BP’s Lies About Methane And Oil Plumes Exposed
Posted by Alexander Higgins - June 22, 2010 at 11:28 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Calling out BP on their outright lies has become an exercise in futility.
It seems that Government, and at points the media, is just as happy to mindlessly echo the massive campaign of disinformation being dished out by BP as if it were absolute fact.
That would signify that it is time to change gears and go after the press for continuing to disservice the public by publishing BP’s lip service.
The press needs to be held to standard of journalistic integrity that scolds them for publishing information released by BP without vetting that information first.
In my last post, Sea Life Flocks To Coast To Avoid The BP Gulf Oil Spill As Millions of Dead Fish Float Ashore, I did just that.
In that post the Associated Press labeled the mass exodus of deep sea life swarming to clean shallow coastal waters in order to avoid the oil, methane and toxic dispersants as both strange and unusual.
I find nothing strange or unusual about helpless sea life fleeing toxic waters in order to survive.
Now we have the the latest round of lies coming from BP.
They are denying the existence of plumes of methane that scientists are now finding all over the Gulf of Mexico in concentrations up to 10,000 times higher than normal.
The headlines currently in the press about these methane plumes are smack full of the same story line that was floating around in the media when scientists first reported that they discovered the underwater plumes of oil which where unsurprisingly denied by both BP and the Federal Government.
Case in point, on June 18th the AP released a story about the massive amounts of methane now being found in the Gulf and reported that scientists are warning that natural gas found at these concentrations border the levels that create “dead zones” where aquatic life can not survive.
Once again the press watered down the presence of such high levels of methane that scientists are calling “the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history”.
We now know that the release of high levels of methane was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs yet the associated press allows BP to deny existence of methane and that it is coming from the leaking Macondo well with no further investigation into BP’s denial.
BP told the Associated Press “The gas that escapes, what we don’t flare, goes up to the surface and is gone” and further stated the data collected by BP and the Federal Government does not indicate high levels of methane being found in the Gulf of Mexico.
Yet anyone watching the BP live spill cam can see that their are massive amounts of methane being released from the gushing well and none of that gas can be seen bubbling from the surface as BP claims.
If this where a blowout in shallow water, like the 1993 Actinia blowout in Vietnam, then the methane would indeed reach the surface and we would also see massive bubbles escaping into the air just like we did during the Actinia blowout.
Observe for yourself. Go to around 1:45 in the video of the blowout below and see exactly what happens when released methane surfaces.
It is interesting note that we observe no such phenomenon from the BP Gulf Oil Leak.
To the contrary, it is well known to BP, the press, and the Federal government that methane gas when released from deep water blowout like the one we are experiencing now does not make it to the surface.
But don’t just take my word for it, I refer you to a study performed in 2000 by the Federal Government and many oil companies, including BP, showing that when methane gas is released in blowouts deeper than 800 meters the methane is entirely absorbed into the water column before it can surface.
While the Associated Press was made made aware of this study when BP and the Federal Government first denied the existence of underwater plumes of oil they fail to mention the study in their news article and instead choose to allow BP to continue lying to the public.
To be fair, the press is trying in presenting both sides of the story by including BP’s comments.
But the failure to mention this study and the fact that it is widely known that the statements being made by BP are outright lies only aids BP in covering up of the true extent of damage from the public.
It also prevents the dangers being presented by this catastrophe from being handled appropriately.
The Truth About Underwater Plumes Of Oil and Methane
The study called Project “Deep Spill” was first a black eye for BP and the Federal Government when they claimed it didn’t make sense that there where huge plumes oil floating in the ambient currents beneath the surface of the sea because as they put it “oil floats”.
Project “Deep Spill” is now hitting them with another black eye and debunks the lie that the methane gas being released from the well is floating to the surface and not being absorbed into the sea.
The study analyzed a wide range of controlled releases at different depths below the sea surface of different types of oil found all over world to help better understand the flow of hydrocarbons released from a deepwater blowout.
