BP looking at several options to control oil leak
VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) – BP Plc is working on several options to try to control oil gushing from its ruptured seabed well in the Gulf of Mexico, including the possible use of a smaller “top hat” containment dome, or tapping directly into the well riser pipe, a BP executive said on Sunday.
The latest initiatives to contain the huge growing spill that threatens an environmental catastrophe to the U.S. Gulf Coast followed an initial setback in an operation to place a massive metal containment dome over the larger of two leaks.
“What we’re working on now is we’re gathering some data to help us with two things: One is another way to do containment, and the second is other ways to actually stop the flow,” BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told Reuters.
“On the containment side, we’re working two options: one is a smaller dome — we call it the ‘top hat,’ and the second is to try to find a way to tap into the ‘riser,’ the piece of pipe the oil is flowing through, and take it directly from that pipe up to the ship on the surface,” he added.
The possible solutions being studied also included a so-called “junk shot” of debris into the failed blowout preventer of the gushing well to try to block it.
“What it involves is that we have some pipe work on the blowout preventer, and if we can open certain valves on that we could inject basically just rubber and other type of material into (it) to plug it up, not much different to the way you might plug up a toilet,” Suttles said.
Making the work all the more difficult was the fact that it was taking place almost a mile down on the ocean floor, requiring the use of remotely controlled vehicles working in the inky blackness of the deep water.
ZAKA’s Other Work
Dozens of body bags layed out neatly on the pavement in central Jerusalem is a sight the city has been pleased to be rid of in recent years after a period of regular bombing and shooting attacks that killed scores of city residents in the early part of the decade.
On Tuesday, such scenes were again visible just outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. Thankfully it was just a protest organised by an emergency rescue service to highlight Israel’s traffic accident death rate. The body bags were empty.
The unusual spectacle was organised by ZAKA, known worldwide for it’s expertise in the gathering and identifying human remains after bombing attacks and natural disasters.
As Palestinian suicide bombings and other violent acts against Israelis decreased in recent years, ZAKA volunteers, who have often caught the eye of camera operators when seen carefully collecting human remains at explosion sites, have expanded their work into new fields.
Today, the 1,500 strong ZAKA force, made up almost entirely of Jewish Ultra Orthodox volunteers, assist in emergency cases all over Israel. Their members are often first at the scene upon receiving news of deaths at traffic accidents. ZAKA’s agile motorcycle unit also provides first aid, and has been called to assist abroad, including after the Mumbai attacks and during the tsunami disaster in Asia.
With International Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims being observed this Sunday (November 15), ZAKA used it’s most dramatic tools to illustrate to legislators how many people die yearly on Israel’s roads.
Some 400 Israelis are killed on the road every year, and the latest research by the European Transport Safety Council has shown that Israel ranks eighth out of 30 in the number of road accident deaths per million residents.
In case you’ve missed it…
If you happened to miss Israeli Prime Minister Benajamin Netanyahu’s speech Sunday evening (June 14), or if you would just like to have another listen, we’ve uploaded it for you. The version below has simultaneous English translation.Naturally, there was plenty of reaction from all quarters in the region. In the edit below, you can listen to comments from Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (an advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas); Judy Kramer, a resident of the Ofra settlement; Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri; and a number of residents of Gaza. Some of the soundbites are in Arabic. If you want to follow along with an English translation, click here.This final edit includes more reaction from settlers and Palestinians (both in the West Bank and Gaza). Also included are some interesting comments from Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev who talks about Israeli government efforts to reach “understandings” about settlements with the Obama administration. Another comment comes from Arieh Eldad, a lawmaker from the right-wing Israeli National Unity Party, who says Netanyahu made a “very dangerous decision” in accepting the notion of a Palestinian state.(Again, some of the Palestinian soundbites are in Arabic. You can follow along in English here.)Maybe we missed you during our Netanyahu speech reaction coverage? If we did, please let us know your thoughts. Write a comment below.
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