Update on Total gas leak disaster

-- I have seen other credible reports that the natural gas which is leaking is "sour" gas, meaning that it is full of hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is a deadly poison and has, according to Wikipedia, been a likely cause of one mass extinction in Earth's history. It can have extremely debilitating physical impact.

It is not possible to even approach this leak. It cannot be stopped until the reservoir is empty. Matt Simmons and I went through scenarios much like this as Deepwater Horizon evolved.  No helicopter can land in a cloud of methane. As you'll see in the video, the mere drop of a hammer could blow up everything and there is some heavy-lift, metal-to-metal work to be done. That's because the gas is also emitting from the casing at the sea floor. This disaster is, and will remain, out of control. Mother Earth has had enough and so have we.

I have been trying to research it but there's no time. So, I'll just throw it out there. We need some solid scientific, ecological statements about how bad this is and how bad it could get.


The Elgin disaster needs its own Arnie Gunderson, right now. -- MCR

Total's Elgin Platform Gas Leak: Rough Seas And Heavy Wind Could Thwart Company's Efforts

* Gales forecast for North Sea area this afternoon -Met Office

* Total to move drilling rigs from two nearby fields

* Total to fly experts to platform in next few days .

Huffington Post

2 April, 2012

Total faced rough seas and heavy winds on Monday as the oil and gas company prepared to send men and machines to battle a leak at its Elgin platform in the North Sea that has spewed gas into the air for over a week.

The French company, which is spending $1 million per day on efforts to plug the leak, plans to move drilling rigs from two nearby fields, fly staff to the platform if it is deemed safe and send two underwater inspection vehicles to check where best to drill relief wells, Total said on Monday.

"Both (inspection) vessels are currently awaiting optimum sea conditions before they can be deployed," Total said, raising concerns that relief operations will be delayed as Met Office forecasts showed even stronger wind levels for Monday afternoon.

The company is expected to fly its own staff to the platform within the next few days, industry sources told Reuters.

If a first visit to the platform is successful, Total plans to fly out more engineers by the end of the week to begin injecting mud into the well to stop the gas leak, the industry sources said.

Workers are expected to wear personal breathing apparatuses and gas detectors to protect them against dangers on the site.

Total was due to meet experts from Britain's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on Monday to discuss the dangers involved. An executive said, meanwhile, Total was not aware of any legal proceeding from UK authorities in relation to the leak.

On March 25 all 238 workers were evacuated from the platform 240 kilometers off the Scottish coast, and a two-mile exclusion zone was set up around the site, while fire-fighting ships remained on standby in case of an explosion.

The union representing staff at the Elgin platform opposes plans to fly a team of crisis engineers to the platform, saying it is too dangerous given the amount of gas that has escaped.

"We think this is a highly dangerous tactic. Even a dropped hammer could ignite the gas. The whole thing would have to executed perfectly," said a union official, who asked not to be identified.

RELIEF WELLS

Total also plans to drill two relief wells to prevent gas from leaking at the top of the platform.

It said it would stop drilling operations a few kilometres away at its Fettercairn and West Franklin fields so that it can use the rigs to drill two relief wells at the leaking platform.

"To maintain the widest possible range of options, other drilling rigs are also being considered," the company said, without specifying from where it could source the additional rigs.

Total has hired a team of international experts to advise it on how to plug the leak, including U.S. firefighting and engineering firm Wild Well Control, which helped tackle BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 and Kuwait's raging oil fires in 1991.

The company estimated its net operational loss of income from the leak at $1.5 million per day but said it was unable to give an overall cost estimate of the impact.

EARLY SIGNS

Total had detected the first signs of trouble at Elgin one month before the leak started as pressure rose in a well, which had been capped a year earlier.

The operator told workers up to a few hours before the evacuation that a leak was impossible, rebuffing concerns raised by rig workers weeks before the incident, a union official said last week.

