much of a difference," said Wes Tunnell, a 35-year veteran of oil spills at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi."

Rates from various experts ranged from 5,000 to 100,000 BPD, so it looked for a while like 50,000 was about right. But, now it's 12,000 to 19,000 BPD, as an initial preliminary number.

 

 

 

Links:

Fox News Link - Experts can't agree

Testimony - Prof. Wereley

Task Force Technical Group

 

 

Other Links

Rigzone - BP Progressing LMRP in Parallel with Top Kill (May 25)

Rigzone - BP Investigation Focuses on 7 Control Mechanisms (May 25)

Rigzone - BP Continues to Develop Top Kill Ops (May 24)

Rigzone - Kevin Costner Hopes to Clean Oil Spill (May 24)

Yahoo Finance - BP News

Oil Spill Statistics

The Oil Drum - Some good discussions on current efforts and causes of accident

Relief Well Drilling (general information)

Wikipedia - Transocean Deepwater Horizon Rig

 

 

Environmental Damage Reports

Areas impacted include: St Benard Parish, Plaquemine Parish, Breton Sound, Lake Washington at Barataria Bay, Lafourch Parish, Terrebonne Parish, Timbalier Island, Lake Chene in Barataria Island as of May 26.

Louisiana State Government- Emergency Website

Spill maps
Our Mission: There are many websites covering the oil spill. This page provide sites that contain the technical information on the spill and recovery operations. It is an attempt to identify the best information available. I use this page to check information instead of doing many Google searches.