USCG: Oil Spill Containment System Proven Successful

A new sub-surface oil containment and recovery system, installed in April 2019 over a damaged oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, is successfully preventing more than 1,000 gallons of oil per day from entering the environment, says the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). 

In 2004 during Hurricane Ivan the Taylor Energy Mississippi Canyon 20 (MC20) oil platform toppled creating an ongoing flow of oil into the Northern Gulf of Mexico 11 miles south of the Louisiana shoreline. Scientists from multiple government agencies and academic institutions, conducted studies that determined the location, source, and amount of oil and gas emitting from the site.

The USCG assumed partial control of the Taylor Energy oil spill response after repeated past attempts failed to stop, or contain, the flow of oil in the years since the platform with 25 producing wells were toppled and buried in sediment.

The Coast Guard, with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, oversaw the design, installation and operation of a Rapid Response Solution (RRS) subsurface system designed by the Louisiana based Couvillon Group.

The containment and collection system was developed and implemented in only five months. The system has recovered more than 375,000 gallons of oil since it was installed. 

Scientific research and lessons learned following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have allowed the development of the unique oil spill response system. Scientists were better able to characterize the oil spill using remote sensing technologies such as drones, satellites, and underwater vehicles in combination with in-situ sampling and chemical analysis. Two separate studies conducted in 2017 determined that the oil and gas were discharging from multiple plumes in a discrete location rather than over a wide area. In 2018, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration undertook a follow-up study to determine the chemical characterization of the release, and to generate a flow rate estimate for the site.

These studies helped determine that oil was leaking from the damaged infrastructure and could be contained, and that more than 1,000 gallons of oil per day was being released. This was substantially greater than the previously asserted three to five gallons per day.