Divers searching for oil in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida discovered that the source was a one-foot diameter pipeline. This pipe was displaced from the ocean floor and then broken open.
Talos Energy, a Houston-based company, stated in a Sunday evening statement that the pipeline they have destroyed does not belong to them.
According to the company, it is working with U.S. Coast Guard officials and other federal agencies to coordinate the response.
In the same area, two additional 4-inch pipelines were identified that are still open but appear to be abandoned. Although the company did not specify whether oil was leaking from these smaller pipelines, satellite images reviewed Saturday by The Associated Press showed at least three distinct slicks in that area. The largest drifted more than a dozen (more than 19 km) eastward along Gulf Coast.
The AP first reported Wednesday that aerial photos showed a miles-long brown and black oil slick spreading about 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana. The pipe is located in shallow water at 34 feet (10 metres) depth.
Talos stated that the rate at which oil was appearing on the surface has slowed in the past 48 hours, and that no new heavy-black crude had been discovered in the past day.
The spillage appears to have stayed out to sea so far and has not affected the Louisiana coast. It is unknown how much oil was present in the water.
Saturday’s Coast Guard statement stated that its response teams were monitoring satellite imagery and reports to determine the extent of the discharge. It is located in Bay Marchand Block 4. According to Talos, the company previously leased Bay Marchand Block 5 but stopped production in 2017. The company also stated that it plugged its wells. All pipeline infrastructure was removed by 2019.
The area around the spillage has been drilled for oil for many decades. Federal leasing maps reveal that it has a network of old pipelines, plugged wells, and abandoned platforms along with more modern infrastructure.
Talos retained Clean Gulf Associates to help with the cleanup. Clean Gulf, a nonprofit oil-spill response cooperative that works with the energy exploration and production industry, has had two 95-foot vessels at the scene of the spill since Wednesday attempting to contain and recover crude from the water.
Following the Category 4 hurricane that struck Port Fourchon last week, the Bay Marchand spillage is just one of many environmental hazards federal and state regulators are monitoring in Louisiana and the Gulf. This region is a major producer center for the U.S. petroleum industry.
The AP also first reported Wednesday on images from a National Atmospheric and Oceanic Survey that showed extensive flooding and what appeared to be petroleum in the water at the sprawling Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery located along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.
The Environmental Protection Agency commissioned a specially equipped survey aircraft to fly above the refinery and other industrial sites in the region most affected by the hurricane’s 150-mph winds (240-kph).
According to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, a state team that visited the Alliance Refinery saw a heavy oil spillage and recommended booms or absorbent pads. The levee that was supposed to protect the plant had broken, allowing floodwaters from flooding the plant during the storm and back out after the surge receded.
Officials from the state environmental department said that there is no estimate as yet of how much oil may have leaked from the Phillips 66 refinery.
