what was that about greenhouse gases and carbon credits? Burning this oil is going to create and even bigger environmental disaster...
Feds OK new BP plan to burn off collected oil, gas
Federal officials have given BP permission to begin a new method to burn oil and natural gas being siphoned from the deepwater well. It's part of the company's plan to triple the amount of crude oil it hopes to keep from spilling into the Gulf.
British Petroleum hopes to trap as much as 2.2 million gallons daily by the end of the month. To do that it will need to "flare" some of the oil in addition to the gas it is burning off already.
The Associated Press explains the process and the risks:
To trap more oil faster, BP would continue to siphon off the flow from a containment cap sitting above the well to a drill ship sitting on the ocean surface. More oil from the blowout preventer — a stack of pipes sitting on the seafloor — also would be drawn through hoses and pipes to a drilling rig where it will be burned using a specialized flare.
Still, BP warned its containment efforts could be hampered if hoses or pipes clog and as engineers struggle to run the complicated collection system.
A more technical explanation is available at Offshore Oil and Gas Magazine.
BP also said the company has contracted with actor Kevin Costner and Ocean Therapy Solutions to use 32 of their centrifuge machines that are designed to separate oil from water.
