Our client witnessed an event that would change his life forever–an intentional offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Louisiana.
Little did he know, that was just the beginning of the story.
Out on his very first hitch with a new maritime employer, our client, an ROV (remotely-operated vehicle) operator, was helping to drain residual oil out of a section of underwater pipeline into a bladder before bringing it 1500 feet up to the surface for proper disposal.
All was going as expected until Walter Oil & Gas’s company man, along with a few of our client’s superiors, decided it would be faster and cheaper to simply open the valve on the underwater jumper pipe and bleed off any remaining pressure–and contents– from the line directly into the ocean.
“Lights out!”
Ignoring our client’s suggestion that they should just continue using the bladder they had already been using to drain the residual oil and bring it up to the surface for proper disposal, the client representative for Walter Oil then gave the go-ahead to open the valve and dump the contents into the ocean.
One of our client’s fellow Canyon ROV operators then, reluctantly, did just that and what appeared to be black oil began to pour out into the Gulf.
Taking Action
While watching the situation unfold, our client thought to himself, “if I can’t stop them, then I could at least try and do something about their actions.”
He held his phone discreetly in his lap and did his best to record the activities going on in the room, without drawing too much attention to himself. Fortunately, he was able to get both video and audio of what transpired.
During the course of the recorded conversations, the client representative for Walter O&G admitted that what they were doing was illegal and even stated that he wished they could have done this earlier in the morning, under the cover of darkness.
Walter’s client representative then made note to everyone in the room that as far as anyone else is concerned, it’s just chemical and not oil.
Our client’s supervisor’s light-hearted response was, disturbingly, “I know how to log this (expletive)”.
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