The company said on Monday it had suspended production at the Elgin well in January 2011 due to pressure problems.

"My experience in the North Sea is that if you scratch beneath the surface, things get quite scary quite quickly," said an oil industry professional with knowledge of North Sea safety systems and procedures.

"There is a worrying backlog of maintenance on safety-critical equipment, including release valves, pipelines and sub-sea fail-safe devices," he said.

A marine expert onboard a Greenpeace ship, which has arrived near the exclusion zone, said he could see evidence of some sinvormental pollution.

"Our boat is in an area of extensive oil pollution, and we see yellowish chemicals swimming in the oil spill," Christian Bussau told Reuters by satellite phone from the Koningin Juliana ship some 5 km from the Elgin platform.

Greenpeace activists said they had collected their first samples of water and air, which will be analysed in Germany.

A different marine pollution specialist at the University of Liverpool said danger posed by the gas leak on sea birds and marine plants and animals was small due to the low quantity of hydrocarbons contained within the condensates that have formed a slick on the water.

"If things continue as they are, I do not think that the marine pollution risks are high. The condensate slick is reported to be slight and diminishing," said Dr. Martin Preston.

Leak Costs $2.5 Million a Day

Total Says It Has Funds to Cover Financial Fallout From North Sea Gas Incident.

Wall Street Journal,

2 April, 2012

Total SA's top financial executive said Monday the natural-gas leak at its North Sea operations is currently costing the company about $2.5 million a day in a combination of lost production and efforts to contain the leak.

He said the Paris-based oil company has "ample resources" to face any financial fallout.

In his first public assessment of the impact of the leak at the Elgin platform 150 miles off the Scottish coast, Total Chief Financial Officer Patrick de la Chevardière said the company is spending around $1 million a day responding to the leak. That includes the cost of mobilizing rigs to potentially drill relief wells. The amount could climb to as much as $1.5 million if actual drilling starts.

Total is also losing about $1.5 million a day—or 60,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent—in lost output from its share of the closed Elgin-Franklin field, representing around 2% of the company's total output, said Mr. de la Chevardière.

French oil major Total sent a remotely operated vehicle to evaluate the situation at the Elgin platform in the North Sea, where an accident prompted the company to stop gas extraction. Dow Jones's Sarah Kent and Alexis Flynn have the latest. Photo: Getty

The assessment suggests the French energy giant is well placed to weather the financial impact of the leak that began over a week ago in the North Sea, with its current daily financial outlay relatively insignificant compared with its hefty cash chest. It is also sharply lower than the cost of stemming the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which reached $100 million a day for BP BP +0.76% PLC at the peak in 2010.

For article GO HERE

HERE is a background article from several days ago from the Oil Drum

This is the version of events that will never be told by the mainstream media

Total Gas Leak Is Untouchable! 

Gales Blowing Gas Into Scotland Now

TO VIEW VIDEO GO HERE.


There is an earlier video which discusses acid rain falling in Northern Europe and the health effects of hydrogen sulphide - available HERE


Here is a fact sheet on the effects of hydrogen sulphide gas on human health.

http://home.agrarian.org:8080/Ethipoia/hydrogen%20sulfide%20gas%20fact%20sheet.pdf

Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) Fact Sheet

Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) The Deadliest Manure Gas

Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) is a colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs (from the sulphur). Often referred to as “sewer gas,” hydrogen sulfide is highly poisonous. Usually, the poisoning caused by hydrogen sulfide is through inhalation and has a toxicity similar to cyanide.

Rotting manure produces hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide. H2S is the most dangerous.

Manure being moved or stirred up releases H2S. One or two breaths of air, with as little as 600 parts per million (ppm) H2S, can cause a person to lose consciousness.

Deaths are not uncommon when people enter poorly ventilated spaces such as deep wells, underground tanks or sewer systems. Since H2S gas is heavier than air, its concentration is highest near the bottom of en- closed spaces.

