Oil rigs in a hurricane...

[FrodeMk3]

What is the difference between an oil tanker rupturing and spilling its contents to what a platform spills when it leaks?  I would like to know. Sometimes we need to take risks. Limiting the damage to those is a big plus.

Drill and makes us energy independant please. Would love to see the world reaction to us not needing anything they offer.

This one was 3.5 million barrels. http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/ixtoc1.htm

Compare it to some of the other spills' here:http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/book_shelf/26_spilldb.pdf

The only spill I saw that was worse than the one in the Gulf of Mexico was Saddam's intentional spilling during GWI.

The Exxon Valdez was only 240,000 bbls. by comparison.

What happened with the IXTOC platform is that when it's well that it was drilling blew out, They could not get it under control-even when divers' went down to close the BOP (Blow-Out Preventer.) Despite efforts to pump mud in the hole, and to drill relief wells, the well blew for 9 months, all that time at between 30,000 to 10,000 barrels per day. A supertanker, at least, only spills' what it happens to have in the holds at the time.

We still have a ways to go perfecting offshore technology. And until energy companies' can demonstrate that they can minimize any kind of disaster, you're still gonna have opposition to drilling in certain places.

[Baitman]

This one was 3.5 million barrels. http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/ixtoc1.htm

That was quite of a spill. They did absolutely everything wrong they could have.

I think since all of the accidents in the early years the drilling industry has learned quite a bit.

Any time a well is drilled or in production it has the potential to have environmental factors help cause a disaster.

When a tanker leaks there is a specific amount of oil that may be spilled. When a well blow out or a production tower is damaged the oil will keep flowing until it is shut off.

BTW there is probably more gas spilled from gas stations via leaky tank and piping than from the large tankers. I have yet to run across a station that doesn't have any gas spilled.

Dry cleaners have chemicals that are harder to clean out of the groundwater than gas or diesel. The petrol floats and the dry cleaners chemicals sinks.