Details on Decade-Long Gulf Oil Spill To Be Released Under Court Deal

"WASHINGTON -- The New Orleans company fighting a decade-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday agreed to pay for research on the ecological effects of chronic offshore crude leaks and buy equipment for environmental restoration efforts, as part of a deal settling a long-running lawsuit against the firm.

Under the agreement between Taylor Energy Co. and environmental groups, the firm also will hold a public meeting to detail its work combating the oil that has been oozing into the Gulf since Sept. 15, 2004, when Hurricane Ivan toppled its platform eleven miles off Louisiana’s coast and an underwater mudslide buried 28 wells in 100 feet of sediment.

The company, once the Gulf’s largest privately held oil and gas operator, has been tackling the leak ever since: conducting daily overflights to look for sheens, building and installing a subsea containment system to fit over three identified plumes and drilling nine intervention wells within inches of the original wellbores at a cost of about $65.7 million apiece."

Jennifer A. Dlouhy reports for FuelFix/Houston Chronicle August 27, 2015.