The oil spill apparently occurred due to a rupture in a flexible export pipeline running from an FPSO in the  Bonga field to an oil tanker. (FPSO is an acronym used in the Oil & Gas industry for Floating Production Storage and Offtake vessels).

The source of the leak has been plugged, said Peter Ibador, head of the Nigerian National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, say news reports.

But the spill has started moving towards to coast and poses a serious threat to the environment, adversely affecting birds, fish and other marine life. Experts from Britain have been called to help, as have been Nigerian naval ships who have been pressed into action to help with the cleanup. Infra red equiopment is being used to find out places where the sheen is thicker and dispersants are being used to clear it up.

Shell now says that about 50% of the oil has already been dissipated or evaporated, though a rainbow like sheen can still be seen on the ocean’s surface.

Apparently some hazardous substances were improperly handled and discharged at its Chambers Works facility in Salem County.

In 2006, DuPont was fined $105,000 after the department investigated more than 220 chemical spills at the site. In addition to the fine, the company must also furnish a plan to improve chemical handling procedures at the facility.

It was not clear how the quantum of the fine was decided.

As far as disasters are concerned, the BP incident is a rare event these days-more of a black swan event-not that I am saying that it could not have been predicted or that the response could not have been better, but that it was really perhaps the first incident in which a blowout preventer failed. Or was it really the first one, as BP claims? Have there been other incidents in the past when these devices failed? Perhaps someone in the Oil and Gas industry should come out with statistics.

But, I digress here. Today on the occasion of World Environment Day, we should all pause to think whether we are really making the environment a better place over the years or worse? Is todays economic model sustainable? For how long? What legacy should we gift our children and grandchildren? A polluted planet and tons of Collaterized Debt Obligations (CDOs)? Can’t we do any better? We better think seriously about it now.

Comments are welcome!

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A collision between an oil tanker (ship) and a barge towing vessel caused an oil spill in the waters off Port Arthur,TX.  The oil spilled is estimated to be about 450,000 gallons, a huge amount by any account.The spill is being cleaned up with booms. Fire and emergency responder officers reported that several blocks of the downtown area had been evacuated. Other reports siad that Hydrogen Sulfide gas is also being emitted from the spilled oil.  The gas, which smells like rotten eggs,  is highly toxic and can be fatal if inhaled in large quantities.

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Safety violations at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery resulted in a massive explosion — with 15 deaths and 170 people injured – in March of 2005. BP entered into a settlement agreement with OSHA in September of that year, under which the company agreed to corrective actions to eliminate potential hazards similar to those that caused the 2005 tragedy. Today’s announcement comes at the conclusion of a six-month inspection by OSHA, designed to evaluate the extent to which BP has complied with its obligations under the 2005 agreement and OSHA standards.

“When BP signed the OSHA settlement from the March 2005 explosion, it agreed to take comprehensive action to protect employees. Instead of living up to that commitment, BP has allowed hundreds of potential hazards to continue unabated,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “Fifteen people lost their lives as a result of the 2005 tragedy, and 170 others were injured. An $87 million fine won’t restore those lives, but we can’t let this happen again. Workplace safety is more than a slogan. It’s the law. The U.S. Department of Labor will not tolerate the preventable exposure of workers to hazardous conditions.”

For noncompliance with the terms of the settlement agreement, the BP Texas City Refinery has been issued 270 “notifications of failure to abate” with fines totaling $56.7 million. Each notification represents a penalty of $7,000 times 30 days, the period that the conditions have remained unabated. OSHA also identified 439 new willful violations for failures to follow industry-accepted controls on the pressure relief safety systems and other process safety management violations with penalties totaling $30.7 million.

“BP was given four years to correct the safety issues identified pursuant to the settlement agreement, yet OSHA has found hundreds of violations of the agreement and hundreds of new violations. BP still has a great deal of work to do to assure the safety and health of the employees who work at this refinery,” said acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab.

The BP Texas City Refinery is the third largest refinery in the United States with a refining capacity of 475,000 barrels of crude per day. It is located on a 1,200-acre facility in Texas City, southeast of Houston in Galveston County.

Will this large fine serve up a wakeup call to company managements regarding the importance of following safety guidelines and good engineering practices? Only time will tell….