Drone Submarine Oil Tanks

Good idea. You could power these with top-side barges that generate power by utilizing wave power.

Now, if you can come up with a way to transport the oil to the surface and into waiting tankers.

Maybe the power generating barges could do double duty as holding tanks.

I like the "pump with a compressor" idea. Tell us more.

If memory serves, they had a number of robots working below. However, I don't think anything could capture the leaking oil from a full open well due to the huge pressure coming out of the well.

If you remember, they even tried to unsuccessfully drop a cap on the well that weighed 100 tons or so as a means to cap and siphon off the oil.

Small leaks happen all the time naturally on the sea bed floor, so minor leaks are not even an issue. Capping a large gusher is the issue and well head pressures are enormous, which means that a very large volume of oil is gushing very fast when a catastrophic rupture takes place.

There are already safeguards in effect. If in the last oil catastrophe those safeguards would have prevented it if they had not been modified non functional. How will this drone help? Will it be able to shut down operations if it detects a modified equipment? And just as in the last spill who's to say the drone won't be modified and become non functional

Before drilling in the ocean, some countries require that a relief well be drilled at the same time as the main well.This way, in case of a blow out, and all other measures fail, the relief well is already present for use, instead of waiting several months to drill a relief well.

To me, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.Sure, this will increase the cost of offshore drilling, but considering the alternative,it is a cheap safety.

If the insurance companies that insure these rigs would require it, the drilling companies would have to comply.