SkyTruth

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Cumulative Impact

2010-02-08T12:40:00.003-05:00

We've generated a sequence of maps showing the cumulative area of ocean covered by oil slicks and sheen during the 10-week oil spill in the Timor Sea off Australia last year. This is based on SkyTruth's analysis of MODIS satellite images obtained from NASA throughout the event.

Cumulative slicks from Timor Sea blowout and spill; state of Virginia superimposed for scale.

We calculate a total area of 22,163 square miles where oil slicks or sheen occurred at some time during the spill, which began when a well blew out during drilling operations on the new Montara platform on August 21, and ended when the damaged well was finally plugged on November 1. This is about the size of SkyTruth's home state of West Virginia. Because there were many days when the MODIS images weren't useful for mapping slicks (due to cloud cover or illumination conditions), the actual area is probably greater.

Coal Mining - New South Wales, Australia

2010-02-01T12:03:00.004-05:00

It would probably surprise a lot of folks - especially here in West Virginia - that the world's biggest exporter of coal is... Australia. Strip mines have been growing rapidly in the Upper Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, bringing some painful transformations as local economies lose diversity and become dominated by resource extraction.

Panoramic 2007 satellite view overlooking part of the Upper Hunter Valley coal-mining district.

Google high-resolution satellite images taken in 2007 clearly show the expanding footprints of the dozens of active mines spanning the region. Browse this SkyTruth gallery to take a brief virtual tour.

Good News for Montana's Rocky Mountain Front

2010-01-22T10:35:00.007-05:00

Too special to drill: panoramic satellite view looking south across the Badger-Two Medicine area. Click for larger version.

A big tip o' my hat today to five energy companies that voluntarily relinquished 8 oil and gas leases covering nearly 30,000 acres of the spectacular Badger-Two Medicine area of Lewis and Clark National forest on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front. There are no producing oil or gas wells on any of these leases.

Occidental Petroleum, Williams Cos., Rosewood Resources, XTO Energy and BP received no compensation for giving up their rights to drill in these areas, which they had originally leased from the federal government in 1982. The lands are now permanently protected from oil and gas leasing under a 2006 federal law authored by Montana Senator Max Baucus.

Take a look at what has been returned to the American public - if you like to hike, camp, climb, hunt or fish, plan a trip to the Front to celebrate:

Protected from drilling: Badger Creek and Badger-Two Medicine area of the Rocky Mountain Front, Montana. Photo by Tony Bynum.

Conservationists, ranchers, Native Americans and sportsmen's groups - including The Wilderness Society, Blackfeet Nation, Trout Unlimited, Montana Wilderness Association and Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front - have worked for years to return all of the leased areas along the Front to public control. 29 leases covering another 40,000 acres in the Badger-Two Medicine area are still in private hands. None of these areas are producing any oil or gas.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Questions Remain

2010-01-21T17:04:00.004-05:00

Permanent plugs have successfully been installed and pressure-tested in the notorious H1 well that blew out on August 21, 2009, in the Timor Sea and spewed oil and gas for 71 days. Some information is now trickling out as the Australian government investigates the causes and consequences of the Montara / West Atlas blowout and ten-week oil spill. News accounts have focused on the drilling contractor's apparent failure to install a basic piece of safety equipment called a corrosion cap. This seems like a serious mistake for a major offshore drilling contractor like Seadrill. But we're not yet sure that the lack of this cap could, on its own, cause the well to blow out.

Upstream's coverage provides the most technical detail. Apparently there was an existing weakness in the well due to a poor cementing job. Ho hum, cement...but as they say, the devil is in the details...so bone up on well drilling (especially the section on cementing) before you go much further:

the source of the flow was in the 244 millimetre casing and the most likely cause of that was a channel in the cement in the shoe track casing

This article also raises a lot of questions. It states that in August PTTEP determined no corrosion cap had been installed when the H1 well was suspended in March. Yet on August 20, "the corrosion cap was removed" to "clean corroded casing threads," the cap "was not reinstalled," and the well blew out the next day:

Does this mean that Seadrill actually had installed a pressure cap on the H1 well?

