UNDERWATER ROBOTS dived to the ocean floor yesterday in a new effort to staunch the 42,000 gallons (159,000 litres) of oil a day being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico in America’s worst offshore oil rig spill in 40 years.
The robots will attempt to activate a “blowout preventer”, a 450-tonne valve on the ocean floor that offers the only quick option for stemming the flow.
Industry officials acknowledge it could take months to contain the leak from a well on the ocean floor – unless the robot crews succeed. It could take another day before it is clear whether the robots have got the job done.
The US coastguard discovered the leak on Saturday, two days after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig leased by BP sank off the coast of Louisiana after an explosion last Tuesday, with 11 workers missing and presumed dead.
What initially seemed to be a manageable spill is now rated by the US coastguard as a serious environmental problem, with 1,000 barrels of oil being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico.
The spill, which occurred just as senators were preparing to roll out energy and climate proposals, has deepened debate about US energy policies.
In an effort to win support for the proposals, Barack Obama had come out in favour of more oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
High winds and big waves forced clean-up vessels, which had been trying to skim oil from the sea’s surface, to stay in port at the weekend. By yesterday morning, the oil slick had grown into a 1,500 sq km expanse off the coast of Louisiana. Under present conditions it will take three days before the oil washes up on the fragile wetlands of the Louisiana coast.
The plan put into operation yesterday called for four underwater robots to dive 1,500m below the surface to try to activate the system of pipes and valves that sits next to the well on the ocean floor.
BP said it was the first time such an operation had been mounted. "It is a slow process," said Ron Rybarczyk, a BP spokesman. "If you can visualise it, it's like robotic arms doing something outside the space station. It is operating something with a mechanical claw on it that grasps things and turns things and adjusts equipment way down at the floor of the ocean." – (Guardian service)