By Darryl Fears
The drillship Rowan Resolute in the Gulf of
Mexico during a flight out of New Orleans in July 2018. (Bonnie Jo
Mount/The Washington Post)
Up to 1,000 gallons of oil per day are being removed from the site of the Taylor Energy spill, says the owner of company that installed a containment system.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that it is
finally containing and collecting oil from a massive 14-year spill in
the Gulf of Mexico, the longest offshore disaster in U.S. history.
More
than 30,000 gallons of oil have been collected over several weeks since
a containment system was installed about 12 miles off the coast of
Louisiana, the Coast Guard said. Capt. Kristi Luttrell, who is
overseeing work performed by a contractor, the Couvillion Group, called
the containment a major milestone that could significantly reduce the
impact of the spill, which will enter its 15th year in September.
Luttrell
entered into a contract with Couvillion last year after the company
responsible for the spill, Taylor Energy, failed to follow her orders to
do so on its own.
The system’s success could be a serious setback to Taylor Energy’s efforts to stop the containment effort. The company filed a federal lawsuit
in December, claiming that Couvillion lacked the expertise to install a
system to capture oil leaking from its wells. They broke open when
Hurricane Ivan caused the walls of a deep sea canyon to collapse and
sink an oil platform.
In a separate lawsuit, the company also claimed that
Luttrell’s order to mount a more aggressive response to the spill was
rash. It came a day after The Washington Post revealed an expert
analysis that contradicted Taylor Energy’s claims that almost no oil was
present at the site.
The analysis by Oscar
Garcia-Pineda, a geoscience consultant who specializes in impacts from
oil spills, estimated that 1.5 million to 3.5 million barrels spilled
into the gulf from the Taylor Energy site over more than 14 years.
Acting on that finding, as well as other scientific reports, the Coast
Guard issued Taylor Energy an ultimatum to hire a company to build a
device to contain the oil or face a fine of up to $40,000 per day.
Weeks
of monitoring by the Coast Guard shows that Couvillion’s containment
system is working, Luttrell said Thursday. The system was completed and
fully operational April 29, but Couvillion started collecting oil 12
days before that.
The oil is pumped from deep-water storage tanks to a
ship that brings it to shore to separate it from water. Oil that can be
salvaged is sent to a licensed receiving facility, and the rest is
recycled or disposed.
Recovered oil is U.S. property, Luttrell said, and proceeds from its sale are credited against Couvillion’s bill.
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