Drilling contractor Transocean has announced that there are no hydrocarbons leaking from the sunken 'Deepwater Horizon' or the riser, the pipe that linked the rig to the well head before the Macondo oil spill last year.
Transocean announced its findings following completion of a two-day underwater examination conducted with the US Coast Guard (USCG) on October 4-5. The investigation, undertaken with the use of a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), also failed to find any "sheen" or oil in the area. The inspection was undertaken after a sheen was reported on the water in the vicinity of the sealed Macondo well and the USCG issued a notice to the company.
In a statement issued after the completion of the inspection, the USCG said: "Coast Guard experts viewed the feed from the ROV and all agreed that nothing shown in the feed provided any indication that there was release of oil from the riser, the fuel tanks or any other debris at the wreckage site. No discharge or leaking from the riser or the wreckage was observed. Furthermore, there was no oil product either on the surface or subsurface that could be sampled."
