Oil Being Piped To Surface Will Be Tested To See Whether It Can Be Refined - NOLA.com [View All]

Oil being piped to surface will be tested to see whether it can be refined
By Jaquetta White, The Times-Picayune
May 17, 2010, 6:52PM

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A mile-long tube inserted into a broken pipe spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico is capturing about 1,000 barrels of oil daily, or about 20 percent of the oil leaking from the site, a BP official said Monday.

The tube began transferring leaking oil and natural gas onto a waiting ship Sunday. The gas that is being collected is being burned in a process called flaring. BP is testing the oil to determine if it can be refined or if it should be discarded, chief operating officer Doug Suttles said.

It is BP's first successful attempt at containing oil, which is leaking both from a pipe called a riser on the ocean floor as well as from an apparatus called a blowout preventer. The tube was inserted into a gash in the riser, the larger of the two leaks.

"This will diminish the leak," U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said. "It will not contain it completely."

BP and government officials have estimated that 5,000 barrels of oil are leaking into the Gulf each day. Some experts, however, estimate that five times that amount could be escaping.

Suttles said the tube is capable of collecting more oil, and has not yet been fully "optimized." BP will "open the choke" to let more oil in at some point, Suttles said, but is doing so slowly so as not to let in water, which would inhibit the flow.

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Link: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/oil_being_piped_to_surface_wil.html

Stay classy BP...

:wtf: