What is Offshore Oil Drilling?

The world's proven offshore oil reserves account for 25.2% of the earth's total oil reserves, and natural gas reserves account for 26.1%. 55% to 70% of offshore oil reserves are within the continental shelf with a water depth of less than 200 meters. In 1897, the United States first hit the first offshore oil well with a wooden trestle on the west coast of California.

Offshore oil well

In 1920, Venezuela drilled a wooden platform on Lake Maracaibo and discovered a large oil field. In 1922, the Soviet Union carried out a trestle near the Baku Oilfield in the Caspian Sea.

Oil wells at the bottom of the deepwater horizon of an oil rig sunk in the Gulf of Mexico continued to leak on the 28th. The U.S. disaster relief department decided on the same day to ignite a part of the leaked crude oil on the Gulf of Mexico to prevent the oil slick from drifting to the United States coast.

Ignition on offshore oil wells

The oil burning operation started at 1700 local time on the 28th (6 pm Beijing time on the 29th). The U.S. Coast Guard and BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon, dispatched several ships to operate in the densest areas of oil slicks, trapping leaked crude oil in a 150-meter-long water barrier.

The oil will then be moved farther away (from the U.S. coast) and ignited there in a controlled manner, and the U.S. Coast Guard and BP Joint Disaster Relief Center said in a statement that the first burn would continue for approximately In one hour, thousands of liters of crude oil can be consumed.

Today is just to see if this experimental combustion can be completed, Coast Guard spokeswoman Sheriben Iesau said: They (rescue workers) will use an accelerator to ignite the oil, and it is impossible to throw a match.

Greg Pollock, head of the Texas Department of Homeland Affairs's oil spill department, believes relief workers are likely to use gelatinous gasoline and oil-soaked cloth strips to ignite the slick. After the oil slick burns, a hardened tar ball is left on the sea surface, which is easy to salvage.

According to Ben-Iesau, if the oil-burning effect is good that day, relief workers may carry out a larger-scale oil-burning operation.

Offshore oil well threatens the coast

The deep-water horizon is located in the sea about 82 kilometers southeast of Venice, Louisiana, USA. It exploded at night on the 20th, causing a fire and sinking about 36 hours later. Oil wells at the bottom of the drilling platform have continued to leak oil since the 24th, and about 150,000 liters of crude oil flow into the Gulf of Mexico every day.

BP had previously tried to activate the leak-stop device with an underwater robot but was unsuccessful. The current area of oil slick has reached 74,000 square kilometers, and the perimeter of the slick edge is about 970 kilometers.

Robert Barham, a Louisiana State government official responsible for wildlife and fisheries, said earlier on the 28th that oil slicks are likely to drift to a wildlife sanctuary by night on the 30th, and to Bretton Bay on May 1, 5 On the 2nd, he drifted to the Chandelur Islands.

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Sutters said on the 28th that the burning of oil was intended to protect the ecologically fragile areas of the US coast.

According to Pollock, it is very important to remove oil slicks on the water surface. Burning oil can effectively remove most of the oil.

The Associated Press reported that in an oil spill in 1993, relief workers used oil burning methods to remove more than 50% of the oil slick collected.

Environmentally sound?

The Joint Disaster Relief Center said in a statement that the oil burning operation will not affect any populated area and is expected to have no effect on marine mammals and turtles.

According to Pollock, the residues of petroleum combustion will not attach to the surface of animals, and the burning of oil will have little impact on the environment.

Ben-Iesau said that oil-burning seas are far away from the coast, and we don't want anyone to be on the leeward side of the smoke.

However, AFP commented that although the purpose of burning oil is to avoid leaking fuel to pollute the coast, this approach will produce a large amount of toxic black smoke and sloppy residues, which has already caused pollution to the environment.

The US Environmental Protection Agency will monitor air quality during the oil burn operation. The Joint Disaster Relief Center said that once the air quality exceeds the standard, it will stop burning oil immediately.

The Associated Press reports that disaster relief efforts are costly now and are likely to exceed $ 1 billion. BP said that in order to curb the crude oil spill, the company will spend $ 6 million every day, and it will cost another $ 100 million to reduce pressure wells. The U.S. Coast Guard has yet to publicly pay for the disaster.