A sheen recently discovered near the site of the 2010 BP oil spill was likely caused by oil that escaped from a bent riser pipe that once connected the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to the well head near the Gulf floor, BP officials said Thursday.
British oil giant BP reported a sheen on Sept. 16 in waters near the site of the 2010 spill. Test samples indicated that "the sheen correlates to oil that originated from BP''s Macondo Well", the U. S. Coast Guard said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The size of the sheen, its persistent point of origin and other factors indicate "the most likely source is the bent riser pipe that once connected the rig to the well head, where a mix of oil, drilling mud and sea water were trapped after the top kill operation," news website NOLA.com quoted BP spokesman Brett Clanton as reporting.
"We have seen no evidence from this latest sheen that leads us to believe otherwise," Clanton said.
Using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, BP inspected the sea floor and wellhead area at the Macondo well site in September, following an earlier report of sheen in the area, and concluded no oil was leaking from the now-plugged well, according to NOLA.com.
The Coast Guard has informed Transocean, which owned the sunken Deepwater Horizon oil rig, that both companies may be held financially liable for the new oil, according to reports.
The 2010 blowout of BP''s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico triggered an explosion that killed 11 rig workers and unleashed the worst oil spill in U.S. history
Environmental groups have raised concerns that the drilling of relief wells to cut off the flow of oil and the failure of the original well may have fractured the sediments, causing new leaks.
After Hurricane Isaac struck the Gulf Coast earlier this year , reports from several coastal locations indicated the storm''s surge had uncovered mats of oil on a number of beaches.
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