Lac du Bonnet man helping clean up oil spill

News

Posted By Marc Zienkiewicz

Updated 1 month ago

The EverGreen burner in action. It turns a flow of oil and gas into vapour that is burned without creating excessive smoke.

Lac du Bonnet's Ron Sellers is in the Gulf of Mexico helping to clean up the biggest offshore oil spill in American history.

Sellers — son of Lac du Bonnet's Don and Violet Sellers — is operating a machine called an EverGreen burner aboard the Q4000, a $180 million state-of-the-art oil field vessel deployed in response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which has sent more than four million barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf since the spill began April 20.

"I'm hoping to go ashore tomorrow — it's been very busy," Sellers said during a phone interview on Monday.

The 48-year-old has worked in the oil industry for more than 20 years.

"I've worked all over the planet. I've been to more places than I can remember."

He was recently hired by Schlumberger, an oil field services provider, to operate the EverGreen burner, which is designed to burn off oil fumes produced during well testing.

Petroleum giant BP is using it to burn off oil collected during the cleanup. It turns a flow of oil and gas into vapour that is pushed out a dozen nozzles and burned without creating excessive smoke.

According to Schlumberger's website, the machine "is highly efficient with all types of oil, particularly heavy and waxy oils. The Evergreen burner can operate effectively with up to 25 per cent water cut, which makes it ideal for cleanup operations."

The first time Sellers used one was in Scotland. He's worked in 23 countries in all, including Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Iran, Nigeria, Malta, and Malaysia.

"When I got to the Q4000 there were two people I knew from Europe, one from Scotland and one from Holland. They were the ones who saw the worst of it. As you know, it's hot and humid down here and burning off the oil just makes things a bit warmer. I arrived on the Q4000 the day after they put the cap on (the leaking oil well), but we had to be ready to start burning oil again if things went wrong."

Sellers arrived in New Orleans July 6, immediately undergoing safety training.

"I had to watch videos on (using a) hearing and breathing apparatus. We wear face masks, the kind you would find in your room in case of fire, offshore," he says.

After arriving in New Orleans he was taken by a private transport firm to Houma, Louisiana, a city of just over 32,000.

"I'm in a staff house at the moment, a nice one, three bedrooms and all. But it's about a 20-minute drive to the base," he said upon his arrival.

But that was before he was sent to work on the Q4000, designed to operate in more than three kilometres of water.

"There are four-man rooms and you have to share the bathroom with another four-man room. For something built in 2001, I found it a bit old-fashioned, but the food was all right. There is not much to do but eat, work and sleep. All communications are monitored by BP and the U.S. government, so we were told. No talking about work except to the offices involved, even e-mails and twitter are monitored."

Resting time is also erratic.

"I'm hoping to go ashore tomorrow but I don't know for sure," he says, the roar of machines echoing in the background.

Although the oil leak below the ocean's surface was capped in recent days, crews are still working on the relief well designed to access and permanently stop the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The project was delayed over the weekend due to bad weather.

Crews are "taking steps necessary to reconnect with the well and resume drilling operations," BP said in a statement on Monday.

Since the oil spill began in April, much of the Gulf coastline has been lathered in oil, coating beaches and wildlife and virtually destroying the region's fishing and tourism industry.

According to BP, Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward will be replaced by American Robert Dudley on Oct. 1. Hayward has been sharply criticized for his response to the spill, and has been keeping a low profile in London for the past month since appearing before a Congressional committee.

Sellers says the mood is low among the area's residents, as the economic and environmental consequences of the spill become more and more apparent.

Since a moratorium on deepwater drilling was announced by President Barack Obama, Sellers says workers being flown in from outside the region is elevating frustration among the people.

"The people are hurting around here, still recovering from (Hurricane Katrina) and now this," he says. "People are out of work, no more drilling and (now) they are bringing us in."

The atmosphere is tense when he goes ashore, but he said the people by and large are willing to help him and his friends get around. He managed to get some shore leave last weekend, when a hurricane threatened to batter the Gulf Coast.

Sellers' sister Denise Wanvig said the family is extremely proud that he is assisting with the oil spill cleanup.

"My family and I live in the state of Texas, so we are witnessing first hand the horrible and disastrous effect that it has had on our environment," she says.

"To know that our brother is there assisting with the cleanup has brought us great pride, and I can say that for all of my family. To see the look of awe and wonderment on my children's faces when I told them that their uncle was being sent there to work on helping clean up that disaster was such a prideful moment for me."

Sellers said despite the media frenzy surrounding the oil spill, living in the middle of the disaster is not an adventure in any sense of the word. More like a test of endurance.

"I think Lac du Bonnet would be more exciting," he says.