If so, when exactly did that happen?

Was the removal of that cap to "clean corroded casing threads" unusual, or is that a common thing to do?

If common, what are the safety procedures during this operation, and were they being followed?

Was Seadrill (or some other contractor?) doing that work on the H1 well at the same time they were actively drilling a new well at the platform, as initially reported?

If so, is that allowed, and does it conform with industry standard practice?

What has been done to suspend or abandon the well that Seadrill had been drilling when the H1 blowout occurred?
What will be done with the other suspended wells and the Montara platform structure?
Why was the bulk of the fire centered on the West Atlas rig, rather than on the Montara platform? Check out the pictures and spectacular video.

This suggests to me that the well that was being drilled is the one that ignited, rather than the H1 well. If so, why?

Wonky stuff, for sure. But it's important to get all of these questions asked, and answered, before the government closes the books on this investigation, so we can be sure we know what really happened.

Meanwhile, another tropical cyclone is making a Montara drive-by. This time it's Magda, a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 60-70 knots. On January 21 at 0:50 hours Zulu time, this MODIS Terra satellite image showed the eye of Magda to be about 186 km southwest of the Montara oil platform. The storm is moving almost directly south, and should not pose a threat to operations as crews are now assessing the structural integrity of the fire-damaged platform.

Haiti Earthquake - Oil Spill

2010-01-15T13:33:00.005-05:00

We've done some followup work on the oil spill seen on post-quake satellite imagery of western Port-au-Prince. Frankly, this is the least of their worries: the spill looks significant but based on the shape and distribution of the slicks we interpret this to be a short-lived episode, not an ongoing spill like the recent Timor Sea event off Australia.

We've identified a couple of sites where oil storage tanks appear to have been damaged and leaked; it's not clear if these tanks are the source of the oil slicks. See for yourself - we've posted everything in a gallery. You can also access the high-resolution Geoeye satellite images via Google Earth through Google's website or by downloading their KML file.

Haiti Earthquake - Before / After Comparisons, Oil Spill, Collaborative Map Effort

2010-01-15T11:19:00.012-05:00

Geoeye has also published high-resolution post-quake imagery of Port-au-Prince. The images were taken on the morning of January 13, 2010. In Google Earth, you can toggle between those images and pre-quake hi-res images that were shot in March 2008, allowing direct comparison and rapid visual assessment of the damage.

SkyTruth looked at the area around the cathedral, and did this quick visual analysis and mapping of damaged and destroyed buildings in the vicinity:

Pre-quake image, March 2008 (cathedral is large cross-shaped building at center). Click image for big version.

Post-quake image, January 13, 2010. Cathedral roof has collapsed, several adjacent buildings also visibly damaged. Click image for big version.

Visual identification of damaged structures (orange) based on image comparison. Click image for big version.

There's also a large oil slick on the west side of the city near an area of oil storage tanks (we found out about this while watching The Weather Channel late last night). Some of the tanks appear to be damaged, and have spilled oil into the containment areas that surround them. It's possible some of this oil overtopped or breached the containment berms and flowed into the sea. It's also possible that one or more oil pipelines along the shore was broken during the quake. From the configuration of the slicks, it appears the leaks were sudden, substantial, and short-lived:

Oil slick on west side of Port-au-Prince, January 13, 2010. Click image for big version.

Google has also established a public collaborative Haiti mapping project, asking folks who know Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area to help populate the map with important and helpful features. I assume these would be the identification of specific buildings (especially public buildings like schools, hospitals and clinics, theaters or other gathering spots) and anything else you think might be helpful to responders. Go here if you want to share your knowledge of the area to help this massive relief effort.

Earthquake Disaster in Haiti: Free Hi-Res Satellite Images

2010-01-14T17:47:00.005-05:00

The magnitude of the catastrophe in Haiti is hard to grasp. We're heartened that Digital Globe is making high-resolution satellite images available for free until January 28. You've got to be using standard GIS software (from ESRI, MapInfo, or Autodesk) to get the data.

Earthquake damage to cathedral (center) and nearby structures in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Image courtesy of DigitalGlobe.