One of the studies, called DeepBlow, released 10,000 barrels of oil per day at a depth of 800 meters which is less than half of the depth of the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
The basic findings of that study has been recreated by scientists from the University of North Carolina.
In their research the scientists simulated of the formation of the underwater oil plumes that are created during deepwater blowouts.
Watch The University of North Caroline Simulation Shows How Oil Released Underwater Forms Plumes
While the University of North Carolina simulation gives you a basic understanding of how deepwater blowouts create oil plumes it does not fully account for all the findings of Project “Deep Spill”.
In particular the final report of Project “Deep Spill” found:
- Only 2% of the oil released in a deepwater blowout may actually make it to the surface. That’s as little as 2% naturally without the use of dispersants. Add dispersants into the equation and it could be less then one percent of oil that makes it to the surface.
- None of the methane released from the deepwater blowout made it to the surface. The study found that released natural gas may dissolve completely within the water column if it is released from a deep enough depth relative to the gas flow rate.
From the study of the 800 meter release:
Echo sounders provided efficient tracking of oil and gas releases in the field and showed that the gas was completely dissolved before it could surface.
DeepBlow does not include hydrate kinetics, and hence, under hydrate forming conditions, the model predicts solid hydrate particles. Not only is the mass transfer from such particles slower than from gas bubbles, but also hydrate density is closer to that of water than that of natural gas, substantially reducing plume buoyancy.
- The buoyant parts of the oil released in a deepwater blowout split from the main plume within the first 200 meters of release. Those buoyant parts, which represent only a small portion of the total amount of oil, turn into small droplets that float to the surface.
Here is a graph from the study showing this process.
Deepwater oil release – Buoyancy particle separation graphHere is an image that captures the separation process
Deepwater oil release – Buoyancy particle separation simulation - Within the first 100 to 200 meters from the source of the release the the majority of the oil loses its buoyancy and stops rising. This majority of the oil remains submerged in an underwater plume that is then carried away by subsurface currents.
Deepwater oil plumes lose buoyancy within the first few couple hundred meters from release - Oil plumes released from deepwater plumes can travel for long distances. It is uncertain if or where they will surface unless they are tracked.
Deepwater oil plumes travel for long distances - A snippet from the study:
Based on the models, the experimental studies described in Section 2 and, to a limited extent, the DeepSpill experiment described in Section 3, an accidental release of oil and/or natural gas obeys the following staged pattern. Near the release, oil, gas and entrained seawater rise as a coherent buoyant plume. A few meters above a point-source release, ambient conditions begin to affect the plume: crossflows cause the plume to deflect in the downstream direction and stratification retards the upward plume motion by entrainment of ambient seawater. For cases similar to the DeepSpill experiment, at a height of order 100 m, these ambient effects arrest the plume, and cause the entrained seawater and the dispersed phases to separate. The arrest takes the form of a completely bent over plume in the case of a strong crossflow, or a trap height and intrusion in the case of a stratification dominated plume. At this terminal level, there is rapid spreading, either by advection from the crossflow or gravitational collapse of the intrusion layer, and the oil is distributed over a wide area. Above this trapping zone, the oil rises as individual droplets.
Here are the portions of the original AP article pertaining to the findings of the independent scientific community.
The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.
That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating “dead zones” where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.
“This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history,” Kessler said.
…
The small microbes that live in the sea have been feeding on the oil and natural gas in the water and are consuming larger quantities of oxygen, which they need to digest food. As they draw more oxygen from the water, it creates two problems. When oxygen levels drop low enough, the breakdown of oil grinds to a halt; and as it is depleted in the water, most life can’t be sustained.
The National Science Foundation funded research on methane in the Gulf amid concerns about the depths of the oil plume and questions what role natural gas was playing in keeping the oil below the surface, said David Garrison, a program director in the federal agency who specializes in biological oceanography.
“This has the potential to harm the ecosystem in ways that we don’t know,” Garrison said. “It’s a complex problem.”
In early June, a research team led by Samantha Joye of the Institute of Undersea Research and Technology at the University of Georgia investigated a 15-mile-long plume drifting southwest from the leak site. They said they found methane concentrations up to 10,000 times higher than normal, and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent or more.
