Crews Work to Contain Oil Spill in Gulf after Ida’s Passage

Crews Work to Contain Oil Spill in Gulf after Ida’s Passage

In a satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies, an oil slick is shown on Sept. 2, 2021 south of Port Fourchon, La. The US Coast Guard said Saturday, Sept. 4, that cleanup crews are responding to a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida. (Maxar Technologies via AP)

Workers have deployed containment booms and skimmer devices as they attempt to contain a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico discovered after Hurricane Ida roared through the area, the US Coast Guard said Sunday.

The spill is in waters off Port Fourchon, Louisiana -- near where Ida made landfall -- in a region that is a major hub of the US petrochemical industry, said AFP.

An oil slick now extends more than a dozen miles through the warm waters of the Gulf but has yet to reach shore, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The Coast Guard in Louisiana said it had been informed of a spill in that area and was responding, but provided few details.

Talos Energy, a Texas firm specializing in offshore oil and gas exploration, has dispatched clean-up vessels and divers to the site. The company, which had operated in the area of the spill until 2017, insisted that