AP: Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned gas, oil wells

reply to post by Aristophrenia


Thank you, great reply. Star for you. Condidering the amount of ships/ planes that have gone down in the gulf you are correct. What troubles me more is the potential cargo.

reply to post by ZindoDoone


Actually oil wells are never pumped dry. They go till the well is no longer profitable, that is its output doesn't pay for the cost running it and they cap it and move on.

Like the other poster, and the article mention, wells do repressurize from time to time.

Originally posted by ExPostFacto
Maybe this explains the Gulf "Dead Zone" area. If I were an investigator I might start in that area.

Perhaps. Or perhaps it is the hundreds of millions of gallons of urban and agricultural run-off that gets dumped into the water every year that contribute to the algae blooms that cause lowered levels of oxygen that are the 'Dead Zones".

reply to post by justadood


OK, that is infact a possibillity. I take it you are talking about phosphates specifically. (algaes food source). Unfortunately for the post it in-fact requires a phosphate level of more than 300 ppm in that kind of saline (environment 35,000 ppm of salt) If you consider the actual size of the gulf 310 miles by 800 miles, the average depth being roughly 2500 feet. If you take the length, which is 1,636,800 linear feet and multiply it by the width which is 4,224,000 feet, you then get a figure of 6,913,843,200,000 which would then be the square feet of the gulf at the surface, and then multiply that figure by the average depth of 2,500 feet you then get the figure of roughly 10,728,460,800,000,000 cubic feet. You then multiply that by gallons per cubic foot which is 7.48, equals 800,248,886,784,000,000 gallons of water in the gulf (obviously based on a rough estimate). I don't believe there have been enough man made phosfastes created in the history of mankind to produce the amounts of phosfates required to produce the algae required in the gulf to recreate the same dead zone which you refer to. Secondly the amount of algae, (blue-green or stricly green) it would take to create that type of oxygen depleting "dead zone" you reffer to would take a wall of algae that you could literally walk on 10-20 miles directly into the gulf. Therefore I doubt the algae in itself is the case. Although other toxic chemicals take effect at a far lower level, typically .5 to 1 parts per million, and therefore the industrial runoff could still be the issue, and therefore I am not disagreeing with you, just not on the algae point. So you know, I am a water purification specialist by trade, and have been for the last 17 years, I live and breathe water purification 60-70 hours a week every week. And phosphate creation and control is my specialty.