The scientists found that some parts of the plume had oxygen concentrations just shy of the level that tips ocean waters into the category of “dead zone” — a region uninhabitable to fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine creatures.
Kessler has encountered similar findings. Since he began his on-site research on Saturday, he said he has already found oxygen depletions of between 2 percent and 30 percent in waters 1,000 feet deep.
Shallow waters are normally more susceptible to oxygen depletion. Because it is being found in such deep waters, both Kessler and Joye do not know what is causing the depletion and what the impact could be in the long- or short-term.
In an e-mail, Joye called her findings “the most bizarre looking oxygen profiles I have ever seen anywhere.”
It then goes onto water down the findings of the scientific community with the official response of the Federal Government and the response of BP.
In particular the response from the Federal Government was:
Representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration acknowledged that so much methane in the water could draw down oxygen levels and slow the breakdown of oil in the Gulf, but cautioned that research was still under way to understand the ramifications.
“We haven’t seen any long-term changes or trends at this point,” said Robert Haddad, chief of the agency’s assessment and restoration division.
Haddad said early efforts to monitor the spill had focused largely on the more toxic components of oil. However, as new data comes in, he said NOAA and other federal agencies will get a more accurate read on methane concentrations and the effects.
“The question is what’s going on in the deeper, colder parts of the ocean,” he said. “Are the (methane) concentrations going to overcome the amount of available oxygen? We want to make sure we’re not overloading the system.”
And the response from BP was:
BP spokesman Mark Proegler disputed Joye’s suggestion that the Gulf’s deep waters contain large amounts of methane, noting that water samples taken by BP and federal agencies have shown minimal underwater oil outside the spill’s vicinity.
“The gas that escapes, what we don’t flare, goes up to the surface and is gone,” he said.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Gooch, Alexander Higgins. Alexander Higgins said: BP's Lies About Methane And Oil Plumes Exposed http://bit.ly/bUtKHR [...]
I wonder whether the feds know something about the oil spill they are not releasing. Why else would they issue the injunction against all deep water drilling in the Gulf, given the amount of resistance this injunction produced? My feeling is the federal government is not very environmentally minded and their decision to temporarily ban deep water drilling must be motivated by some significant perceived threat.
This could be the reason why they are not excepting help from other countries, if a ship would go over one of these plumes it could sink like a ROCK !
: |
[...] aquí veremos que todo son mentiras, mentiras y más mentiras http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/06/22/bps-lies-about-methane-and-oil-plumes-exposed/ PDRTJS_settings_686029_comm_44303 = { "id" : "686029", "unique_id" : "wp-comment-44303", "title" [...]
[...] As Alexander Higgins points out: [...]
[...] http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/06/22/bps-lies-about-methane-and-oil-plumes-exposed/ [...]
