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Re: CAT 4 FOR COMMENT - US - Gulf oil spill and the Mississippi River

Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT

Email-ID 1802933
Date 2010-05-20 22:48:28
Nobody seems to know. There have been reports of thicker crude being
sighted. Also not clear what happens if it builds up over time. But in
general, it does not seem like thicker crude contaminating lots of ships
is anticipated.

Nate Hughes wrote:

Matt Gertken wrote:

The Deepwater Horizon oil leak [LINK]
continues at the site where the BP-operated rig exploded and sank in
the Gulf of Mexico in late April. As the oil slick expands around the
Southwest Pass, the famous entrance to the chain of ports on the lower
Mississippi River, port authorities and the United States Coast Guard
have begun making preparations to prevent inbound shipping traffic
from trailing oil inwards.

Fears about the uncertainties of the present situation are
understandable. The Mississippi River system is the main artery of
waterborne commercial traffic in the American heartlands, and it links
the gigantic swath of arable land in the center of the country to the
Gulf of Mexico and the world's oceans. The port of New Orleans [LINK]
alone handles a total of over $20 billion worth of trade. To stop or
stall traffic for the lower Mississippi ports would have serious
ramifications for the US domestic economy.

Meanwhile the oil leak has not been plugged, and it will take months
for the BP-led response team to drill the relief well that they
believe is a sure-fire solution, so the potential amount of oil that
can be leaked is unknown. For regulatory reasons, the Coast Guard will
prevent ships from entering American ports and rivers if they are
contaminated with oil. And ships carrying American exports fear that
contamination could result in being fined or turned away from foreign

At present, however, no tangible threat appears to exist to shipping.
First, the oil slick has not -- so far -- intruded into the main
shipping channels. Second, the oil sheen is light, easily dispersible,
and not clinging to ships -- not a single ship has had to be cleaned
or delayed yet, and the USCG has not imposed any restrictions on
shipping. Even the ships at the site of the leak managing the response
effort reportedly have not reported problems of contamination. Third,
the Mississippi has seen higher water levels this spring, which means
its discharge levels are high, which is helping push the oil away from
the river.

Moreover, the ports and USCG are prepared in case the situation gets
worse. The Port of New Orleans says it does not anticipate any
closures on the river, but has set up four cleaning stations, where
ships will be sprayed with high-pressure water to clean them off. Two
of these stations are far away from the Southwest Pass and outside of
the range of the spill, designed to clean outgoing vessels. Meanwhile,
a station nearer to the Southwest Pass is capable of scrubbing
incoming vessels, which can also be cleaned subsequently by boats that
will travel beside them and clean their hulls as they move through the
channel -- a process that has already had a successful test run. There
is also a decontamination station inside the waterway.

Of course, conditions can change. The size of the oil slick is
increasing every day, and according to projections by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the slick is spreading westward
where it threatens the critical Southwest Pass (as well as the
Louisiana Offshore Oil Port [LINK]). If the oil begins to stick to
ship hulls, or if heavier crude begins to appear

is this at all likely to happen? We're talking about light crude
pouring out of the same well, right?

, the problems would increase. The cleaning process takes about one
hour per ship, lines could form in the event that numerous ships need
cleaning. Since New Orleans sees an average of 16 ships per day, there
is risk of congestion, which would require authorities to direct
traffic to ensure the most important shipments have first dibs.

Yet there is a precedent: two stations were set up in 2008 to clean
ships after a barge leaked oil into the river near New Orleans, and
managed to clean about 25-30 ships per day initially and then got
faster, eventually cleaning 500 ships within 10 days, an average of 50
per day.

Another bit of good news, albeit tentative, is that the rate of oil
leakage is gradually slowing now that BP has managed to siphon off
about 3,000 barrels per day from the spill, which could be more than
half of the amount leaking, according to the standard estimate of the
rate of leakage at 5,000 bpd. The leak could be much greater, and BP
has yet to put a stop to it.

At the moment then the threat to shipping posed by the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill is minimal -- quite unlike the potential threat to
offshore drilling policy posed by the gathering clouds of political
and regulatory reprisal [LINK].