Bp Ignored Offers of Help From Russian Mini Subs

Russian-owned submersibles would have been able to assist in stopping the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the captain of one of the vessels has said. The skipper was speaking of  mini-subs - which can dive to 6,000m .The oval shaped subs recently started a campaign of exploration at the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the deepest lake in the world. The subs are searching for gas hydrates - a potential alternative fuel source - on the bed of Baikal.
Anatoly Sagalevich of Russia's Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, which owns the vessels, said that he had an informal conversation with a BP representative asking if Mirs would be able to help stop the leak.
But he said there was no official request and no real discussions about the matter. He thinks they could still be of help. The offer is still out there.

A BP spokesman said that the company had not had any formal contact with the Russians."We've had over 120,000 people come up with ideas," he said in an e-mail.
"We looked through all of these to see which are viable. If [the Russians] want to contact us (or may have done so through some other channel), we can evaulate their ideas."

The US administration has already called the leak the biggest environmental catastrophe in the country's history. Mr Chernyaev said that his team had held numerous discussions about the oil spill in the Gulf and the Russians were  ready to come to the rescue.
The subs have discovered reserves of gas hydrates on the bottom of the lake. Standing on a barge that transports the two subs after their submersion, the Mir-2 captain underlined that the subs were probably the only manned deep-sea vessels in the world capable of working at that depth.
"Our subs are unique. There are two of them and they can submerge and work simultaneously. Also, they are powerful enough to work with any other additional equipment."
"There are only four vessels in the world that can go down to 6,000m - the Mirs, French Nautile and Japanese Shinkai. The Mirs are known to be the best, and we have a very experienced team of specialists," he said. They would have worked closely with BP in a joint effort." We would probably have had to build devices and attachments for the subs but the subs are very adaptable."

He explained that the subs had already worked in much harsher conditions, such as the Arctic.The submersible's pilot also said that the Russians were very surprised that BP and the US government had not asked them for help from the beginning.
"And we would not refuse to help, even though for us it would be very complicated, especially right now, when we're already working on Baikal. But it doesn't look like anyone seriously wants our help," he added.
Mr Chernyaev was one of the pilots on the first manned descent to the seabed under the geographic North Pole, carried out using the Mir mini-submarines. The expedition was widely reported as a bid to further Moscow's territorial claims in the Arctic.

The two submersibles started their third season of exploration in Lake Baikal on 1 July. Over the last two expeditions, they found reserves of gas hydrates on the lake bed - which some consider a possible alternative fuel source of the future.Gas hydrates are usually formed in permafrost or deep in the oceans. These are crystalline water-based solids; gases such as methane are trapped inside them within cages of hydrogen-bonded water molecules. Baikal is the only freshwater basin where gas hydrates are found in its sediments. Scientists say the depth of the lake - reaching 1,637m - and extremely low temperatures of water near the lake bed both help gas hydrates form at depths exceeding 350m. The current expedition aims to obtain important data about these findings, and is also searching for new life forms, which might be unique to Baikal.
Located in eastern Siberia, not far from the Mongolian border, the lake holds one-fifth of the planet's fresh water and many unique species of plants and animals, among them the nerpa - a species of freshwater seal.