Oil Spill Containment Dome Delivered

A massive containment dome arrived at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. By Monday, BP hopes the 4-story tall iron funnel will start containing approximately 85% of the oil being released.

 Also on Thursday, the first major amounts of oil began to touch the coast of Freemason Island, south of the Chandeleur Islands. Only a thin sheen of oil has begun to brush upon the coastal lands, but visual reports have been cited.

BP hopes the containment dome will be funneling a majority of the oil being released into the Gulf of Mexico by Monday, but the placement and use of the technology is unprecedented.

According to a BBC News article, BP officials and engineers are worried about the next four days. Bob Fryar, the senior vice president of operations in Angola for BP, said “This is new technology…It has never been done before.”

The oil, if successfully funneled up to the surface, will be stored on a ship called the Discoverer Enterprise. The ship can hold up to 5 million gallons of oil. The oil will then be transported and processed for use.

20 of the world’s largest skimming ships are present in the Gulf to help deter the oil from the coastline and improved weather is allowing for additional controlled burns. Each burn will theoretically destroy thousands of gallons of oil and, so far, the burns have been successful.

Hopes of a working solution are high with the new containment dome, but this procedure has never been done under such complicated circumstances. Engineers worry that the oil could freeze up in the pipeline, the weather could affect the success of the procedure, or the mixture of gas, oil and water could be explosive.

The next few days will reveal the true severity of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

WKRG.com News