How did it all start?
Mexico's state oil and gas company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) reported that on July 2
Fire broke out off the coast of townCiudad del Carmen in the state of Campeche in southeastern Mexico. The fire started at 5:15 am (1:15 pm Moscow time) after a gas leak due to a malfunction of one of the gas pipeline valves. The incident occurred 150 meters from the drilling platform in the Ku Maloob Zaap field.
It is reported that Pemex has closed the connectingpipeline valves and stopped the gas leak. Three auxiliary vessels later began extinguishing the fire. Reuters reports that they used nitrogen to control the fire. Almost five and a half hours passed before the fire was extinguished.
Effects
The damage to the environment caused by the gas leak and the fire is still unknown.
After the incident company representativesstated that no one was injured as a result of the incident. Pemex also noted that employees did not have to be evacuated. Now representatives of the organization said that they are investigating the cause of the fire.
Director of Ocean Programs of the Centerbiodiversity Mieko Sakashita said that "the frightening footage of the Gulf of Mexico shows the world that offshore drilling is environmentally harmful and dangerous." She added that such accidents will continue to damage the bay and it is time to end offshore drilling "once and for all."
Despite the fact that on social networksThe catastrophe was called the “burning ocean”; it was not the water that was burning, of course. The fire broke out due to a gas leak from a 30-centimeter pipeline at a depth of 78 meters. The underwater fire started 150 meters from the Ku-Charly oil production platform. The media speculate that there could be oil on the surface of the ocean. However, Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico's security, energy and environment agency ASEA, tweeted that the incident "did not cause any spill." However, he did not explain what was burning on the surface of the water.
Not the first disaster
The largest disaster in the Gulf of Mexico occurred in 2010. Then, after an explosion and fire off the coast of the United States, a platform of an American oil company sank.
April 2010 drilling rig accidentThe BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico in the United States has resulted in colossal negative impacts on the ecosystems of the Gulf, as well as seriously damaging the resilient sectors of the region's economy such as fisheries and tourism. The result of the release of oil from the well of the Deepwater Horizon platform was the largest oil spill in the history of observations in marine conditions: more than 200 million gallons (about 650 thousand tons of oil) for 86 days.
A large number of scientific studies have been conducted to study the environmental consequences of this oil spill in the United States.
So, in the spring of 2016, it was first publishedan extensive Natural Resource Damage Assessment Report containing an unprecedented amount of information. Along with the official Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) is investigating the environmental impacts of oil, particulate oil and dispersants. Over the course of thirty years, the US National Academy of Sciences also intends to spend $ 500 million on its Gulf of Mexico Exploration Program "to improve the safety of the oil production system and protect human health and the environment in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas of the US outer continental shelf."
Despite the unprecedentednational level oil spill response efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, the impact of the accident will be felt for decades. For example, the consequences after the oil spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez, which occurred in 1989 off the coast of Alaska, are observed to this day.
Let's remind, on March 23, 1989 at 21:12, the tanker, whose tanks were filled to the brim with oil, went out to sea from the terminal. This station was located in Waldiz, Alaska. The vessel was heading for Long Beach, California, and its route ran through Prince William Bay.
According to official documents, the Exxon Valdez tanks contained 200 million liters of oil. Due to the collision with the reef, 40 million of them flowed freely into the sea.
A significant part went numb in numerouscaves that are located in Prince William Bay. From there, the oil was removed by supplying high pressure hot water. As a result, this procedure destroyed a significant part of the bacterial population of the sea coastline. Many organisms that died were the basis of the marine fauna's food chain, while others could contribute to the process of oil decomposition.
Environmentalists note that the affected systems have not recovered even now, although more than 30 years have passed since the disaster.
A new fire and a possible but not yet confirmed oil spill could have the same impact on ecosystems as the disasters of 2010 and 1989.
Is this possible in Russia?
Conservation organizations are still figuring out the damage caused to the ocean flora and fauna this time. And again they propose to stop mining on the coast.
Accidents such as the Gulf of Mexico fire orOil spill disasters again and again raise questions about the safety of fossil fuels. Humanity needs to make every effort to prevent oil spills and find effective technologies for their elimination.
For Russia, this problem is even more urgent indue to the fact that the most promising region for the implementation of new oil and gas projects and the development of shipping is the Arctic. So, in the last 10-15 years, the first projects for oil production on the Arctic shelf have been implemented in Russia, there are forecasts for the further development of such projects in the medium term. Shipping operations for the transportation of hydrocarbons are expanding. In particular, six years ago, year-round tanker shipments of oil from the Gulf of Ob to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug to Europe began, and this traffic will grow, including the supply of hydrocarbons to Asian markets in the coming years.
Thus, from 2033 to 2040, the total additionaloil production on the Russian shelf of the Arctic and Pacific Ocean can reach 313 million tons, which, even taking into account preferential taxation, will bring up to 657 billion rubles to the budget.
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