Drill, baby, drill!

[RandyKnight]

Well I just heard on the news something about the EPA proving fracking being bad.....

Guess the reports will be out soon...or bought off EPA?

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

Well I just heard on the news something about the EPA proving fracking being bad.....

Guess the reports will be out soon...or bought off EPA?

Nice catch. I just happened on a AP Story myself. And I worked in this field during the actual fracking that caused the pollution. The different procedure they are referring to in the story was using liquid carbon dioxide to fracture the formation. They ended up fracturing everything including the ground and water well formations. (Ground water is usually more shallow while (potable) water well formations tend to be deeper).

APNewsBreak: EPA theorizes fracking-pollution link

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.


The draft finding could have significant implications while states try to determine how to regulate the process. Environmentalists characterized the report as a significant development though it met immediate criticism from the oil and gas industry and a U.S. senator.


The practice is called hydraulic fracturing and involves pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals underground to open fissures and improve the flow of oil or gas to the surface.


The EPA found that compounds likely associated with fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming where residents say their well water reeks of chemicals. Health officials last year advised them not to drink their water after the EPA found low levels hydrocarbons in their wells.


The EPA announcement could add to the controversy over fracking, which has played a large role in opening up many gas reserves, including the Marcellus Shale in the eastern U.S. in recent years.


The industry has long contended that fracking is safe, but environmentalists and some residents who live near drilling sites say it has poisoned groundwater.


The EPA said its announcement is the first step in a process of opening up its findings for review by the public and other scientists.


"EPA's highest priority remains ensuring that Pavillion residents have access to safe drinking water," said Jim Martin, EPA regional administrator in Denver. "We look forward to having these findings in the draft report informed by a transparent and public review process."


The EPA also emphasized that the findings are specific to the Pavillion area. The agency said the fracking that occurred in Pavillion differed from fracking methods used elsewhere in regions with different geological characteristics.


The fracking occurred below the level of the drinking water aquifer and close to water wells, the EPA said. Elsewhere, drilling is more remote and fracking occurs much deeper than the level of groundwater that would normally be used.


Environmentalists welcomed the news of the EPA report, calling it an important turning point in the fracking debate.

http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-ep...211055287.html

Also this might actually throw the EPA off the most significant form of ground and water well pollution which happens during the drilling process, not during fracking at the end of the well.

And the reason is simple. Most drilling fluids are heavier than water. So when they drill through them drilling fluids force their way into the water formations, where they often ferment.

[freespiritx]

.
It's mazing how oil and gas companies rights to drill, trump our basic rights to clean, safe, drinking water and air!
I mean after all, we don't need clean water and air to survive, do we?
THE BASTARDS!

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by freespiritx

.
It's mazing how oil and gas companies rights to drill, trump our basic rights to clean, safe, drinking water and air!
I mean after all, we don't need clean water and air to survive, do we?
THE BASTARDS!

In the area mentioned in the story farmers and other residents were very surprised to find that ENCANA could just open the gates to their fields, pay them for the surface damage, and then put a drilling rig in their field or backyard and there was nothing they could do about it. Many of them didn't even have mineral rights.

They are still hauling water out there but now ENCANA has sold the field and is trying to sneak off.

[stumbler]

Shell Arctic drilling conditionally approved

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary received federal approval Friday for drilling exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast but with conditions that raised concerns with the state's congressional delegation.


Approval by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management came with the catch that Shell must lop 38 days off the short summer open-water drilling season for drilling to make sure it has time cope with a spill or a wellhead blowout before sea ice moves in.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shell-...231429531.html

[stumbler]

Deaths after Russian oil rig capsizes
At least four die in freezing waters after oil platform overturns in country's far eastern Okhotsk sea.

At least four people have died in freezing waters after an oil rig platform overturned and capsized in Russia's far eastern Okhotsk sea, the regional emergency ministry said.


"The investigation's main suspected reason for the accident was a violation of safety regulations by transporting the platform with no account for weather conditions, as there was a strong storm in the area"
- Russian Investigative Committee
Sixty-seven people were on the Kolskaya oil rig platform when the accident occurred on Sunday as the platform was being towed from the eastern Kamchatka peninsula towards the island of Sakhalin.


Forty-nine of those onboard have been missing since the incident.


"The portholes were damaged by ice and waves, and water began going into the vessel," a regional emergency ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency.


"Four people in wetsuits were located in the water without any signs of life" but rescuers were unable to pull them out because of the poor weather conditions, the agency said in a statement.


The crew was waiting to be evacuated by helicopter but the platform turned over and sank before they could board their rescue rafts, he said.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe...405706220.html


The Russians have also said that because the rig was being moved there's no danger of pollution or a blow out.


But they're kind of bullshitting on that one because there's a shit load of diesel fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluid and its going to escape sooner or later.

[stumbler]

Afghanistan signs ‘$7 bn’ oil deal with China

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/2...al-with-china/


And get ready for another spat of running the price of oil up. Because someone in Iran said it would be easy to block the Persian Gulf.

[stumbler]

Here's what's really good news to me at least. Because they got it coming.

U.S. Preps Charges in BP Spill

U.S. prosecutors are preparing to file the first criminal charges against BP employees for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, says The Wall Street Journal. While the specific targets are unknown, investigators are focusing on several Houston-based engineers and at least one of their supervisors. Prosecutors say these suspects provided false information to regulators about the risks of the oil well while it was still operating. Charges could be brought in early 2012.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/...-bp-spill.html

But how many of you know that Shell Oil has what is believed to be a bigger spill off the coast of Nigeria right now.