For those without GIS software, you can still view post-quake images showing the damage at DigitalGlobe's gallery. They've also done a simple visual damage assessment, which you can download as a PDF file here.

High-resolution images are useful for gross damage assessment and for logistics. We hope relief organizations take advantage of this to facilitate their operations, and we hope some of the other satellite image vendors follow suit. It's going to be a long haul, and the work of many nations, to help Haiti recover from this disaster.

UPDATE 1/15/10: DigitalGlobe is now making their imagery available to Google Earth users as a KML file. Click here to access the KML. I've just tried it - the KML is pretty rough, but I expect it will be improved.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Montara Well is Permanently Plugged

2010-01-13T18:16:00.001-05:00

Good news out of Australia - the well that blew out on August 21, spilled crude oil into the ocean and natural gas into the air for ten weeks, then caught fire and burned out of control for 2 days when the leak was finally stopped - has been permanently plugged and capped, according to a report from Upstream Online today. That's almost five months since the blowout occurred. No doubt the plugging operation was made a bit more complicated due to fire damage sustained by the Montara oil platform:

No word yet on what will be done with the other wells that had already been drilled at the Montara platform. Will they too be permanently plugged, capped and abandoned? Or will the operator, PTTEP Australasia, attempt to put them into production?

Read all about the Timor Sea blowout and spill on this blog, and see photos and satellite images of the spill in SkyTruth's gallery.

North Slope - Dirty Snow?

2010-01-11T12:30:00.002-05:00

More Alaska stuff today: we thought you'd like to see some winter-time imagery of the oil drilling and processing infrastructure up on the North Slope. The otherwise featureless plain of snow and ice is marked by brown halos surrounding many of the roads and facilities. Check out all the images here.

This appears to be caused by traffic or diesel-powered equipment, stirring up clouds of dust and/or depositing soot. If so, it's an interesting illustration of a recently recognized problem: this "dirty snow" absorbs more heat from the sun, turbocharging global warming and accelerating climate change from the Rockies to the Arctic.

Fort Knox Gold Mine, Alaska

2010-01-11T12:18:00.003-05:00

SkyTruth just posted a small gallery of images showing growth of the Fort Knox open-pit gold mine, north of Fairbanks, from 2003 to 2007 (thanks to Google Earth for adding historical imagery). The mine opened in 1994, and in 2007 received approval from the state of Alaska to expand their operation to include a cyanide heap-leach process.

By 2007 the footprint of this mine was about 3,000 acres.

Coal Dust Threat in Seward, Alaska

2010-01-07T15:06:00.006-05:00

That's right: the home of pristine fiords and glaciers, verdant forests, stunning mountain scenery, cruise-ship-happy tourists...has a problem with coal dust. A relatively small amount of coal is mined in Alaska right now, but a lot of it ends up in big stockpiles in the coastal city of Seward, awaiting shipment to Asia and South America. Alaska can be a pretty blustery place, so dust blows off the coal piles and into town, and into the lungs of local residents. It's not a good thing to be inhaling, so environmentalists just filed suit to force corrective actions.

We've created a gallery of images to give you a virtual tour of Seward and these massive storage piles, using high-resolution imagery in Google Earth that was acquired in March 2007. At that time the twin storage piles were a quarter of a mile long and covered almost 8 acres.

SkyTruth is Tweeting

2010-01-06T11:22:00.004-05:00

Happy new year, everyone! New in 2010 - SkyTruth has launched a Twitter feed. Check out our latest tweets to the right.

We'll use this to post quick updates on our work, breaking news on environmental incidents as we become aware of them, useful stuff about remote sensing, and links to interesting, cool and beautiful images. We just can't get enough of that stuff. And neither can you, so please follow us onTwitter!

Human Error Redux

2010-01-04T10:30:00.005-05:00

We closed out 2009 with another stunning reminder that human error still poses a major risk for oil spills and other environmentally significant accidents: a high-tech escort tug, the Pathfinder, hit the very same well-mapped reef in Prince William Sound that the Exxon Valdez ran up against twenty years ago. Unlike the earlier tanker accident, which spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil and crippled some Alaska fisheries and communities, this one only resulted in a minor spill of 100 gallons or so of fuel oil. But this latest accident is disturbing because the Pathfinder's job is to escort laden oil tankers safely through these ecologically important Alaskan waters.

