Why isn't the Saudi supertanker technique being used to help clean the oil spill?

[bassrique]

In a nutshell, Saudi Arabia dealt with a huge oil spill in the 1990s by using supertankers to suck up most of the surface oil. It worked.

If they can do it, why can't we?

The suck-and-salvage technique was developed in desperation across the Arabian Gulf following a spill of mammoth proportions — 700 million gallons — that has until now gone unreported, as Saudi Arabia is a closed society, and its oil company, Saudi Aramco, remains owned by the House of Saud. But in 1993 and into '94, with four leaking tankers and two gushing wells, the royal family had an environmental disaster nearly sixty-five times the size of Exxon Valdez on its hands, and it desperately needed a solution.

Read the whole thing or google the topic.

I'm just a dude in FL and I heard about this weeks ago. The story not been debunked yet to my knowledge. ***?

[bassrique]

http://www.dailypress.com/news/oil-s...,3072230.story

Giant oil skimmer makes stop in Norfolk on way to Gulf oil cleanup

10:24 PM EDT, June 25, 2010

NORFOLK

After making a brief stop in Norfolk for refueling, U.S. Coast Guard inspections and an all-out publicity blitz intended to drum up public support, a giant tanker billed as the world's largest oil skimming vessel set sail Friday for the Gulf of Mexico where it hopes to assist in the oil-cleanup effort.

The Taiwanese-owned, Liberian-flagged ship dubbed the "A Whale" stands 10 stories high, stretches 1,115 feet in length and has a nearly 200-foot beam. It displaces more water than an aircraft carrier.

Built in South Korea as a supertanker for transporting oil and iron ore, the six-month-old vessel was refitted in the wake of the BP oil spill with 12, 16-foot-long intake vents on the sides of its bow designed to skim oil off surface waters

The vessel's billionaire owner, Nobu Su, the CEO of Taiwanese shipping company TMT Group, said the ship would float across the Gulf "like a lawn mower cutting the grass," ingesting up to 500,000 barrels of oil-contaminated water a day.

But a number of hurdles stand in his way. TMT officials said the company does not yet have government approval to assist in the cleanup or a contract with BP to perform the work.

That's part of the reason the ship was tied to pier at the Virginia Port Authority's Norfolk International Terminals Friday morning. TMT and its public-relations agency invited scores of media, elected officials and maritime industry executives to an hour-long presentation about how the ship could provide an immediate boost to clean-up efforts in the Gulf.

TMT also paid to fly in Edward Overton, a professor emeritus of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University, to get a look at the massive skimmer.

Overton blasted BP and the federal government for a lack of effort and coordination in their dual oil-spill response and made a plea to the government to allow the A Whale to join the cleanup operation.

"We need this ship. We need this help," Overton said. "That oil is already contaminating our shoreline. We've got to get the ship out there and see if it works. There's only one way to find out: Get the damn thing in the gulf and we'll see."

TMT officials acknowledged that not even they're sure how well the new skimming method will work, noting that it appeared to perform well in limited testing last week.

"This concept has never been tried before," said Bob Grantham, a TMT project officer. "But we think we can do in maybe in a day and a half what these other crews have done in 66 days. We see the A Whale as adding another layer to the recovery effort."

Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton said the McDonnell administration "still has great interest in offshore oil development in Virginia" and supports the A Whale's effort to assist in the cleanup.

To join the fight, the ship also might require separate waivers from the Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The A Whale — pronounced along the lines of "A Team" because there is a "B Whale" coming — is designed to work 20 to 50 miles offshore where smaller skimmers have trouble navigating. The ship would take in oily water and transfer it into specialized storage tanks on the flanks of the vessel. From there, the oil-fouled seawater would be pumped into internal tanks where the oil would separate naturally from the water.

After the separation process, the oil would be transferred to other tankers or shore-based facilities while the remaining water would be pumped back into the gulf.

Because the process wouldn't remove all traces of oil from the seawater, TMT will likely have to gain a special permit from the EPA, said Scott H. Segal of the Washington lobbying firm, Bracewell &Giuliani, which TMT has retained to help negotiate with federal regulators.

"The simple answer is, we don't know what the discharge will look like until we can take A Whale out there and test it," Segal said. TMT will work with regulators to determine an appropriate level of oil that can be contained in the ship's discharge.

