More Testing Needed For Giant Gulf Oil Skimmer

NEW ORLEANS — Choppy seas have temporarily foiled attempts to see if a giant oil skimmer can be a silver bullet for cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Bob Grantham, spokesman for Taiwanese shipping firm TMT, says the company's vessel, dubbed "A Whale," will need further testing off the coast of Louisiana.

Grantham said in an e-mail Monday that conditions in the Gulf over the weekend were too choppy to get definitive answers on the vessel's capability.

Billed as the world's largest oil skimmer, A Whale is supposed to be able to suck up 21 million gallons of oily water per day.

Grantham says testing will resume as soon as the water is calmer.

Comments

[digger0007]

01:21 PM on 07/07/2010

Why is BP wasting time on this "white elephant" when Costner's centrifugal separators have proven to work amazingly well?

What is the cost of this gargantuan? It must operates on tons of fuel every day.

What is the cost of 300 of the separators? They can be distributed throughout the shallow waters near the coast, where the clean up is truly and desperately needed.

Somebody needs to kick some b@#$ out there. Stop fooling around and get to work removing every gallon of toxic stuff out of the water. There is no short cut.

[Lu4PUMA]

11:05 PM on 07/11/2010

There are simply not enough skimmers. You have to understand how huge this is. And they are not as effective at skimming the oil at the source because BP has been dumping dispersants in it to try to "muddy the waters" about just how much oil they are blowing into the gulf.

The need to get enough skimming capacity out there and stop the use of those toxic dispersants.

There are a dozen ways A Whale could be used to assist the mitigation efforts.

I admire those guys for getting out there and trying. I think they deserve a big thanks.

[whitebeach]

10:18 AM on 07/07/2010

It makes me wonder just how calm the seas have to be in order for this thing to function. If a flat calm is needed, the Whale is apt to be out there a long, long time before it gathers much oil. The heralded Dutch skimming rigs that everyone was shouting about also require calm waters. The lesson seems to be that there just aren't any magic bullets.

[jws2346]

09:22 AM on 07/07/2010

Why am I seeing this all knowing armchair quarterbacking now? Why didn't they do (the experts, what a joke) this before the weather conditions got so bad? It's not like they didn't know..

[UncleHomer]

09:59 AM on 07/07/2010

When has the Gulf of Mexico not been "rough" during this blow out. The reason oil got past the booms and made shore was because of rough water.

I'm really interested in seeing if this ship can work. I'm not interested in partisan politics that simply seeks to place blame, on everyone except who actually caused this disaster.

[quad11]

09:09 AM on 07/07/2010

The link to "lead researcher says we could have had effective containment by now" leads to this story, which implies no such thing. Was it a mis-directed link, or just another ridiculously misleading headline?

[Kam Neebing]

09:03 AM on 07/07/2010

Disaster By Design. It looks that way to me.

[SempeConfucious]

09:52 AM on 07/07/2010

Let no disaster go to waste. This is opportunity to control and restrict by the administration.

[holierthandow]

08:12 AM on 07/07/2010

There should have been a relief well (or two) safely in place before they opened the main well.

[Deborah Beck]

07:50 AM on 07/07/2010

I've been all for being patient, I didn't think Obama should do anything to own the well. NOW? I think this needs to be federalized. It's been obvious from the beginning that BP was going to lie and cover up.

[LouisGA]

06:34 AM on 07/07/2010

Why is Dopey W. Bush, with all the experience he had in the private sector running his companies into the ground and begging his dad to rescue him, not coming to America's aide.
He could teach clean up crews to read "My pet oil spill" or show BP executives how to take long vacations, that should do the trick.

[demshuff]

09:04 AM on 07/07/2010

Dopey doesn't know about the oil spill; no more daily briefings, you know.

[SempeConfucious]

09:58 AM on 07/07/2010

I think it is all of Texas's fault. Isn't that where the oil boom really started. Then we can blame the world for wanting it. Oh, wait, then I would have to blame myself. We need to keep on message - it is Bush's fault. We can blame our economic collapse and $130T is unfunded obligations on Bush as well, along with the flood in Tennessee, Lindsay Lohan going to prison, and what ever else. It is a shame we can't blame Bush for 9/11 since from posts like these, you have to in office longer than Obama.