If the safety escort hits a notorious reef, then just how safe is this operation? As noted in this December 30 article in the Alaska Dispatch:

None of the fancy technology aboard the 136-foot tug Pathfinder -- not the satellite positioning system, not the radar, not the depth finder capable of sounding depth warnings -- prevented a Dec. 23 collision with Bligh Reef, and Alaskans monitoring oil tanker safety in Prince William Sound say that ought to serve as a warning for everyone concerned about the northern environment.

Even the Coast Guard seems to have been asleep at the wheel:

Not only did the navigation systems aboard the tug somehow fail to alert the crew to danger, Jones said, so did the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Center in Valdez, which is supposed to track tankers and tugs using the shipping lane into and out of Valdez. The center has radar watching the Sound, and the tankers and tugs are supposed to carry "position and identification reporting equipment" to enable the traffic center to track them in much the way air-traffic controllers follow the movement of airplanes fitted with transponders. And yet the Pathfinder somehow strayed off course even farther than the Exxon Valdez. The latter struck bottom in about 35 feet of water. The former had to get so close to the center of the reef that its keel hit the rocks in 17 feet.

So how can this kind of problem continue to happen?

"It's strictly human error," Stephens said, "being where you're not supposed to be. It's usually human error. There are lessons to be learned from this. The more eyes the better."

That's a problem that's particularly relevant for offshore oil production and transportation, because, as we've seen so recently with the Montara blowout and spill off Australia, the consequences can be severe. One final thought from Alaska:

...the money spent on prevention could save a fortune on potential clean-up costs later. Prevention of an oil spill...is better than any possible clean-up effort.

Kingston Coal-Ash Spill, One Year Later

2009-12-23T14:12:00.005-05:00

Exactly one year ago, at 1am in the morning on December 22, an embankment gave way at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a coal-fired power plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) near Harriman, Tennessee. Over one billion gallons of sludge spilled out of the impoundment, flowing into adjacent ponds, the Emory River, and residential areas. This sludge - officially branded "coal combustion waste" - is a toxic slurry of the ash and dust that remain after coal is burned in a power plant, mixed with water to make it manageable, and dumped into large holding ponds for indefinite storage.

October 2009 image map showing area impacted by December 2008 coal sludge spill

SkyTruth obtained aerial survey photography from the TVA showing the area as it looked before the spill; one week after the spill; three months later; and as it looks now. We analyzed the images to measure areas that appear to be directly impacted by the deposition of the sludge. Our analysis shows that up to 186 acres of surrounding land and water were directly impacted, and that 102 acres of formerly open ponds and waterways now appear to be permanently buried by sludge. There's even a 4-acre island of sludge persisting in the Emory River.

With these air photos we're not able to detect the areas throughout the Emory and Clinch Rivers that have likely been impacted as well. Erosion of these ash deposits, and transport through the river system, may continue for some time. The sludge "island" in the Emory River looks particularly vulnerable to being steadily washed downstream.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency is still trying to figure out what to do about the management of coal combustion waste, a growing problem across America.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Now There's a Hurricane

2009-12-16T10:41:00.012-05:00

Actually, it's called a cyclone in that part of the world. Now a small but surprisingly powerful Category 5 storm, Cyclone Laurence is moving through the Timor Sea parallel to the northwest coast of Australia, and is expected to make landfall near the town of Derby today.

NASA satellite image of Cat-5 tropical cyclone Laurence in the Timor Sea, December 15, 2009.

The oil fields in the Timor Sea have been evacuated, including the crew on the Montara platform where they're still working to install a permanent cement plug in the well that blew out on August 21 and spilled oil and gas for ten weeks. The well-defined eye of this storm, 19 miles in diameter, passed about 130 miles southeast of the platform on December 15. The storm was moving then at about 15 miles per hour toward the southwest.

Nasty weather really complicates operations at sea. Hopefully the temporary mud plug will hold until they can get back and finish this well-control job.

