Now that this BP Oil Spill is slowly fading from the news headlines, I believe that it’s important to think about what happened and do a bit of research to at least become aware of what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico. If we have no idea of something that’s happening so near, then we can’t possibly begin to understand what goes on elsewhere either.
So, I started with a single question. How many oil rigs are in the Gulf, anyway?
When I first asked myself that question, I thought maybe 200? Those things are so “expensive”, right? 200 seemed reasonable. Well, it turns out that this information is pretty hard to find. Some websites I visited counted 2000, some less, but according to this report by the NOAA, there are currently nearly 4000 active oil rigs that operate at depths of more than 1000m (3,280ft). Now, is it just me or does this number seems ridiculous? 4000? Seriously? How many more could be inactive? Here’s a good map of oil rigs in the Gulf with a legend. Nearly 4000 oil rigs in the Gulf, nearly 44,000 miles of pipelines.
I would imagine that flying over the oil rigs at night might be much like flying in to a city. Those things are so big and they are well lit, I bet.
I can’t find the source for this anywhere at the moment, but I remember reading something about safety standards in the US versus those of European nations. From what I recall, Europe demands that anyone drilling for oil have a safety shut off valve, which I guess the US does not mandate. C’mon USA, really?
I’ve read so much over the last few months about the lack of responsibility that oil companies have and I got so angry at that. It’s good to get angry, right? I think it would be a bad thing if we read all that stuff and felt indifferent.
This BP spill ordeal has she a light on a few things in my own life. I do depend on oil for a lot but I’ve been making a much more concerted effort to conserve and use as little as I can. I ride my bike to work when I can, for one. I hope you are thinking about what you can do, too.
