CNN Confirms Methane “Bubbling” From Surface At Unknown Distance From Well !

• Don Van Nieuwenhuise interview, CNN, July 19, 2010 at 1:20p.m.:
  Rush Transcript Excerpts 
  Starts at 2:53 in
  CNN: The other concern… is the buildup of methane over the oil well…  
  CNN: Why do we think there is seepage? tell me about this and what the implications are?
   
  Don Van Nieuwenhuise, director of Professional Geosciences Programs at the University of Houston: They’ve seen a little bit of a spike in the methane content around the well… but not bubbles. So as far as BP is concerned there is no leak there.
   
  But some distance — and I still haven’t heard what that distance is — away from that, they actually can see some methane escaping at the surface and is essentially bubbling through the strata.
   
  And in that case it’s possible that some of the sands below the surface have been charged with oil and gas… The gas will leak out first, and then later on the oil will start to leak out.
   
  CNN: You mentioned they are seeing methane… what are the implications of methane? Why do we now have to be concerned with methane?…
   
  Nieuwenhuise: If a well is completely sealed-in you do not want to see an increase in methane… One of the most serious situations would be is that if you have a leak very close to the well head and you could have a potential erosion of the substrate or the rocks around that well head that could cause it to collapse if the flow increased enough…

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