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Update:
Rough seas & tropical winds halting oil spill operations
(6/29/2010 - OGI: Houston) Tropical Storm Alex - now Hurricane Alex - has churned up rough seas and tropical winds over the US Gulf of Mexico that has caused the US Coast Guard disaster command and BP to suspend the oil spill skimming operations along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Dave French said today the probable track of the hurricane is well away from the Deepwater Horizon disaster spill zone and is expected to make landfall at the Texas-Mexico border near Brownsville and Matamoros, but its outer bands are whipping up waves as high as 12 ft and wind guest that are already 30-40 mph and expected to increase. Some tidal surges along the Louisiana coast are also predicted to cause flooding.
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Hurricane Alex. |
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the deepwater BP oil spill, said the rough weather is not expected to affect the relief well drilling operation, but it is going to cause a delay of up to a week in connecting the new floating riser containment system that is to be connected to the Helix Producer vessel. It should not, however, necessitate disconnection of the other two collection systems siphoning oil and gas from the failed blowout preventer (BOP) to the Discocverer Enterprise, where oil is collected and gas flared, and to the Q4000, where both the oil and gas are flared.
Click below for earlier reports:
Tropical Storm Alex not targeting US Gulf oil sector
Shell taking no chances, evacuating Western US Gulf operations
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