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041027 |
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WSJ |
Ivan Disrupts G O Moilflow
- [No reference to gas disruption. RSB]
- An engineer with the French oil company
Total SA wanted Mr. Bea to send him everything he had ever written on underwater
mudslides in the Gulf of Mexico.
- As early
as 1971, Mr. Bea argued that mudslides could be far more destructive to the
growing Gulf of Mexico oil and natural-gas industry than hurricane-force
winds, waves or currents
- Now the industry faces a titanic task: finding and
repairing pipelines that have been broken, buried and slung about like pick-up
sticks across the sea floor
- It has knocked a total of more than 25.1 million
barrels of oil off world markets -- and continues to hold back more than
400,000 barrels a day. That is 25% of the gulf's normal daily production
of 1.7 million barrels a day. It could be six months before all
the production can be restored.
As the Mississippi River flows into the gulf, the current carries huge amounts
of clay and silt that settle onto the seabed. This creates enormous ledges
of sediment with the consistency of mayonnaise.
- restarting production of 110,000 barrels of oil per
day
- Since Marlin's natural-gas pipelines weren't damaged, the platform
has restarted its gas wells.
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