Oil Spill

 

I follow the daily updates of the oil spill going on in the Gulf of Mexico much like when I was eight years old, and I watched the Wizard of Oz from from behind my father’s chair. Every so often he’d say, “Okay you can come out now the witch is gone.” Then I’d peak my head around and see if he was telling the truth. When the coast was clear, I’d sit by his side, terrified, waiting for that evil witch to rear her ugly green face again. BP has now replaced Margaret Hamilton in my nightmares; except now black sludge has replaced green grease paint and poppy fields are floating discs of oil.

BP CEO Tony Hayward

BP won’t say how much oil is in the reservoir below the failed well, saying it is too early in the exploration process to make such estimates. The president of American Association of Petroleum Geologist estimates that it is at least tens of millions of barrels. If the well was left unchecked, it would flow for years, he said. Deep sea offshore wells generally produce oil for 5 to 20 years. Ultimately, the reservoir would stop flowing not when it ran out of oil, but when the pressure above it (from 18,000 feet of water and drilling fluids) was greater than the pressure in the reservoir itself.

As the oil continues to leak, the danger is it will soil more sensitive Gulf marshes, he said. Worse, it could head to the Florida Keys, ruining the most pristine coral reefs in the United States — a prime breeding ground for hundreds if not thousands of species.

Beyond the Gulf, there is a danger the oil could get caught up in the Gulf Stream, which would send it up the eastern seaboard and ultimately end up as far north as Maine.

All of this would impact local economies and wildlife.

I pray every night for a miracle, hoping that some wizard will come up with a solution that will end this disaster as BP’s flying monkeys swirl around the well aimlessly trying to get it from flowing oil. Right now best estimates say the oil will flow well past August.