WASHINGTON - The federal government issued an ultimatum to an energy company that has failed to stop its damaged oil platform from leaking thousands of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico every day for more than 14 years.
In an order issued by the U.S. Coast Guard, Taylor Energy Co. was told to "institute a . . . system to capture, contain, are remove oil" from the site or face a $40,000 per day fine for failing to comply. The order was issued Oct. 23, a day after The Washington Post reported that the spill was far greater than Interior Department estimates, themselves based on company data.
Up to 700 barrels of oil have leaked from Taylor Energy's former site 12 miles off the coast of Louisiana since the platform was destroyed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004, according to an analysis issued by the Justice Department. Each barrel contains 42 gallons. Based on reports from contractors hired by Taylor Energy, the government had previously estimated that the spill amounted to just 0 to 55 barrels per day.
The analysis by Oscar Garcia-Pineda, a geoscience consultant who specializes in remote sensing of oil spills, was commissioned as part of the government's defense against a lawsuit by Taylor. The company is requesting that the Interior Department return more than $400 million placed in a trust to pay for plugging the wells and cleaning the site.
Acting on the analysis, the Coast Guard requested that Taylor attend an early November meeting of a Unified Command of federal agencies overseeing the spill with at least two plans for implementing a containment system and timeline for completing it. By the end of the meeting on November 9, government officials would choose a plan.
A Coast Guard spokesman, John Fitzgerald, said Tuesday that Taylor Energy did not actually present a plan until another meeting of the Unified Command that took place Nov. 13 through 16. But the company's proposal was rejected in favor of a plan submitted by an independent contractor because it "provided both the best capability and timeline for responding" to the ongoing spill.
Taylor has already plugged nine of the 28 wells at its platform. The company has disputed that the wells, buried under 100 feet of mud from an underwater avalanche triggered by the hurricane, are the source of a massive spill. It said "the best science" shows that the wells were low pressure, meaning that little oil remained at the site.
"The Coast Guard issued its order relying on deeply-flawed analysis and inflated volumes" by Garcia-Pineda, the Taylor statement said. The company called the analysis a legal tactic by the Justice Department.
"The inflated volumes are completely inconsistent with the scientific record built over a decade by the world's leading scientists, including those regularly relied upon by the government," the Taylor statement said. Those scientists have said oil has contaminated soil at the site and could be released if it is disturbed.
“Taylor Energy’s greater concern is that the government is leading the response down a dangerous path that will create an environmental impact that currently does not exist,” Taylor said. “If there were anything legally permissible and effective that Taylor Energy could do in an environmentally responsible manner to stop the sheen, we would have already done it.”