Article by Puja Mahanta, The North-Eastern Chronicle
Visual by: Anupal Deuri Bharali
Ocean fires are scary and after an undersea oil pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico broke on July 3, lighting the ocean surface fire, Democratic legislators insulted climate doubters. A gas leak from an undersea pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a roaring fire on the ocean’s surface on Friday.
The fire, which started west of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, was put out hours later, according to Pemex, the state oil corporation.
The announcement that the ocean is on fire is https://northeasternchronicle.in/news/natures-delight-mesmerising-visuals-of-kakodonga-river-in-golaghat-assam-is-taking-over-the-internet/generally accompanied by dramatic photos flying through social media. Not to get all Neil deGrasse Tyson on you, but it’s worth considering how this may go down. As Simon George, an organic geochemistry professor at Macquarie University in Australia, explains, the fire is burning at the surface.
How did Ocean caught fire?
“The fire was caused by methane and probably other wet gas components (ethane, propane, etc.) igniting at the ocean surface after leaking from the pipeline,” he told CNET via email.
Also read: Nature’s Delight: Mesmerising visuals of Kakodonga river in Golaghat, Assam is taking over the internet
The fire took more than five hours to fully put out, according to Pemex. After the gas leak ignited about 5:15 a.m. local time, Pemex claimed no casualties were recorded, and the project’s output was unaffected. By 10:30 a.m., it was totally out. The business also stated that it will look into the cause of the incident.
Pemex also shut the valves on the 12-inch-diameter pipeline, which has a lengthy history of catastrophic industrial catastrophes at its facilities. Ku Maloob Zaap is Pemex’s biggest crude oil producer, accounting for more than 40% of its nearly 1.7 million barrels of daily output.
Despite the fact that Ku-Maloob-Zaap produces more than 700,000 barrels of oil per day on average, Pemex’s overall output has been declining, and the company is currently $114 billion in debt, according to Bloomberg News. As a result, the firm has been unable to invest in new extraction techniques.
On Twitter, the Center for Biological Diversity called for a ban on new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico, citing a “shocking new illustration of how unclean and hazardous offshore drilling is”.
The event “did not result in any spill,” according to Angel Carrizales, the head of Mexico’s oil safety authority ASEA, who stated on Twitter. He didn’t say what was on the water’s surface that was burning. The fire on the Gulf of Mexico’s surface has been put out, but the pipeline breach remains a mystery.
