Is it supposed to look like that?

[Splattle101]

This is supposed to be a pic of the oil rig that had a little bit of an accident off the North West Shelf of Western Australia last year. Leaked a little bit of oil, apparently. For about ten weeks, apparently.

Ah, the joy of an oil spill that can only be seen from the air. No pesky media attention. No pesky locals plucking bedraggled sea birds off blackened beaches. Just a great big f**king slick in the middle of the ocean, hundreds of km long.

Be interesting to see what comes out of the enquiry.

Inquiry begins into massive oil leak - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

[basschick22]

Somebody missed the sign that read "NO SMOKING"!!!!

Seriously, that's not a good thing.

 

[MaiL3sP4ul]

Something doesn't look quite right either... But I just can't quite put my finger on it... Could it be that something is on fire?

 

[kungpow!]

At least they got water to put it out

 

[PraXis]

All that black goodness gone.

 

[MaiL3sP4ul]

Where's Michael Bay when you need him... EXPLOSIONS

 

[PraXis]

Where's Michael Bay when you need him... EXPLOSIONS

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pM8PrqY5Rg]YouTube - Pearl harbor sucks[/ame]

 

[Lyrica]

At least they got water to put it out

water doesnt' put out oil or chemical fires. there are certain methods of putting out such a fire that my roomy is aware of ie: certain chemical dousers etc. if you want more detail i'll ask my roomy as she works in an oil refinery and has fought several oil fires as well as has had almost yearly upgrades to her fire suppression training.

 

[Howard2k]

Correct, never use water on an oil fire.

 

[AXE]

I'm pretty sure the water statement was tongue in cheek.

 

[Sven]

As long as it keeps burning, there's no oil slick problem.

 

[JMV]

water doesnt' put out oil or chemical fires. there are certain methods of putting out such a fire that my roomy is aware of ie: certain chemical dousers etc. if you want more detail i'll ask my roomy as she works in an oil refinery and has fought several oil fires as well as has had almost yearly upgrades to her fire suppression training.

AFFF

Aqueous Film Forming Foam. It forms a layer over the oil that chokes out the fire.

I hate seeing things like this.

 

[KSG_Standard]

Is it supposed to look like that?

No, ya'll are doing it wrong.

 

[coldsteal2]

Looks like the Iranian Oil Platforms after we got
done with them during Operation Praying Mantis
when i was in the Navy in 88, after the Iranian Navy
attacked our ships

 

[Underliner6]

Wow!

 

[circusboy28]

So this happened just off the coast of Australia last year?? Jeez, they kept that quiet, this is the first I've heard of it. What a disaster. How many of us thought Peter Garrett would make a difference to the environment? "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..."

 

[Splattle101]

It's a platform owned by a Thai consortium. I suppose we'll find out what caused it during the enquiry, but at the time there was limited coverage of it here in WA. The slick was huge, but it was all out at sea. It was therefore only visible to shipping and aircraft.

And in this day of television / vid / netvid, if you don't have footage of it, it won't make the news. This is one of the reasons I prefer radio news bulletins: they're not driven by the availability of piccies. Like everybody here says, pics or it didn't happen.

 

[geochem1st]

Not the first time Oz has had this problem. This is from Nov '09:

West Atlas oil rig fire | PTTEP | Oil spill WA

 

[Scooter2112]

Ah, the joy of an oil spill that can only be seen from the air. No pesky media attention.

Did I miss something?? Isn't this a MEDIA story??

Inquiry begins into massive oil leak - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

[Splattle101]

Did I miss something?? Isn't this a MEDIA story??

Inquiry begins into massive oil leak - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Yes, you missed something. For a start, that's the article I linked in the OP. Secondly, it is about an enquiry into this disaster months after the fact. Coverage of it at the time was spotty at best. The article Geo has linked above is one of the few bits of coverage of this event.