What happens to hydrogen sulfide when it enters the environment?

• Hydrogen sulfide is released primarily as a gas and will spread in the air • When released as a gas, it will form sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid in the atmosphere • Sulfur dioxide can be broken down further and is a major component in acid rain • Hydrogen sulfide remains in the atmosphere for about 18 hours • In some instances, it may be released as a liquid waste from an industrial facility (factory farm)

How can hydrogen sulfide affect my health?

Hydrogen sulfide is considered a broad-spectrum poison, meaning it can poison several different systems in the body.

• Low Levels of H2S

The odor of hydrogen sulfide gas can be perceived at levels as low as 10 ppb (parts per billion). At levels of 50-100 ppm (parts per million), it may cause the human sense of smell to fail. Exposure to lower concentrations can result in eye irritation, a sore throat and cough, shortness of breath, and fluid in the lungs. These symptoms usually go away in a few weeks. Long-term, low-level exposure may result in fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, irritability, poor memory, and dizziness.

• High Levels of H2S

At high exposures (usually greater than 300 ppm), H2S has the amazing effect of causing the nose to stop perceiving its smell after a few inhalations, which may lead to the inhalation of a toxic or fatal dose (which can occur at 600 ppm). Breathing very high levels of hydrogen sulfide can cause death within just a few breaths. There could be loss of consciousness after one or more breaths. At high levels, hydrogen sulfide gas may paralyze the lungs, meaning that the victim may then be unable to escape from the toxic gas without assistance.

How does hydrogen sulfide affect children?

Because it is heavier than air, hydrogen sulfide tends to sink, and because children are shorter than adults, they may be more likely to be exposed to larger amounts than adults in the same situations. It is not known whether hydrogen sulfide can cause birth defects in people. Some animal studies have shown developmental problems from exposure to hydrogen sulfide.

Continued exposure to H2S will kill you!

When released suddenly in large amounts of if allowed to build up in confined or poorly ventilated areas, toxic gases such as H2S are deadly. Every year people are killed or injured by poisonous manure gas. Manure gas accidents usually cause more than one death or injury because co-workers or relatives attempting a rescue are themselves overcome by the gas.

The hazard increases when:

• gases concentrate or build up in a confined space, or are suddenly release in a work environment • delays in emptying pits or tanks cause manure levels to rise, bringing trapped gases closer to any workers examining a pit or tank • hot weather speeds up manure rotting, thus increasing the amount of H2S being produced • windless days increase the potential for localized pockets of H2S during the agitation of lagoons

Hazardous locations include:

• intermediate holding tanks between a barn and a lagoon • pits and gutters inside barns • lagoons

Sources:

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Atlanta, GA. 1999 Manning Safety Services, Inc., Jourdanton, TX Alken Murray Corporation

0.03 ppm      Can smell. Safe for 8 hours exposure.

4 ppm           May cause eye irritation. Mask must be used as it damages metabolism.

10 ppm         Maximum exposure 10 minutes. Kills smell in 3 to 15 minutes. Gas causes eye        and throat injury. Reacts violently with dental mercury amalgam fillings.

20 ppm          Exposure for more than 1 minute causes severe injury to eye nerves.

30 ppm          Loss of smell, injury to blood brain barrier through olfactory nerves

100 ppm        Respiratory paralysis in 30 to 45 minutes. Needs prompt artificial resuscitation.

                       Will become unconscious quickly (15 minutes maximum).

200 ppm         Serious eye injury and permanent damage to eye nerves. Stings eye and throat.

300 ppm         Loses sense of reasoning and balance. Respiratory paralysis in 30 to 45       minutes.

500 ppm          Asphyxia! Needs prompt artificial resuscitation. Will become unconscious in 3         to 5 minutes. Immediate artificial resuscitation is required.

700 ppm          Breathing will stop and death will result if not rescued promptly, immediate unconsciousness. Permanent brain damage may result unless rescued promptly.