K86HAFPTY28W

Mount Tenabo - Cortez Hills Gold Mine Temporarily Halted

2009-12-04T11:50:00.004-05:00

Yesterday a federal court of appeals temporarily blocked construction of a proposed 2,000-foot-deep open-pit gold mine on public lands in Nevada. Barrick Gold Corporation's Cortez Hills Mine is now on hold until the U.S. Bureau of Land Management revises its environmental impact analysis. The court ruled that BLM failed to adequately analyze the potential for the mine on Mount Tenabo to "pollute the air with mercury emissions and dry up scarce water resources."

Panoramic view of Mount Tenabo, Nevada, site of proposed open-pit gold mine.

The Cortez Hills mine has been vigorously opposed by the Western Shoshone tribe, which considers Mount Tenabo a sacred site. Much construction activity has already taken place for the proposed mine.

See more SkyTruth images of the site here.

Measuring the Direct Landscape Impact of Natural Gas Drilling

2009-12-01T14:17:00.004-05:00

Gas-drilling activity on the Pinedale Anticline, October 2005.

Pinedale, Wyoming: the Pinedale Anticline natural-gas field is one of the largest tight-gas sandstone reservoirs in the Greater Green River Basin of southwest Wyoming. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) controls 80% of the mineral rights in the 198,034-acre area. In 2008 the BLM proposed a new development plan that includes 10-acre spacing of wells, a potential 4,400 additional wells in the field.

Google Earth image showing gas-drilling impact on part of the Pinedale Anticline, August 2005.

SkyTruth measured the amount of landscape already directly impacted by natural-gas development in the Pinedale area. The analysis was done using SPOT XS satellite imagery acquired in September 2007, visually identifying the infrastructure -- well pads, service roads, yard facilities, and pipeline corridors -- associated with developing the field. The analysis was verified using aerial photos from 2005, and GIS data on all gas and oil wells downloaded from the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission on June 26, 2008:

The total area directly impacted by natural-gas drilling as of September 2007 was 5,194 acres.

Gas-and-oil infrastructure in the Pinedale Anticline field at that time included:

353 well pads covering 2,521 acres with a median size of 6 acres
10 facilities covering 586 acres with a median size of 11 acres
161 miles of service roads covering 1,559 acres
17 miles of pipeline corridor covering 527 acres

Mountaintop Removal Mining, Part 2: Mountains at Risk

2009-12-01T14:02:00.002-05:00

SkyTruth, in partnership with Appalachian Voices, documented the impact of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) over a 59 county area in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia by mapping the extent of mountaintop removal mining over a 30 year period using satellite imagery. The historical record shows a 250% increase in MTR occurring over the last two decades, from 77,000 acres in 1985 to over 272,000 acres in 2005. The size of the individual mines also ballooned, with some now covering 15 square miles. Over 2,700 mountain ridges were destroyed by mining.

While this impacts an enormous area, how many more ridges and mountaintops are vulnerable to this destructive practice?

In order to create a risk map, the variables that correlate with MTR must be identified. SkyTruth performed a preliminary investigation to determine the drivers of mining occurrence in Wise County, Virginia. Variables such as coal thickness, overburden, land use type, roads, and hydrography were investigated along with our previous analysis of historical to recent mining activity. Results indicate that two geologic criteria – coal thickness and overburden – best correlate with mining. Using these two variables, we generated a mining risk map for the county based on analysis of the main coal deposit in the area, the Pond Creek seam (see above).

Knowing which ridges are at risk of being mined is the key to developing proactive strategies to limit further destruction, and predicting downstream impacts should mining occur.

Mountaintop Removal Mining, Part 1: Measuring the Extent of Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia

2009-12-01T13:34:00.006-05:00

Aerial shot of mountaintop removal mining, Kayford Mountain, WV. Photo courtesy of Ohio Valley Environmental Council and Southwings.

S kyTruth, in partnership with Appalachian Voices, has documented the impact of Mountaintop Removal Mining for coal (MTR) over a 59 county area in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia. The goal of the project was to map the historical occurrence of mountaintop removal mining over a 30 year period, from 1976 to 2005:

Map showing total extent of surface mining from 1976 - 2005.

