Oil sheen seen for miles off Galveston coast, spill coming from ‘inactive’ offshore drilling platform

Published: Sat, 07/20/24

Oil sheen seen for miles off Galveston coast, spill coming from ‘inactive’ offshore drilling platform

“It’s bad for everybody.”

GALVESTON, Texas – A massive oil sheen is stretching for miles along the Galveston coast in the Gulf of Mexico.

The sheen is coming from an offshore drilling platform 12 miles from the sandy beaches of the Bolivar Peninsula, near Crystal Beach.

Reports of the spill were first posted to social media over the weekend.

Then an investigation by the Texas General Land Office (GLO) pinpointed the spill to an offshore drilling platform located in the High Island 98-L plot.

According to the General Land Office, the spill is “natural gas and condensate from a flowline riser.”

Among the first to spot the problem in roughly 40 foot deep water was fishermen who rely on the water to put food on the table for their families and others.

A massive oil sheen seen for miles extends from an offshore drilling platform 12 miles off the coast of Galveston, Texas in the Gulf of Mexico on July 19, 2024. (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.)

“I’ve been hearing that there is a small spray coming out of a pipeline,” said Buddy Guindon, owner of Katie’s Seafood Market in Galveston. “The water is what our product lives in and the cleaner the water is, the better the product.”

Guindon took KPRC2′s Gage Goulding out to see the spill for the first time. It’s also the first time Guindon visited the spill.

“Who knows what a small leak is,” he said. “Could be a little drip, it could be a spray, it could be gushing out. I have no idea.”

After a roughly 30-minute boat ride, you could tell we arrived from both the clear sight of the oil sheen on the water and the overpowering smell of oil and gas.

The findings: a small, consistent stream flowing from a pipe no more than ten feet out of the water, polluting the Gulf with gallon after gallon of natural gas condensate.

“Well, I had no expectations, but it’s terrible,” Guindon said. “Anytime it’s a consistent stream of, some kind of petroleum going in the water. It’s bad for everybody.”

The Texas General Land Office is one of a handful of agencies investigating, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the Texas Railroad Commission.

The GLO shares that the platform, which clearly has seen better days, isn’t active anymore.

A spokesperson deferred to the Railroad Commission as to whether the rig is “abandoned.”

“Somebody should be responsible for it,” Guindon said. “I don’t know how you get to that person, but yeah, it’s a problem.”

That’s the big problem right now.

The GLO office is working with other agencies to find out who owns the rig and who’s ultimately responsible.

It might be harder than you would think.

Years of harsh weather have worn away the signs on the rig.

In the meantime, the GLO tells KPRC2 that they are keeping a close eye on the situation.

“TGLO Oil Spill personnel have traveled to the site twice this week to investigate the leak,” a spokesperson wrote to KPRC2. “At this time there is only a sheen emanating from the riser and no recoverable amounts of oil. We did not see any environmental impact during our time at the site.”

Just take a look from above, or ask any fisherman, and they’ll tell you there’s something wrong and that someone needs to come out to stop the leak and clean it up.

“People responsible should be punished. The people responsible should have to pay,” Guindon said. “The only way it makes any difference is if it costs them money.”

This is a developing story. Stay with KPRC2 and Click2Houston.

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