The Gulf Spill - Where Did All the Oil Go?

Although we are not out of the woods yet, it would appear that the Deepwater Horizon blow-out is under control after 100+ days and oil is no longer spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Also, you should note that all sorts of scientists, environmentalists, and government agencies are out there in planes and ships looking for the oil but can’t seem to find it, except for some disconnected patches. However, you don’t see much of this reported in the media. Some 40-60,000 barrels of oil per day were released for almost 100 days, where did it all go?

Well, a small amount did find its way to the Louisiana shore line and wetlands, and maybe some tainted the beaches in Pensacola, and unfortunately some pelicans and turtles may have been lost but not many relative to their population. Some of the oil was burned, mostly at the site of the blow-out, some of the lighter components were evaporated by the warm temperatures in the Gulf, and most of the rest has been and is being broken up and bio-degraded by the many organisms that inhabit the ocean. How can this happen so fast? Simply, the use of the dispersant, COREXIT 9500™.

The COREXIT™ Story

COREXIT™ has been the go –to dispersant in the oil industry for decades, it was developed by Exxon Production Research (EPR) and Exxon Chemicals, and yours truly speaks with some knowledge about this, since I had a part to play in its development and application in major oil spills. Its inventor was a microbiologist named Dr. Gordon Lindblom, a friend and co-worker I met at (EPR) in 1962. No matter what you read in the press, COREXIT™ is not Dawn™ or Joy™ dishwasher soap. The media love to use this over simplification. It is a unique class of chemical that is particularly effective at dispersing crude oil, which is different from most of the refined and natural oils that you and I come across in our daily lives.

Since the chemical was not patentable itself, Gordon was able to obtain a “use” patent for this class of chemicals for use in oil spills, which gave Exxon exclusive rights for these applications for 17 years. When I transferred to Exxon Chemical I encouraged Gordon to join our research organization and added COREXIT™ to our product line and encouraged him to develop better application techniques for offshore spills. He proceeded to become the world’s expert on aerial spray applications, designing specific equipment for aircraft used in these applications.

In the meantime, we contracted long-term toxicity studies to determine the effect of the dispersant on fish and other sea creatures, as well as evaluate its impact on the food-chain. No significant long-term toxic effects have ever been proven or illustrated, plenty have been speculated.

The Ixtoc 1 Blow-Out

In 1979, when the Mexican oil company, PEMEX, had a blow –out on the IXTOC 1 platform off the coast of Cuidad del Carmen in the southern Gulf of Mexico, I was in charge of the chemical division involved with the COREXIT™ product and spent may weeks and trips to Mexico convincing the authorities in charge of the clean-up that COREXIT™ would prevent environmental damage to their beaches and resort areas. As the spill moved north towards the Texas coastline, the EPA would not permit us to use the dispersants to prevent damage to the U.S. coastline at Padre Island. The Mexicans made the right decision and not one drop of oil ever hit the Mexican coast, while Padre Island resorts were basically closed for many weeks while the manual work of clean-up went on. The IXTOC spill went on for 10 months although it was only in 100 ft. of water, but was worse than the BP spill in terms of volume.

BP’s Handling of the Clean-Up

I believe that the key to minimizing environmental damage in the case of BP was the sub-surface application of the dispersant directly at the well head, combined with the aerial application. This technology did not exist at the time of the IXTOC spill.

We are now hearing rumblings from legislators how BP and the U.S. Coast Guard ignored President Obama’s executive order and the EPA to terminate the use of dispersants early in the process. Thank God, they did or our Gulf beaches would be badly contaminated, our fishing and resort industries would be in shambles, and a lot more pelicans would have died.

So that’s where all the oil went, and now I await a rebuttal from some of my environmentalist friends who are trying to protect us in their well meaning but misguided way.

A Footnote

P.S. Exxon sold its Specialty Chemicals business and the COREXIT™ technology to Nalco Chemicals in the early 90’s and Nalco was the vendor to BP for the spill. To my knowledge no change was made in the formula and Exxon was not involved other than offering counsel in its oil spill expertise. Exxon was not permitted by the government to use COREXIT™in the Valdez tanker spill.