[curtisraymond]

06:25 AM on 07/07/2010

Test it on the job!

[quad11]

09:15 AM on 07/07/2010

And later discover that it actually worsens the problem by pumping inadequately cleaned water back into the gulf in a dispersed form? These on-the-fly fixes (dispersants, separator ships, dredged barrier islands, etc.) can cause more damage than good. They're right to test it, and can't help the weather. As to why it wasn't done earlier, this tanker has been undergoing the retrofit process for some time--it doesn't happen overnight like in the movies.

[rougebaisers]

04:18 AM on 07/07/2010

More testing? Really? More testing. Don't they mean is it in the budget? Is ANYTHING in the budget any more, except contracts for war profiteers and other criminals?

[Pennsanic]

07:02 AM on 07/07/2010

I think they just want to see what the thing actually does--it's more or less a prototype.

[showtel]

03:28 AM on 07/07/2010

Here's how the Whale works - posted here on huf po last week or so

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/02/a-whale-largest-oil-skimm_n_633621.html

[LooseCaboose]

03:18 AM on 07/07/2010

Now,...the REAL song and dance is gonna come in about two weeks if they miss the pie plate with the Annie Oakley Drill, orrrrrr,.....if they end-up with three wells all blowing 2,000 lbs psi and can;t get the "mud pack" to slow the DH Main Hole enough to except the crete.

[xlntcat]

03:23 AM on 07/07/2010

That makes no sense whatsoever. It is clear that you are totall illiterate regarding the entire process and have been no where near a drilling operation.

[Jeannette Harris]

04:13 AM on 07/07/2010

Instead of throwing out perjoratives, why not explain *why* that makes no sense? There are two more wells being drilled and there is certainly a possibility of accident with each one in various steps of that process as there were with the original one that has been so badly contaminating the Gulf now and its shores for over two months -- despite BP having proclaimed on record in its application a ZERO PROBABILITY of failure or accident or harm to the environment. ZERO. There was also ZERO PROBABILITY the Titanic would sink regardless of what it encountered on its travels. It was UNSINKABLE. ZERO PROBABILITY. Where do you see ZERO PROBABILITY of a problem developing in the process of drilling these two additional wells and attempting to connect them tightly to the one now gushing at ZERO PROBABILITY for over 70 days now and over 2 MILLION gallons daily????

[Mum]

05:24 AM on 07/07/2010

The jargon may be a little loose (after all, the poster is "Loose" Caboose, but I think he/she pretty much nails it. What LooseCaboose has to say mirrors what has been expressed by other people also, although in less colorful and metaphorical terms.

[Bobio]

01:26 AM on 07/07/2010

I like the idea that they are trying something new. I don't really understand how it works. Anyone got a link?

[James Croteau]

03:26 AM on 07/07/2010

Don't remember which network did a report (maybe MSNBC) but basically the ship lets seawater into the below tanks, oil floats to the top and is skimmed out, and then the cleaned seawater is forced out of the tanks. Repeat.

[Ddayv825]

12:50 AM on 07/07/2010

I agree- BP is playing a waiting game. If it all drifts out of the Gulf they would say " see it's gone "
That really is not the point. Liability should be imposed on oil released. They know this , that is why they under etimated and have delayed any cleanup. It will travel elsewhere and they will claim it's not due to them. Somebody has to call them out at their game plan.

[curtisraymond]

06:30 AM on 07/07/2010

They can start collecting/counting on the gulf floor where the dispersants polluted what little bit of oxygen is left and then follow the currents. And I agree that someone has to call bs on their whole strategy.

[PaiaGirl]

12:32 AM on 07/07/2010

Right now it is cheaper for BP to pay the fine than to pay the costs associated with picking up the oil.

List the liability cap.

Make the fines escalating: $4,500/bbl for the first 1,000 bbl
$9,000/bbl for the next 1,000bbl
$18,000/bbl for the next 1,000 bbl
and so on.

At some point it will reach the level where BP will see their cost benefit analysis tilt towards getting SERIOUS about cleaning up the oil.

[langej]

01:02 AM on 07/07/2010

Sorry, your fine scheme would have already used up all of the money on the planet.