Chevron and Brazilian regulators
reported that a small, fresh oil slick has appeared near the site of
Chevron's blowout last November
in the deepwater Frade oil field in Brazil's prolific Campos Basin.
This is not entirely unexpected given the nature of the problem that
Chevron had with the well being drilled by the SEDCO 706 rig: an unknown
amount of oil escaped laterally from the well into surrounding bedrock,
and worked its way up to the seafloor along a pre-existing natural
fault. It will take some time for all of that oil to emerge, so we've
been anticipating
chronic small oil slicks at this location.
But
optical satellite imagery of this area (MODIS and MERIS) have had
problems with clouds and haze for the past few days, so we haven't seen
any sign of the latest slick. Radar images don't have that problem, but
the most recent radar image we have was taken at about 9pm local time on
March 9, and it looks clean around the SEDCO 706 site:
 |
| Detail
from radar satellite image taken March 9, 2012, showing area of
reported Chevron leak. Envisat ASAR image courtesy European Space Agency. |
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[[Location:-21.889431,-39.833091]]
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