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An environmental disaster is threatening the Maharashtra coast after Saturday’s ship collision off the Mumbai harbour. Oil and natural-gas rigs operating in the U.S. rose for a ninth consecutive week, as drilling in Texas jumped, according to data published by Baker Hughes Inc. Crude oil rose for the first time in four days amid optimism fuel demand will increase because of improved prospects for an economic recovery in the U.S., the world’s biggest energy user.

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New Delhi, India – It was on August 7, when two Panamanian cargo ships collided off the Mumbai coast causing an oil spill from one of the two vessels that is threatening the Mumbai coast.

Indian Coast Guard officials said no casualties were reported to the 33 crew members who were rescued after the incident.

According to Coast Guard officials, the outbound merchant vessel from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), collided with MV Khalijia-III, five nautical miles from the shores at 9:50 am when the latter was sailing towards Mumbai Port Trust (MPT), off Mumbai harbour, for berthing.

A senior Coast Guard official said on condition of that the spill was “significant” but claimed the situation was “under control”. However, shipping lanes off India’s commercial hub Mumbai may be closed for another two days because of the oil spill.

The collision left the Panamanian vessel tilting in the water, although it has now been stabilized with no more oil leaking from containers on its deck, according to S.S. Dasila, an Indian coast guard commandant.

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Continue reading »]]> Nearly five million barrels of oil have gushed from the BP’s well since the Deepwater Horizon spill began on April 20, federal scientists said on Monday in announcing the most precise estimates yet of the well’s flow rate. The estimates would make this spill far bigger than the 3.3 million barrels spilled by the Mexican rig Ixtoc I in 1979, previously believed to be the world’s largest accidental release of oil.

Federal science and engineering teams estimated that 53,000 barrels of oil per day were pouring from the well just before BP was able to cap it on July 15. They also estimated that the daily flow rate had lessened over time, starting at around 62,000 barrels a day and decreasing as the reservoir of hydrocarbons feeding the gusher was gradually depleted.

The teams believe that the estimates are accurate to within 10 percent. They also reported that of the roughly 4.9 million barrels that had been released from the well, about 800,000 had been captured by BP’s previous containment efforts. That leaves over four million barrels that gushed into the Gulf of Mexico between April 20 and July 15.

The amount of oil estimated to be pouring from the well has been a matter of dispute from the earliest days of the BP spill. Federal and BP officials initially announced that no oil appeared to be leaking, then 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000 a day, frequently repeating that spill estimates are rough at best and that the main goal was to stop the well. But criticism mounted that no effort was being made to measure the leak with more certainty.

The Obama administration announced the creation of a scientific group dedicated to analyzing the flow rate, which came up with a new estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day in late May, a figure that was almost immediately met with skepticism. That, too, was later revised upwards several times before Monday’s announcement. Previous estimates came from analysis of videos from remote controlled vehicles at the wellhead, modeling of the reservoir and measurements of the oil that was collected by surface ships in the response effort.

After BP capped the well, these measurements could be reinforced by pressure readings within the well. Those pressure readings were compared with pressure estimates when the well was first drilled to determine if the rate had changed over time, which it apparently did.

The government is continuing to study the data and may refine the estimate.

Officials also postponed until Tuesday the "static kill" method of capping the well indefinitely. The plan involves pumping heavy drilling mud, and possibly cement, into the runaway Macondo well, with the aim of sealing it by the end of the week.

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An oil spill in eastern Australia has forced officials to declare a 60 kilometer stretch of the Queensland coast a disaster zone amid warnings that legal action could be taken against the operator of the cargo ship that lost its fuel in stormy seas.

Australian authorities originally said about 30 tons of oil were lost when 31 containers of fertilizer slipped from the Hong Kong-flagged “Pacific Adventurer” ship and punctured fuel tanks in the hull as the ship was battered in cyclone-stirred waters.

Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said Friday the spill was larger than had been reported but did not say exactly how much oil was shed.

The authorities have declared large stretches of normally white-sand beaches along the popular surf region of the Sunshine Coast a disaster zone, as well as Moreton and Bribie islands, which are national parks.
At the beach resort of Coolum, north of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane, dark brown waves rolled ashore instead of the usual whitecaps and aqua waters of the Coral Sea.

Anna Bligh says the causes of this environmental disaster will be thoroughly examined.

“This will be the subject of a full investigation. If there is any evidence that any government agency could have or should have done better, we will certainly be taking all relevant action to address that,” said Bligh. “At this stage my priority is to have teams of people out there cleaning this mess up to protect wildlife in what may well be the worst environmental disaster that Queensland or the south-east of our State has faced.”

Bligh says the ship’s operators would be held liable for the costs of the massive cleanup operation.

The lost 31 containers that held hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer have not been found.

The ship was on its way to Indonesia to deliver its shipment when the accident occurred.

Its owner, Hong Kong-based “Swire,” may face fines of up to $1 million if found guilty of environmental breaches.
Conservationists have warned that oil could be washed up for weeks to come along Queensland’s popular coastline.

Hundreds of people are involved in the clean-up and are trying to stop rivers from being contaminated.

The Queensland government has defended its response to the disaster thus far amid accusations that it failed to act quickly enough.

VOA News – Australia Declares Oil Spill Area Disaster Zone

Continue reading »]]> Authorities worked to contain oil spills after Hurricane Omar sank boats near the coasts of the Virgin Islands. St. Croix authorities were trying to contain oil spills after more than 40 boats sank or washed ashore during Hurricane Omar.

About half the vessels lost their anchors, including houseboats, catamarans and pricey yachts and sailboats owned by tourists. The other half were tied at marinas but broke loose, Carlos Fachette, enforcement director for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, said Friday.

The hurricane caught many local boaters off-guard because they did not take the storm seriously, according to Kim Jones of the St. Croix Yacht Club.

“It’s devastating,” she said of the damage. “That puts a brake into people getting into boating, which is such a way of life in the Caribbean. It’s going to take a lot to rebound.”

Roughly 400 boats are registered in St. Croix, she said.

Omar became a tropical storm again Friday night, far from land in the Atlantic Ocean.

Police on Friday also had to rescue three people from a 35-foot catamaran when it hit a reef and ran aground near Salt River Bay, Fachette said.

All St. Croix beaches have been deemed unsafe because of high pollution levels, and the Schooner Channel area of the Christiansted Harbor remained closed.

Omar passed overnight Wednesday between St. Martin and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the government has spent more than US$1 million in cleanup costs.

The storm caused more than US$700,000 in damages to roads in St. Croix and destroyed more than 100 utility poles in the eastern region. About half of the island’s 55,000 people remained with power on Friday, said Cassandra Dunn, Water and Power Authority spokeswoman.

“Restoring power to some areas is going to take time,” she said.

St. Croix also reported heavy crop damage, as did Antigua, where Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer warned of a produce shortage, saying the farming community “appears to have suffered an extensive loss of crops.”

“No one is reported to have perished in this disaster,” Spencer said late Thursday, hours after Omar blew past the Lesser Antilles islands as a Category 3 hurricane. “We are, nonetheless, faced with a natural disaster of serious proportions.”

The crop damage comes amid spiraling food prices in the Caribbean and around the world.

On Saturday morning, Omar was located about 775 miles east of Bermuda and had weakened to a tropical storm with top winds of 60 mph. It posed no threat to land and forecasters say it should keep weakening as it heads farther out into energy-sapping cold waters.

Islands try to contain oil spills caused by Omar – Yahoo! News