The skimming part of the Shell oil-spill cleanup off the Louisiana coast has ended according to the Dutch-British supermajor and the US Coast Guard (USCG).
Shell and USCG had been jointly handling the skimming operation since Thursday when an underwater flowline discharged almost 90,000 gallons of oil into the US Gulf of Mexico.
The spill occurred at the occurred at the Gilder Field’s subsea tieback system at Shell’s Brutus platform almost 100 miles south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.
Shell claims that after four days of skimming, around 84,000 gallons of oily water mixture has been recovered and no more sheen is visible to aerial or marine observers. The leak was contained after wells flowing into the pipeline were shut in.
A seven-person panel established by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is investigating the cause of the leak.