TMT also is firm is working with the Coast Guard to gain approval to operate in the gulf, which may require a waiver from a 90-year-old maritime act that restricts foreign-flagged vessels from operating in U.S. waters, said Bob Grantham, a TMT project officer.

Connaughton, the former federal Maritime Administrator, said he doesn't believe the A Whale would require a waiver from the Jones Act, a federal law signed in 1920 that sought to protect U.S. maritime interests.

Coast Guard inspectors toured the ship for about four hours on Thursday to determine the ship's efficacy and whether it was fit to be deployed, said Capt. Matthew Sisson, commanding officer of the Coast Guard's Research and Development arm in New London, Conn.

"We take all offers of alternative technology very seriously," Sisson said. The ship, he said, is "an impressive engineering feat."

He would not offer a timetable for Coast Guard approval of the vessel, but said he will try to "turn around a report … as soon as humanely possible."

Of course, even if the ship gains approval to operate in the gulf, its owners expect the company to be paid for its efforts.

"That's an open question," Segal said. "Obviously, (TMT) is a going concern and its people would need to be compensated for their time and effort."

[bobba66]

There may be political issues involved. Perhaps the current administration in Washington has something to gain by allowing the disaster to grow and grow.

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Was it a spill or an undersea blowout?

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Originally Posted by bobba66

There may be political issues involved. Perhaps the current administration in Washington has something to gain by allowing the disaster to grow and grow.

LOL

[wdinc01]

Originally Posted by Bob Lee (QSC)

Was it a spill or an undersea blowout?

It was blowout, but once it gets to the surface its basically like a spill

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Originally Posted by wdinc01

It was blowout, but once it gets to the surface its basically like a spill

Not really. There's a big difference in how oil behaves in a surface spill versus coming up from under deep water, under high pressure.

[mike_v_s]

Originally Posted by Bob Lee (QSC)

Not really. There's a big difference in how oil behaves in a surface spill versus coming up from under deep water, under high pressure.

True, but anything that can be used to clean up the surface oil before more of it gets into the marshes should be employed as it it will be near impossible to clean it up once there.

No, it won't clean all of it up. There are the subsurface plumes to contend with, but that's no reason to not clean up the surface with every imaginable method. Christ, they're still burning it off in areas.

Mike

[XtreO]

Originally Posted by Bob Lee (QSC)

Not really. There's a big difference in how oil behaves in a surface spill versus coming up from under deep water, under high pressure.

But.... When the oil has reached the surface, the higher pressure deep under water contributes to make a difference how exactly?

[Gard]

Originally Posted by XtreO

But.... When the oil has reached the surface, the higher pressure deep under water contributes to make a difference how exactly?

Not all of the oil makes it to the surface. That said, they should have had this in place or at the minimum on the way the day after the accident.

[Jim Nazium]

[butthead voice] huh huh ... huh huh... you said "suck and salvage" [/ butthead voice]

[Stinsok]

Originally Posted by bobba66

There may be political issues involved. Perhaps the current administration in Washington has something to gain by allowing the disaster to grow and grow.

Exactly.

[GregC]

Originally Posted by bobba66

There may be political issues involved. Perhaps the current administration in Washington has something to gain by allowing the disaster to grow and grow.

Originally Posted by Stinsok

Exactly.

[lbanks]

Originally Posted by bobba66

There may be political issues involved. Perhaps the current administration in Washington has something to gain by allowing the disaster to grow and grow.

[bassrique]

Let's not get the thread locked with politics.

[Stinsok]

Why aren't ALL methods of oil pickup being used?

[lbanks]

Some don't work, maybe?

[bassrique]

Originally Posted by lbanks

Some don't work, maybe?

Much of that oil on the surface could be pumped into large vessels I imagine. I'm still waiting for this Saudi spill story to be debunked. If it's true, there's a giant elephant in the room.

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

I used to think that there was a a major amount of competence in the petroleum industry, but now I'm not so sure.

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

Originally Posted by XtreO

But.... When the oil has reached the surface, the higher pressure deep under water contributes to make a difference how exactly?

As Gard said, not all makes it to the surface. And while oil and water don't mix, with enough pressure and turbulence and some 1600 meters of depth, they do for a while. That's one of the unusual challenges that's been mentioned often about this oil disaster. Surface spills, OTOH, tend to mostly float on the surface.