oil well

14 Stories

Estimate to Plug Abandoned Wells in Gulf of Mexico: $30B

Infrastructure law has partial funding, but companies could be on the hook

(Newser) - More than 14,000 old, disconnected wells are still sitting in the Gulf of Mexico, a legacy of 85 years of oil and gas drilling. They're not just an eyesore: The wells, which now outnumber working wells, could leak oil and other pollutants into the water that might then...

Obama Approves Sonic Gun for East Coast Oil Search

Eastern Seaboard will be open for exploration in 2018

(Newser) - The Obama administration is opening the Eastern Seaboard to oil exploration for the first time in decades, it announced today, and it's approving the use of a controversial sonic cannon in the effort. Companies will be able to apply for permits from Delaware to Florida in 2018, when the...

BP Sues Lawyer Over Thousands of 'Phantom' Plaintiffs

Company slams 'fraud' in oil spill case

(Newser) - Three years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP has launched a suit of its own—against a plaintiffs' lawyer who, the company says, has represented tens of thousands of "phantom" clients in the case. BP says part of its settlement over the spill, worth $2.3 billion,...

BP Well Is 'Effectively Dead'
 BP Well Is 'Effectively Dead' 
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Sep 19, 2010 10:56 AM CDT

BP Well Is 'Effectively Dead'

Final pressure test seals the deal, Allen says

(Newser) - A permanent cement plug sealed BP's well nearly 2.5 miles below the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico, five agonizing months after an explosion sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in US history. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said today that...

BP Spill the Worst the World Has Seen
 BP Spill the Worst 
 the World Has Seen 
NEW REPORT: 4.9M BARRELS
Aug 3, 2010 5:33 AM CDT

BP Spill the Worst the World Has Seen

Gov't estimates 4.9M barrels of oil leaked into Gulf

(Newser) - The Deepwater Horizon disaster is the most massive oil spill ever to have fouled the world's oceans, according to US scientists in what they call the most accurate estimate to date. The latest report states that 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's...

BP: The Cap's On, Tests Under Way

Tests begin to see if it will hold

(Newser) - After securing a new, tight-fitting cap on top of the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP prepared today to begin tests to see if it will hold and stop fresh oil for the first time in nearly three months. The tests could last anywhere between six to 48...

27 Thousand Abandoned Wells Dot Gulf's Floor

And nobody's monitoring them for leaks

(Newser) - BP's Macondo oil well is the only one on anyone's mind right now, but there are literally thousands more like it littering the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Some are only temporarily abandoned (as BP was attempting to do in the Deepwater Horizon fiasco), while others date back to...

BP Gets Cap Back on Well After Robot Mishap

Oil was gushing at 104,000 gallons an hour

(Newser) - A cap was back in place on BP's broken oil well after a deep-sea blunder forced crews to temporarily remove what has been the most effective method so far for containing some of the massive Gulf of Mexico spill. Engineers using remote-controlled submarines repositioned the cap late yesterday after it...

Let's Nuke the Oil Spill—Literally

 Let's Nuke the Oil 
 Spill—Literally 
OPINION
May 17, 2010 7:36 AM CDT

Let's Nuke the Oil Spill—Literally

Because BP's self-serving repair attempts are laughable

(Newser) - Nearly a month into the BP oil spill disaster, it's time to get serious. It's time to blow the well shut with a nuclear weapon, argues nuclear policy scholar Christopher Brownfield—seriously. So far, BP's been trying to clumsily fix the well rather than destroy it, most recently using a...

Team Mulls 'Trash Plug' for Oil Leak

'Junk shot' would be blasted into contraption

(Newser) - The team that failed to cap the Gulf oil well with a dome may next try to plug the gusher with trash. The so-called "junk shot" would be used to aid the "blowout preventer" contraption that now sits near the leaker, but hasn't worked to prevent the spill...

Gulf Crews Prepare to Lower Containment Dome
 Gulf Crews  
 Prepare to Lower 
 Containment Dome 
oil reaches shore
May 6, 2010 2:47 PM CDT

Gulf Crews Prepare to Lower Containment Dome

Move to cap BP spill fraught with unknowns

(Newser) - Crews prepared today to lower a 100-ton box they hoped would cut off most of the crude spewing from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, the urgency of their task underscored by oil that started washing up on delicate barrier islands. If the concrete-and-steel box works, it could...

BP Closes 1 of 3 Gulf Oil Leaks

But it won't cut the amount of oil gushing from the damaged well

(Newser) - One of the three leaks gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico from the ruptured undersea well was shut down last night, BP said this morning. The success in installing a valve, after several days of rough seas that hampered efforts, won't slow the oil flowing into the Gulf, but...

Obama on Gulf Coast: 'BP Will Be Paying the Bill'

In Louisiana, president gets firsthand look at effects of ruptured oil well

(Newser) - President Obama visited Louisiana this afternoon, seeing for himself the effects of the continuing oil spill and promising an "all-hands-on-deck" reaction, the Times-Picayune reports. "BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill," he said. "But as president of the United States, I...

Iran Seizes Iraqi Oil Well on Disputed Border

No violence, confrontations common in southern border region

(Newser) - Iranian forces have seized an Iraqi-run oil well on the disputed border between the countries and raised their flag. A US official says it's not an uncommon occurrence, adding, “There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between...

14 Stories