Houston company accepts responsibility for oil spill off Louisiana
 

A Houston-based oil company has accepted responsibility for a mysterious spill near Grand Isle, although it says it remains "surprised" that what it thought was a minor discharge from a long dormant well could have produced miles-long slicks.
http://media.nola.com/2010_gulf_oil_...0666-small.jpgView full size
Several hours after The Times-Picayune broke the story that state agents had traced the oil back to a well operated by Anglo-Suisse Offshore Partners, the Houston-based company put out a statement late Tuesday night.
It acknowledged that it was informed by the Coast Guard that it may be responsible for the spill, which has sent emulsified oil onto Louisiana shores yet again.
Anglo-Suisse also accepted responsibility for cleanup, even though the statement also said company officials were surprised by the Coast Guard's "suggestion" because the well is "non-producing and has been monitored closely for the last six months."
The well is one the company was plugging for permanent abandonment, in the West Delta Block 117 west-southwest of Southwest Pass.
In three reports to the Coast Guard since Friday, the company had reported that less than 5 gallons of crude had escaped. But state Wildlife and Fisheries agents traced the oil to the Anglo-Suisse well at its Platform E facility on Monday afternoon and found a crew on a boat trying to close in the well with a remotely operated submarine.
The company said it had reconnected the wellhead structure Tuesday morning and fully shut it in by 8:30 p.m.
The company said it was the 12th well it owned in the area to undergo plugging and abandonment operations. All of those wells were shut in after Hurricane Katrina caused damage to platforms and haven't produced any oil since, the company said. Crews have been monitoring the site since September and didn't report any oil discharge until the end of last week, the statement said.

Sweet my fishing grounds hit for a second spring in a row.... A-holes

Oh, these guys are toast!!!!!!!!! Failure to make notification w/in 1 hour of release..........Can you say "Rectal Bleed"!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is another link to an article on the issue.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...ill-determined

I know these guy's not much money there. Will be interesting to see what happens. They don't have BP money for sure if this is a major clean up operation it won't be good. I Bet they will go away.

Don't they have insurance for times like these or, is there no such luck due to the high risk factor?:confused:

The original company that drilled the well is responsible for plugging and abandoning it. It is called "cradle to grave law". So if this company bought an old platform, had a spill and walked away, it might go bankrupt, but the original operator is ultimately responsible.
Also, every well that is drilled has a $$$ amount put into an account to cover costs of P&Aing the well if the gov't has to take over. This account had billions in it at one time, not sure if the gov't took it out and used it for anything else.

They have insurance for the platform when the hurricane took it down. That money should cover the P&A, but prolly no insurance for environmental issues due to negligance.

just when they were starting to give permits. damn it!

http://www.katc.com/news/coast-guard...n-grande-isle/

Just watched the local news....the weather man was showing a nasa image that possibly covers a 100 square mile oil slick all the way to the cocodrie area. But if you read the link the coast gaurd is saying it is confined to the grand isle area. This sounds very fishy,who do you belive? The video is also on the link I posted on the right side of the page.

Yeah Montauk, both seem to be government agencies even though only one is confirmed! Who's the lesser "lyre" in this situation?!

News around the industry this morning is that these guys did not report the release and thus were in violation. Now, we can only speculate why that is, but I can assume someone screwed up and did not think the release was that bad, or the release was subsea and they did not realize that the well bore was breached until the oil surfaced a few miles away. However, I would venture to say that they became aware of the release on the surface before the LDWF made a visit to them, maybe they were making plans on how to mitigate or reprot it, since it was already making landfall in Grand Isle. Who knows? I can tell you that their is "rumor" of possible arrest warrants for PIC on the P&A job on location that is responsible for reporting and managing the site. This will not be pretty for him or the company he works for!!!!!!!!

On another note, this spill can not be compared to the BP spill for many reasons, mostly the fact that it is no longer releasing hydrocarbons, and the well is in the process of P&A operations. Yes, they will have cleanup, but it will be fairly easy since it closer to the beach, and we have rough/south winds. This oil will emulsify and from what I was told this morning, the majority of the visible sheen was "light rainbow". Anyone with any history of working around hydrocarbons and water knows that only a small amount will make a huge "rainbow" sheen. Several pilots reported only an hour ago that it is all but gone and the "sheen" is apparently very light, similar to a diesel sheen. That is great news and looks like this one will be wrapped up quickly.

Whoever has the "P&A Liability" determined in the sale of the property is responsible. It is not necessarily the original company that drilled it. We negotiate and handle transfer of properties all the time, and that is a big part of negotiations. Sometimes a platform is at the end of it's production life cycle and is still producing. Some companies can come in a do re-entry work to stimulate the formations, but the payback may not be enough to cover P&A cost. Thus, the original well owner would be responsible for the P&A operations, unless the purchaser agress to it, which would de-value the facility greatly. It's all about the "deal" just like buying a house.

Amen to that my brother!!!!!

P&A funds go into an Escrow account and is there for P&A. Spill mitigrafion does not fall under P&A to my understanding that falls to the operator. Oil spill response and mitigating is totally different from P&A. Lots of companies come in and take mature properties for the P&A work and to operate the properies as long as they are economically viable. Exp Maritec they are an operating susidarary of Tetratec which is a P&A company. They come in and take over a property, the mone in the P&A escrow account goes with the property.
Maratec operates the facility as long as they can the Tetratec comes in and does the P&A then they either recycle the old facility or scrap it. They make money all the way around.

Danm IPhone keeps changing my spelling any misspelling is not my fault! Lol

Great info FFF you know your stuff

lol....they said it was a 5 gallon leak.....

Yeah your right about that!!!

Bullshat!