BP on Saturday completed a subsea mission to determine whether the Deepwater Horizon site is again leaking oil, the U.S. Coast Guard announced today, but the results of the search have yet to be released.
As of Friday, no leak had been found, according to the Coast Guard’s on-scene coordinator, Capt. Duke Walker. Walker said the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) had not yet examined the containment dome or looked at the main wellhead and two relief wells on the site.
The inspections stem from a leak discovered in September, after an oil sheen 50 miles off Louisiana was linked to the Deepwater Horizon site. The leak was plugged in October, but more sheens and slicks have continued to surface. The most recent mission was to determine a possible source.
Walker said that thousands of barrels of oil — each containing 42 gallons — may be trapped in the wreckage and equipment from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion.
“The other thing [BP] added to the target package this time that we have not looked at previously is the rig wreckage itself, which may contain some small pockets of oil,” Walker said.
The maritime attorneys at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury Lawyers represent workers injured in offshore drilling accidents.
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