With this analysis, and some great database and Google Earth work by Appalachian Voices, we can tell you exactly which mountains in Appalachia have been - or are are being -destroyed to power your home or business (thought you might like to know...). The methodology involved several steps. The first step included a land cover classification for each decade that identified all the mining occurrences at that point in time. This digital spectral classification process was accomplished using a Landsat satellite image database totaling eight gigabytes of data. Classification required a two-step process where the spectral signatures of land cover types were identified (vegetation, soil, barren or rock, water, etc) and then, through a decision tree analysis, mined areas are classed.

The next step was to classify these mine areas as “MTR” and “Other Surface Mining.” The definition of MTR, as put forth by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, guided the development of a reproducible, rules-based method to classify the mines. Using digital elevation data from the U.S. Geological Survey 1:100,000 series, the terrain parameters of ridge top, slope, and valleys were calculated. The MTR mines were identified by calculating the percentage of ridge top that comprised the mine’s total area. Simply put, MTR mines span over 320 acres and removed at least 40 acres of ridge top, or cover between 40 and 320 acres and contain at least 10 - 40 acres of ridge top within the mined area.

The historical record shows significant increases in MTR occurring in the last two decades: from 77,000 acres in 1985 to over 272,000 acres in 2005, a 250% increase. Also increased was the size of the individual mines, with some reaching over 15 square miles. In regards to ridge tops, over 2,700 ridges were impacted by mining.

Mountaintop Removal Mines

Total MTR Mined Area since 1976 = 445,792 Acres
Largest Single Mined Area = 10,410 Acres
Median Mined Area = 128 Acres
Average Mined Area = 406 Acres
Number of Mines > 1 mile²= 73

Ridge Tops

Number of Ridges Mined = 2,789
Total Acres of Impacted Ridges = 130,655 Acres
Average Ridge Length Mined = 1/2 Mile
Largest Ridge Removed = 504 Acres

Historical Analysis (Acres Directly Impacted by Mining)

SkyTruth Testifies at Senate Hearing

2009-11-24T11:44:00.010-05:00

SkyTruth testified at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on November 19. The general subject of the hearing was Federal stewardship of offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters. We were invited to give our perspective on several significant oil spill incidents we've investigated over the past few years: the recent Montara platform blowout and spill in the Timor Sea off Western Australia; this summer's spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the Eugene Island Pipeline operated by Shell; and the spills from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Ike in 2008, that exposed the achilles heel of offshore production: the vulnerability and severe spill risk posed by the coastal infrastructure - especially pipelines and storage facilities - that is necessary to support offshore drilling.

You can download our full written testimony here, and watch a video webcast here. Read coverage of the hearing from the Oil & Gas Journal here.

"The fact is, these things happen." - Senator Mary Landrieu

Louisiana's Senator Landrieu, a staunch supporter of drilling, accused us of lying to the American public and scaring them with our tales of disaster. She doesn't seem to trust the American people to be able to make up their own minds about the pros and cons of offshore drilling if they are presented with the information. All we did was testify about real things that have really happened, to make the point that despite advances in technology, mistakes are still made and accidents still happen - and with offshore oil production, the consequences still can be severe.

The senator tried to downplay the Montara spill, claiming it was only about 800,000 gallons and would only fill 1/3 of the Reflecting Pool out in front of the Capitol. Now I have no idea how she came up with that number, or how big the reflecting pool is, but I do know that the U.S. Coast Guard categorizes oil spills into three size classes: minor, medium and major. And a "major" spill is anything larger than 100,000 gallons.

Near the end of the hearing, Sen. Landrieu stood in front of a large poster of the flaming Montara oil platform, waved her hand at it, and said "These things happen."

Which is exactly the point.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Fire Aftermath

2009-11-13T12:11:00.004-05:00

SkyTruth just obtained several new photographs, taken from a nearby vessel shortly after the fire was extinguished, that clearly show the severe damage sustained by the Montara oil platform and the attached West Atlas drill rig.

