More Oil Spews Into Gulf After Cap Problem

Posted in BP British Petroleum,Deepwater Horizon,Environment,Gulf Coast,Louisiana Maritime News,Transocean on June 23, 2010

NEW ORLEANS – Gas and oil continue to leak from the containment cap at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site gushing more oil into the Gulf.

Gas and oil continue to leak from the containment cap at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico in this frame grab captured from a BP live video feed June 18, 2010. The first of two relief wells being drilled to plug the massive Gulf of Mexico leak is within 200 feet (60 metres) of the blown-out well, a BP executive said on Friday. REUTERS/BP/Handout (UNITED STATES)

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says an underwater robot bumped into the venting system. That sent gas rising through a vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming in the cap. This incident has forced BP to remove a cap that was containing some of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Allen says the cap has been removed and crews are checking to see if crystals have formed before putting it back on. In the meantime, a different system is still burning oil on the surface.

Before the problem with the containment cap, it had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in the previous 24 hours. Another 438,000 gallons was burned.

The current worst-case estimate of what’s spewing into the Gulf is about 2.5 million gallons a day.

Source: Yahoo