Gulf of Mexico

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Deepwater Drilling to Pass Pre-Spill Heights

Oil demand keeps drills humming in Gulf of Mexico

(Newser) - It's been almost two years since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and deepwater drilling is back. With a year-long moratorium over, BP and other companies are intensifying their operations in the Gulf of Mexico, and production there will soon exceed its pre-accident highs, the New York Times reports. The practice...

BP Reaches $7.8B Settlement in Gulf Oil Spill

Deal does not include biggest plaintiff of all: US government

(Newser) - BP has agreed to pay about $7.8 billion to thousands of individuals and businesses around the Gulf of Mexico in economic and medical compensation for the massive 2010 oil spill, reports the Washington Post . About $2.3 billion will go to compensation to the seafood industry alone. BP also...

Oil Appearing Around BP Well Again

Sheen reaches across a quarter mile

(Newser) - A year after BP capped its ill-fated Macondo well, oil is once again appearing on the surface overhead. Oil blobs climbed to the surface and spread into patches 4 and 5 feet wide, the Press-Register reports. The thin sheen covered an area some 50 yards wide and a quarter-mile long....

Exxon Discovers Huge Oil Field in the Gulf

Company expects to get 700M barrels

(Newser) - Exxon announced the discovery of two oil wells and a natural gas deposit in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico that could collectively contain 700 million barrels. Two of the finds had been made in 2009 and 2010, but the company waited until today to unveil the amount...

Coming: Biggest Ever Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico

Due to chemical runoff from farms along the Mississippi

(Newser) - Chemical runoff from farms along the Mississippi create “dead zones” each year in the Gulf of Mexico—areas where nitrogen, phosphorus, and animal manure settle, feeding the algae that steals the oxygen from all other living things. This year’s record flooding will likely lead to the biggest dead...

Obama OKs More Drilling in Alaska, Offshore

Orders annual lease sales in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve

(Newser) - With both gas prises and anger on the rise, President Obama has decided to allow new drilling in Alaska's national petroleum reserve. Lease sales in the 23.5 million-acre reserve—which serves as home to millions of migratory birds, two caribou herds, gray wolves, and other wildlife—have been...

Gulf Oysters' Fate Illustrates 'Tyranny of Oil' Risks

True harm of BP spill may not be known for years: Paul Greenberg

(Newser) - Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf, and Paul Greenberg is worried enough about the consquences that he's putting an oyster on his Seder plate. It's a reminder to him that the most devastating effects of the spill happened below the...

Gulf's Real Dolphin Toll: 50 Times What Washes Up

Dead dolphins, whales found on shore the 'tip of the iceberg'

(Newser) - More than 130 bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore in the Gulf of Mexico's mysterious die-off, but the deeper question for many has been, how many more go unrecorded? Marine animal corpses that wash ashore are widely regarded as the "tip of the iceberg," notes the NRDC, and new...

Feds: Big Oil Not Using the Leases They Have

Interior Department issues report to push back against complaints

(Newser) - With oil companies and Republicans criticizing the Obama administration for being too slow to issue new offshore drilling permits in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Interior Department hit back with a report yesterday revealing that the industry isn’t using the majority of the leases it already...

Baby Dolphin Die-Off in Gulf Grows

Officials say it's too soon to blame the oil spill

(Newser) - More and more young bottlenose dolphins are turning up dead in the Gulf, and scientists aren’t entirely sure why. The number of dead dolphins has swelled to 80, according to National Geographic , with about half of them being calves. Speculation is running rampant that the deaths are connected to...

US Greenlights Gulf's 1st Deepwater Well Since Spill

Feds under pressure to drill as oil prices skyrocket

(Newser) - With oil prices again spiking above $100 a barrel, the US issued its first deepwater drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon made ocean-disaster history in the region. Noble Energy got the go-ahead to continue work on its Santiago well, which it had begun drilling just...

Dead Dolphins Washing Up Along Gulf Shore

Four babies collected since Monday; total for year is 28

(Newser) - More sad news from the Gulf: Four baby dolphins have washed up on the shores of Mississippi since Monday—adding to a growing tally. The Sun Herald reports that 18 stillborn or infant dolphins, some not even three feet long, have been collected this year. They're washing ashore at 10...

BP Workers Could Have Averted Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Disaster: Report
Workers on BP Rig Could Have Averted Disaster
says report
Feb 18, 2011 6:09 AM CST

Workers on BP Rig Could Have Averted Disaster

No one asked visiting engineers about problematic test results

(Newser) - Experts on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig could have prevented last year’s huge oil spill—but no one checked with them, said the White House commission investigating the matter. A knowledgeable BP engineer was visiting the rig, but when a key pressure test returned odd results, workers didn’t...

Deep-Water Drilling Could Resume in Weeks

13 companies to get the OK to resume work on 16 wells

(Newser) - It looks like the oil industry will be able to resume deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the next month or two, reports the Wall Street Journal . Even though the Obama administration lifted the moratorium put into place after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April, it hasn't issued...

Before Gulf, BP Had Azerbaijan Spill: WikiLeaks

Cables say PM accused firm of stealing billions

(Newser) - Eighteen months before the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the company experienced a similar huge leak in Azerbaijan, WikiLeaks cables reveal. The firm was tight-lipped about the incident, angering its partners, the cables note, adding that BP was fortunate in getting its 212 workers to safety, the...

BP to Gulf Residents: Here's a Bonus ... Now Don't Sue Us!

Feinberg offering $5K to individuals who agree not to sue

(Newser) - The administrator of BP's $20 billion compensation fund is offering Gulf residents cash bonuses to speed up the process, reports the New York Times. But there's a catch: Anyone who takes the money ($5,000 for individuals, $25,000 for businesses) has to agree not to sue BP or any...

BP's Other Rig May Be Primed for Disaster

Whistleblowers have said the Atlantis isn't safe, but nothing's been done

(Newser) - Oil companies are once again happily drilling in the Gulf of Mexico—including a BP rig that watchdog groups have called a “ticking time bomb.” Well before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, a whistleblowing ex-BP contractor told the government about a host of safety and legal issues aboard the...

Cement Tests Showed Trouble Before BP Blast

Macondo well went ahead, despite Halliburton data

(Newser) - Tests performed before the deadly blowout of BP's oil well in the Gulf should have raised doubts about the cement used to seal the well, but the company and its cementing contractor used it anyway, investigators with the president's oil spill commission said today. The finding appears to conflict with...

Panel: White House Blocked Worst-Case Gulf Spill Figures

Findings slam government's handling of Deepwater Horizon disaster

(Newser) - The White House's response to the Gulf oil spill was sluggish and flawed by "a sense of over-optimism," according to a presidential panel investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The panel discovered that the White House budget office rejected a request from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists for...

Study: Gulf's Carcinogen Levels Explode 40-Fold

Meanwhile, Obama administration issues new drilling safety rules

(Newser) - Researchers have detected a 40-fold increase in potentially cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons off the coast of Louisiana’s Grande Isle. The study is especially scary because it only measured PAHs that could seep through a biological membrane, the Huffington Post explains. “This is a measure of what would enter...

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