[...] As CBS notes: The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill. As Kessler also points out: This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history. A U.S. scientist says that methane levels in the Gulf are "astonishingly high", that 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the oil spill, high enough to create "dead zones" devoid of life. Methane depletes oxygen, and the scientist noted: At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters. Another scientist writes: Researchers studying the [plumes] have found concentrations of methane up to 10,000 times greater than normal and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent below normal. This unprecedented release of methane into the ocean kill all life within large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico. Global Warming NASA has found that methane is 33 times more potent than carbon dioxide in causing global warming. Many scientists have said that methane releases have caused past warming spells. See this, this, this, this and this. Indeed, scientists believe that methane from woolly mammoth farts is responsible for warming the Earth 13,000 years ago. As Nature wrote last year: The Siberian Shelf alone harbours an estimated 1,400 billion tonnes of methane in gas hydrates, about twice as much carbon as is contained in all the trees, grasses and flowers on the planet. If just one per cent of this escaped into the atmosphere within a few decades, it would be enough to cause abrupt climate change, says [Natalia Shakhova, a biogeochemist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and one of the leaders of the Siberian Shelf study]. See also this, this, this, this and this. The Associated Press points out: Estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey's "flow team" [are] that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas are escaping for every barrel of oil. Assuming 100,000 barrels of oil a day are spewing from the Gulf, that would mean that 290,000, 000 cubic feet of gas is escaping a day, and 105,850,000,000 cubic feet of methane is escaping a year. That's 105 billion cubic feet a year. That's a very large number. However, as the Guardian notes: The new study, published in the journal Science, shows that methane emissions from the Arctic increased by 31% from 2003-07. The increase represents about 1 [million] extra tonnes of methane each year. Palmer cautioned that the five-year increase was too short to call a definitive trend. *** [Researchers] found that just over half of all methane emissions came from the tropics, with some 20 [million] tonnes released from the Amazon river basin each year, and 26 [million] tonnes from the Congo basin. Rice paddy fields across China and south and south-east Asia produced just under one-third of global methane, some 33 [million] tonnes. As Scientific American notes: 440 million metric tons of methane [are] emitted worldwide each year from a combination of human activities and natural sources like rotting plants in wetlands, termites and wildfires. 1 ton of liquefied methane equals approximately 16 barrels or 50,000 cubic feet of natural gas, depending on methane content (Natural gas contains between 75 and 90 percent methane by volume. Natural gas used by consumers is composed almost entirely of methane. However, natural gas found at the wellhead, although still composed primarily of methane, is not as pure. ) So using a rough calculation, 440 million metric tons equals approximately 2.2 × 1013 or 22,000,000,000,000 cubic feet. That's 22 trillion cubic feet a year … 210 times bigger than the amount of methane being released from the Gulf oil spill. So the bottom line is that the methane gushing out from the broken oil equipment is adding to the worldwide methane output, but constitutes less than one-half of one percent … which would normally be considered a statistical rounding error. Remember, these are very rough estimates which are certain to be somewhat off. I hope that an expert can provide better estimates, and correct any erroneous assumptions which I made. But the estimates still provide some sense of scale and context. (Note also that Iceland's volcanoes are probably going to throw a lot of ash into the air. This could have a cooling effect which offsets any warming from the Gulf methane release.) Look Out Below! Methane released deep underwater might not even make it to the atmosphere. As Newsweek points out: The latest science suggests that relatively little, if any, methane hydrate is currently degassing, amounting to at most 2 percent of global methane emissions, and much of that may not even be entering the atmosphere. Most of the degassing hydrate would be deep underwater, so the methane that’s released can get dissolved in the water or chewed up by certain microbes before it reaches the surface. David Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara, agrees: "Although methane from surface-vessel spills or shallow-water blowouts escapes into the air, I expect that the vast majority of methane making the long trip to the sea surface from a deep water spill would dissolve," Valentine wrote. "Unlike oil, methane dissolves uniformly in seawater. And the tools are available to measure it accurately and sensitively." As Alexander Higgins points out: [...]
[...] Alexander Higgins points out: [A] study called Project “Deep Spill” … debunks the lie that the methane gas being [...]
[...] [...]
[...] [...]
I’ve been doing some reading up, about Methane.
And have something, you’all might find interesting. With lot’s of Methane, there’s also “lot’s of Uranium & Thorium”! A good reason to, “hide the evidence”? It’s all out on the net.
I’d give you the links, but I don’t want to be blamed, for getting you to leave this fine gentlemans very excellent website! There’s a guy on Youtube, who took a geiger counter to
some oil in a plastic sandwich bag, & it says
it’s about 10 millirems. OSHA says that 5 millirems is enough to post warning signs..
Online auction sites sell radiological testing equipment, for ‘any of you beach dwellers’.
And b.t.w. The Tarballs, may be BOTH “alittle
Radioactive”, & still have natural oil eating microbes in them, IF, they’re asphalt.
If there’s a “oil eating microbe testing kit”,
there’s probably a lot of $ to be made on that alone! Surely no need to be spraying corexit on the populace, if only burying it, will help.
