OCTOBER 9, 20152:24PM
Smoke billows from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Picture: Derick E. Hingle/Bloomberg
AUSTRALIANS watched in disbelief from half a world away when oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days five years ago.
We watched, like the rest of the world, as sea birds drowned under the weight of thick crude and coastlines of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida turned a deep, dark brown.
If new research is anything to go by, Australia could experience a disaster of its own, the scale of which this country has never seen.
Independent research commissioned by the Wilderness Society shows if oil leaked from a planned drill site in the Great Australian Bight, it could spread west to Perth and as far east as Tasmania or even New Zealand.
Even a “low-flow” spill would devastate the fishing and tourism industries and threaten one of the greatest “havens” for marine life found anywhere in the world.
The research was conducted by ocean scientist Laurent Lebreton and endorsed by Flinders University Professor of Oceanography, Matthias Tomczak.
The findings are a blow for BP which plans to drill the first of four wells 250km southwest of Ceduna as early as next year.
“We don’t need a Gulf of Mexico disaster in the Great Australian Bight,” the Wilderness Society’s Peter Owen said.
“A Gulf-scale spill could destroy marine environments in the Bight and oil contamination could even reach as far as New Zealand, with a 10 per cent chance of hitting the South Island within six months.”
Scientific computer mapping of a BP oil spill along the South Australian coastline with the darkest colours showing areas most likely to be affected and blue areas the least.Source:Supplied
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
There’s money to be made at sea but there’s money to be lost, too. BP knows the risks all too well.
Eleven men lost their lives in 2010 when the Gulf of Mexico oil rig exploded. Black smoke filled the air and more than 4.9 million barrels of oil escaped into the otherwise pristine waters.
Communities along the US coastline were devastated and many are still suffering the effects of the disaster.
For its failure to prevent the spill and for the clean-up effort BP paid $10 billion to businesses. It was fined by state, federal and local governments in five states and faces fines in the vicinity of $20 billion. There are manslaughter charges, too.
Five years on the folks at BP are at it again but they know another Gulf-style spill would bankrupt them.
“Game over,” BP Australia’s managing director Claire Fitzpatrick said earlier this year.
The drilling off the Great Australian Bight is expected to begin — all things going to plan — in the summer of 2016-2017. Each of the four wells will take between 45 and 170 days to drill.
Before that can happen BP must secure approval from the federal government and its environmental monitoring agency NOPSEMA — the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority. That process is well underway.
The Great Australian Bight is where BP plans to drill for oil starting in 2016.Source:News Corp Australia
HOW BAD COULD IT GET?
The Wilderness Society claims a spill on the lower end of the scale would see 5000 barrels of oil a day spew into the ocean. Under that scenario, the oil would likely reach the Western Australia coast and parts of Victoria.
A worst-case scenario spill similar to the Gulf of Mexico spill — about 50,000 barrels of oil a day — would see oil reach the Bass Straight and there’s a one-in-10 chance it would also reach the shore of New Zealand’s South Island.
“The modelling shows that an oil spill in the Great Australian Bight could result in the closure of fisheries in the Bight, Bass Strait and even the Tasman Sea. Even a low-flow oil spill could impact all of southern Australia’s coast, from Western Australia right across to Victoria through Bass Strait and around Tasmania,” Mr Owen said.
“In summer it’s highly likely a low-flow spill would reach WA’s Twilight Marine Reserve within four months, posing a serious risk to this important southern Right Whale calving area.”
BP has its own data. A spokeswoman told news.com.au the oil giant doesn’t “plan to have an oil spill but we will be prepared in the unlikely event that it occurs”.
BP’s worst-case scenario differs slightly from the research released on Friday by the Wilderness Society. It shows that oil could reach the coastlines of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia “within weeks” but “not all at once”.
Modelling from BP shows a spill would reach coastlines across the south of the country.
Mr Owen says the problem for BP is that conditions in the Bight are far more treacherous than they were in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Bight waves are 4-6 six times bigger than the waves in the Gulf of Mexico around the time of BP’s disaster. The Bight is also far more windy.”
He said BP’s oil containment response system is also “located on the other side of the world in Houston” and equipment to cap a well would have to come from Norway or Singapore.
BP’s spokeswoman told news.com.au that’s simply not the case.
“BP has a number of response systems ready to be deployed in the event of loss of well control,” she said.
“Equipment will be available in Adelaide which will be used in first response.” After that she says the Australian Marine Oil Spill Centre will deploy equipment to “clear debris, survey the site and conduct preparations” for capping the well.
The company says a detailed analysis of the entire southern coastline has been commissioned and details of a tactical response plan are still being hammered out.
Nobody wants to see a spill in the Great Australian Bight like the world witnessed in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP says plans are in place should a similar event occur and that drilling “is a demonstrably well regulated and safe industry”.
The Wilderness Society says the worst-case scenario — even if it’s just a “what if?” — is not worth the risk.
NOPSEMA, which regulates the health and safety, structural integrity and environmental management of all offshore petroleum facilities in Australian waters, will make its initial ruling on BPs bid to drill within 20 days. The Environment Minister does not get a say.
The organisation can give the go-ahead, reject the proposal or request BP provide additional information.
The oil rig — The Ocean Great White — is being built in South Korea at a cost of $755 million to be deployed off the coast of Australia.Source:Supplied
1 comments:
Loved it. Some really good points in there. Cheers, have a great day
Oil Clean Commissioning Australia
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