See all the photos and images in our gallery. The new ones are:

These photos are from an anonymous source, so SkyTruth can't vouch for their accuracy. But they closely resemble this post-fire photo recently published in WA Today, and seem to be legitimate. A big thank-you to the photographer who took these shots and is allowing us to make them available to the public.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - What Happened?

2009-11-10T09:43:00.014-05:00

Still smoking: fire-damaged Montara platform (left) and West Atlas jackup drilling rig (right). The $250M rig is a total loss. See more photos at WA Today and in SkyTruth's gallery.

The Montara platform operator, PTTEP, claims it knows what caused the August 21 blowout that lead to this massive oil spill, but is withholding that information from the public. Meanwhile a whistleblower has come forward into the information vacuum to claim that the drillers had been taking shortcuts:

Thai-based PTTEP said last week it knew the cause of the spill but would not disclose it, but the industry insider said schedule and cost were put ahead of safety and the environment...

He said he believed six wells were being drilled that morning and the third of those was being drilled when the first well blew...

"This in my opinion was because they were trying to save time so they drilled to a certain depth and did not plug it securely because they did not expect flow.

I'm not sure how much credibility to give this. A rig can only drill one well at a time, and these wells were going beyond 8,000 feet. It takes days to drill to that depth. So the information that "six wells were being drilled that morning" is suspect.

Nevertheless, something certainly did go wrong on August 21, and the Australian government launched an investigation to discover the cause and evaluate possible weaknesses in their oversight of drilling, spill response capabilities, decisionmaking. Here in the U.S., where we're on the verge of allowing new drilling in areas where it's been off-limits for decades (such as Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia and parts of Alaska), folks are impatiently awaiting definitive word on what caused the Montara blowout. Some have suggested "it could never happen here." Until we know the actual cause, we can't draw any firm conclusions.

But one thing is certain: a spill like this is extremely expensive. The $250M West Atlas drill rig has been destroyed. Replacing the damaged topsides of the Montara oil platform will cost at least $16M. PTTEP estimates the costs of the lost well and their response actions to approach $170M. Australian taxpayers have spent more than $5M for spill response activities so far, which ultimately may be repaid by PTTEP. What's unknown at this time are the economic losses that could be suffered by Western Australia's $8M fishing industry, and the potential for long-term damage to the environment. NGOs also claim significant damage in Indonesia, with reports of bankruptcy among the fishermen of Timor.

Peter Garrett, Australia's Environment Minister, is being criticized for defending what some characterize as a tepid government reponse to this major oil spill. A little irony here: Peter was lead singer for the group Midnight Oil (no joke). In the mid-80s he rocked my world with Power and the Passion. I jumped all over the room like a spaz whenever I heard that tune. I still do, only slower. More irony: in 1991 Midnight Oil played an illegal concert outside Exxon headquarters in New York to protest the Exxon Valdez spill. Check out the video.

One day in the mid-1980s, Peter flashed me the peace sign when I called out his name as he strode down M Street in Georgetown before a show in DC. I was a newbie geologist and he was a famous and idealistic singer. I wonder if he remembers the lyrics he wrote back in the day:

Sometimes you've got to take the hardest line.

See all of SkyTruth's photos, maps and satellite images of the Montara spill. Read all our blog posts on this subject.

And please, help us out if you like what we do here at SkyTruth. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Finally Stopped?

2009-11-03T14:09:00.004-05:00

PTTEP Australasia is reporting that their fifth attempt to kill the leaking well on the Montara platform has succeeded, shutting off the uncontrolled flow of oil, gas, and natural gas condensate that has been polluting the water and air off Western Australia since the blowout occurred on August 21. The fire that ignited over the weekend, engulfing the Montara platform and the attached West Atlas drill rig, has also been nearly extinguished.

Heavy mud was pumped into the damaged well at a point 8,600 feet below the seabed, where it was intercepted by a relief well drilled from the West Triton jackup rig. Towed in from Singapore, the West Triton did not arrive on scene until September 10, nearly three weeks after the blowout occurred. It took nearly four more weeks to set up the rig, drill down to the intercept depth, and make the first unsuccessful attempt to intercept the damaged well. Finally, after 74 days, the spill has been stopped. Difficult tasks ahead: now workers must try to re-enter the well from the fire-damaged Montara platform so they can inject permanent cement plugs. As a PTTEP official notes:

We do not underestimate the significantly increased technical complexity, logistical challenges and hazards of the work now required in the wake of the damage caused by the fire to the wellhead platform and the West Atlas rig.

Estimates of the amount of oil spilled vary widely. PTTEP's unexplained estimate of 400 barrels per day yields a total of 1,243,200 gallons. The Australian government's estimate of "up to" 2,000 barrels per day means a total spill of as much as 6, 216,000 gallons. And an estimate of 3,000 barrels per day based on the known flow rates of other wells in the area results in a spill of 9,324,000 gallons, almost as large as the 11 million gallon Exxon Valdez spill that, 20 years after a massive cleanup operation, is still affecting Alaskan communities and the environment.

Spectacular AP video of the platform fire here.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - Well is Intercepted, Rig is Burning

2009-11-02T09:52:00.012-05:00

Good news: at last, the fifth attempt to intercept the damaged Montara oil well succeeded this weekend. Bad news: while starting operations to kill the out-of-control well, the Montara / West Atlas platform and drilling rig caught fire:

Montara / West Atlas platform and rig burning off Western Australia. Photograph from PTTEP.
Watch video of the fire here.

Thankfully nobody was injured. The cause of the blaze is not known. Oil, gas, and natural gas condensate have been spewing from an uncontrolled well on the platform since August 21 (73 days ago).

The 100-mile-long smoke plume from this fire is visible from space, on MODIS Aqua and Terra images taken on November 2. And residual patches of oil and sheen from the ongoing spill have approached within 27 miles of islands along the Australian coast:

MODIS / Aqua image taken on November 2, 2009. See more SkyTruth images here.

This will certainly complicate the effort to gain control of the leaking well. And if the fire destroys the Montara platform and the attached West Atlas drilling rig, as some observers are now suggesting, then we may never learn exactly what happened to cause this blowout in the first place. On the plus side (trying hard to be optimistic here), if the fire is burning off most of the leaking hydrocarbons, then the area of ocean impacted by oil slicks and dispersants should greatly diminish.

Working from the nearby West Triton relief rig that drilled the intercept well, heavy drilling mud will be pumped into the damaged Montara well until the flow of hydrocarbons is shut off. That should promptly extinguish the fire.

Timor Sea Drilling Spill - 4th Relief Attempt Fails

2009-10-30T17:50:00.006-04:00

The fourth attempt to kill the out-of-control well on the Montara platform was scrubbed due to equipment problems. The well has now been leaking oil, gas and condensate for 70 days. And the operator, PTTEP, is now saying the well may not be plugged for "several more weeks." Indonesia officially confirmed that oil has reached their te rritorial waters, something we documented in satellite imagery back on September 3.

World Wildlife Fund just released a report on their research cruise to the spill-affected area, where they observed slicks and impacted wildlife. See their photos and video for an up-close look, and get the full report here. (Photo #4 shows researchers studying a SkyTruth image of this spill.) The Australian government has also released a r eport on the research and wildlife surveys they've conducted so far in the area.

Common Noddy recovered from the Montara oil spill by researchers working for the Australian government. Photo taken from their report.

Meanwhile, a second leaking well has been reported in another offshore field about 50km northwest of Montara. This is being described by the company as a minor gas leak but it's been ongoing for some time with no immediate prospect for repair. Fugitive methane emissions such as this from oil and gas facilities could be a major source of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Here's a visual of those emissions: we processed a MODIS satellite image of the Montara area that was taken on October 27. The well is still actively spewing oil, but the sunglint conditions on this image are not favorable so the slicks aren't visible. But a pale plume is emanating from the platform location and spreading out as it blows toward the Australian coast to the southeast. This is probably an aerial plume of hydrocarbon smog caused by the natural gas and vaporized natural gas condensate that are also blowing out of the damaged well. Usually those airborne emissions are invisible, but atmospheric conditions must have been right to form a visible smog:

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