Just put in a search engine; “Radioactive Red Oil”, & SEE for Yourselves! Might help, in a lawsuit. “Maybe people can wear their vapour masks”, since the plume, that’s all the way to N. Carolina by now, can be now considered “Radio Active Toxic Waste”!
Yet, it is ONLY, “by the very nature of the well”, that this is so. As isn’t oil, Black? Now, I don’t think, that it would be very good for the stockholders, IF, “this got OUT”! Yet,
it has already, just not viral, yet…
But please remember, the well is 35,000+ feet deep. The Deepwater Horizon, was only built to work in 10,000! Peak Oil, is now TOO WELL KNOWN to be a Fraud. Did they only get a permit, to drill a well, & “NOT POLLUTE THE WHOLE OCEAN with Radioactive Toxic Waste”?!?
NO WONDER! They want to “sweep it all under the rug”. If you promise, to use your scroll wheel when clicking on this link, I will show you, what made me write this. I live, there too
& MUST Speak Up, for the Innocent & Beautiful Sea Creatures of this fine video.
(Look@ 7:00 mark. & remember “they’re swimming in toxic radioactive material that takes paint off boat hulls”!! Would YOU, Do That?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxDf-KkMCKQ
Here’s the link, IF, you don’t believe, oil wells, can be “Radioactive”;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18AWKDzbcc
And here, if you’re wondering about oil eating microbes, living in the rancho la brea tar pits;
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070510151916.htm
There’s probably a HUGE Industry, just applying non toxic microbes, with a 2 gallon pump up sprayer, on all the thousands of miles of beaches, from here to bangor, maine!
And, oh yes, there’s this stuff called ‘browns gas’, you’ll find out about it, IF, you ever look up “Nuclear Remediation”. A Proven Technology, to actually neutralize nuclear waste. It Really Works! Yet, “Saves To Much TAX$$$”!
There’s browns gas generators, made in South Korea, that are for welding, but could supply large enough volumes of browns gas, to neutralize a larger area, say for a beach! Another HUGE POTENTIAL $$$ Opportunity?
(WHAT?!? The “small people” AREN’T Supposed to Know This? They. Do. Now! Just Google “The Budwig Diet”, for another SHOCKER! “It’s better
to be Pissed Off, than Pissed On…….”)
Excellent work Alex. And friends. In getting this all here.
I for one appreciate this effort.
I have been exploring this blog for 3-months now and…
I find the content educated, amazing and current.
Best of all…
I don’t have to search tubes all dang night trying to learn because Alex and team do that for me.
I thank you. ~TheMystic
[...] BP’s Lies About Methane And Oil Plumes Exposed [...]
[...] have come forward to reveal the real location of the oil spill, exposed the lies about oil and methane plumes, and have alerted the public to severely low-balled flow [...]
[...] which spills from deepwater wells ever makes it to the surface of the ocean. As Alexander Higgins noted in [...]
[...] which spills from deepwater wells ever makes it to the surface of the ocean. As Alexander Higgins noted in June: [A] study called Project “Deep Spill” … analyzed a wide range of controlled [...]
[...] which spills from deepwater wells ever makes it to the surface of the ocean. As Alexander Higgins noted in [...]
[...] the rest of this great post here Comments (0) Posted in Oil Spill [...]
[...] Montones de mentiras de BP y los medios de comunicación sobre el asunto al descubierto: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010/06/22/bps-lies-about-methane-and-oil-plumes-exposed/ [...]
[...] from http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/…UNC researchers shows a simulation shows how of oil gets trapped underwater in deepwater blowouts like the BP gulf oil spill.This video is on my blog post: BP's Lies About Methane And Oil Plumes Exposed which reveals key points from an MMS study showing that BP and the Federal Government knew since 2000 that deepwater blowouts cause underwater oil plumes and that methane released from deewpater blowouts is 100% absorbed into the water column.http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010… [...]
[...] Reminds me of the BP Gulf Oil Spill where the EPA made all kinds of denials that the massive underwater plumes of oil even existed saying it didn’t make sense because oil floats when they knew for years underwater plumes form from deep sea releases. [...]
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