All Entries in the "Oceans and Environment" Category

NOAA Reopens More Than 5,000 Square Miles of Closed Gulf Fishing Area

Today NOAA reopened 5,144 square miles of Gulf waters to commercial and recreational finfish fishing. The reopening was announced after consultation with FDA and under a reopening protocol agreed to by NOAA, the FDA, and the Gulf states.
Since July 3, NOAA data have shown no oil in the area, [...]

NOAA Still Expects Active Atlantic Hurricane Season; La Niña Develops

The Atlantic Basin remains on track for an active hurricane season, according to the scheduled seasonal outlook update issued today by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service. With the season’s peak just around the corner – late August through October – the [...]

BP Oil Spill: Further Analysis to be Carried Out Before Integrity Test Commences on MC252 Well

Following a meeting with Secretary Chu and his team of scientific and industry experts, the National Incident Commander announced that additional analysis of the well testing procedure should be performed before starting the well integrity test. This analysis will be conducted tonight and into tomorrow. Consequently, the well integrity [...]

BP in new operation to contain oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico

Following approval from the National Incident Commander, BP began replacing the existing lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap over the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blow-out preventer with a new sealing cap assembly.
Installation of the sealing cap is proceeding as planned. The Discoverer Enterprise removed the LMRP cap at approximately 12:40 PM [...]

BP Oil Spill: Update on Improvements to Vessels of Opportunity Program

Today Doug Suttles, Chief Operating Officer of BP Exploration and Production, met with Vessels of Opportunity (VoO) participants to view operations and discuss a number of enhancements made to the VoO program. Through these modifications, the program will more effectively deploy boats to oil recovery activity and better utilize [...]

Ocean stored significant warming over last 16 years

The upper layer of the world’s ocean has warmed steadily since 1993, indicating a strong climate change signal, according to a new study. The energy stored is enough to continuously power nearly 500, 100-watt light bulbs per person worldwide.
“We are seeing the global ocean store more heat than it gives off,” [...]

BP update on the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster

BP today provided an update on developments in the response to the MC252 oil well incident in the Gulf of Mexico.

Subsea Source Control and Containment
Two containment systems continue to collect oil and gas flowing from the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blow-out preventer (BOP) and transport them [...]

Update on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

BP today provided an update on developments in the response to the MC252 oil well incident in the Gulf of Mexico.
Subsea Source Control and Containment
Two systems continue to collect oil and gas flowing from the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blow-out preventer (BOP) and transport them to vessels on the surface.
The lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment [...]