Now that oil has stopped flowing from BP's blown out Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, a "seep" of undetermined size and nature has been detected within two miles of the cap. Reports indicate that hydrocarbons are issuing from a fissure in the seafloor, but whether that means tarballs or a few bubbles of methane is unclear.
What is clear is if this seep is related to the capped well, the situation at the bottom of the gulf is verging on a nightmare scenario for BP and everyone affected by the oil spill.
Tests on a new, tight-fitting cap for the well went very well over the weekend. Oil stopped flowing, pressure on the cap climbed steadily through Sunday morning, and there was cautious optimism for the first time in months that the worst might be over.
Then the seep was found.
It's important to note that the Gulf of Mexico is riddled with natural hydrocarbon seeps —something like 1.4 million barrels of oil make their way into the water every year without the help of human activity.
So it's possible that this seep has nothing to do with the BP's busted well. It could be that it simply wasn't noticed while up to 60,000 barrels of oil were flowing into the gulf each day because, you know, there were bigger things to worry about.
But as noted previously, BP did a shoddy job of installing the casing for their well, a pretty big reason why the blowout occurred in the first place. So capping the well could be having the disastrous effect of forcing oil and gas out through the walls of the bore hole, fracturing rock and sediment until it finds its way into the gulf.
Why is this so bad? Like sticking your finger in a leaking dam, you hope the fix holds. But if another leak springs up nearby, you know the dam's about to crumble and you've got a big problem on your hands.
It's the same with the well. BP stuck their finger in the hole, and the presence of the seep could be the first sign that the ocean floor is breaking up, providing any number of new paths for the oil to travel.
If that's true — and it's a big "if" at this point — there's really only one option on the table for preventing things from getting utterly out of hand: take off the cap, and restart the flow of oil into the gulf. After the pressure comes down a bit, BP can maneuver its containment device back over the well, but the process could let oil leak for anywhere between a few hours to a few days, depending on who you ask.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Would you want to be the person who gives the order to restart the spill?