And how's the sanctions going against Iran? What's the price of oil today? People are right we get most our oil from Canada and Mexico which won't matter because if they shut off the Persian Gulf Canada and Mexico will be charging $150 to $200 per barrel to. And you'll probably be paying between $5.00 nd $10 per gallon for gas and diesel.

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

What's the price of oil today? People are right we get most our oil from Canada and Mexico which won't matter because if they shut off the Persian Gulf Canada and Mexico will be charging $150 to $200 per barrel to. And you'll probably be paying between $5.00 nd $10 per gallon for gas and diesel.

Right now and for awhile we are bouncing off of the ceiling for oil prices....

at 100 per barrel the economy is moving fair and we have gotten use to the 3 to 3.50 gas...

when those prices go up the economy slumps and less gas is used so demand goes down and the price drops...

repeat the process...


we have got to get off this see saw and convert to nat gas...

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

Right now and for awhile we are bouncing off of the ceiling for oil prices....

at 100 per barrel the economy is moving fair and we have gotten use to the 3 to 3.50 gas...

when those prices go up the economy slumps and less gas is used so demand goes down and the price drops...

repeat the process...


we have got to get off this see saw and convert to nat gas...

Now here's about the most stunning, exposing, and infuriating oilfield story I think I've ever heard. It goes against all perceptions I believe and yet is the actual reality.

Gas And Other Fuels Are Top U.S. Exports, For First Time

NEW YORK -- For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world's biggest gas guzzler, is – wait for it – fuel.


Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990. It will also be the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels.


Just how big of a shift is this? A decade ago, fuel wasn't even among the top 25 exports. And for the last five years, America's top export was aircraft.


The trend is significant because for decades the U.S. has relied on huge imports of fuel from Europe in order to meet demand. It only reinforced the image of America as an energy hog. And up until a few years ago, whenever gasoline prices climbed, there were complaints in Congress that U.S. refiners were not growing quickly enough to satisfy domestic demand; that controversy would appear to be over.


Still, the U.S. is nowhere close to energy independence. America is still the world's largest importer of crude oil. From January to October, the country imported 2.7 billion barrels of oil worth roughly $280 billion.


Fuel exports, worth an estimated $88 billion in 2011, have surged for two reasons:


_ Crude oil, the raw material from which gasoline and other refined products are made, is a lot more expensive. Oil prices averaged $95 a barrel in 2011, while gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon – a record. A decade ago oil averaged $26 a barrel, while gasoline averaged $1.44 a gallon.


_ The volume of fuel exports is rising. The U.S. is using less fuel because of a weak economy and more efficient cars and trucks. That allows refiners to sell more fuel to rapidly growing economies in Latin America, for example. In 2011, U.S. refiners exported 117 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products, up from 40 million gallons per day a decade earlier.


There's at least one domestic downside to America's growing role as a fuel exporter. Experts say the trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline. The more fuel that's sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is at home.

Gasoline supplies are being exported to the highest bidder, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "It's a world market," he says.


Refining companies won't say how much they make by selling fuel overseas. But analysts say those sales are likely generating higher profits per gallon than they would have generated in the U.S. Otherwise, they wouldn't occur.


The value of U.S. fuel exports has grown steadily over the past decade, coinciding with rising oil prices and increased demand around the globe.
Developing countries in Latin America and Asia have been burning more gasoline and diesel as their people buy more cars and build more roads and factories. Europe also has been buying more U.S. fuel to make up for its lack of refineries.


And there's a simple reason why America's refiners have been eager to export to these markets: gasoline demand in the U.S. has been falling every year since 2007. It dropped by another 2.5 percent in 2011. With the economy struggling, motorists cut back. Also, cars and trucks have become more fuel-efficient and the government mandates the use of more corn-based ethanol fuel.


The last time the U.S. was a net exporter of fuels was 1949, when Harry Truman was president. That year, the U.S. exported 86 million barrels and imported 82 million barrels. In the first ten months of 2011, the nation exported 848 million barrels (worth $73.4 billion) and imported 750 million barrels.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1177559.html


So they are going to gouge us for $3.50 per gallon while they export fuel to other countries? And we taxpayers are gong to subsidize it. What a fucking racket.


It also really shoots down that "drill baby drill because we need the oil and natural gas" bullshit. We've obviously got more than we need if we exporting it to the world.

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Now here's about the most stunning, exposing, and infuriating oilfield story I think I've ever heard. It goes against all perceptions I believe and yet is the actual reality.

Gas And Other Fuels Are Top U.S. Exports, For First Time


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1177559.html


So they are going to gouge us for $3.50 per gallon while they export fuel to other countries? And we taxpayers are gong to subsidize it. What a fucking racket.


It also really shoots down that "drill baby drill because we need the oil and natural gas" bullshit. We've obviously got more than we need if we exporting it to the world.

That what is called globalization and a free world market....


and yes because our government will not get behind the nat gas bill we will be exporting that in huge quantities very soon...

[RandyKnight]

Oh and btw we are building a new huge port in Jacksonville FL to ship coal to other countries cause they need energy for all the jobs we shipped them in the last 10 years....

Great fucking country our law makers have made for us....

and sorry but Obama is as much to blame as the rest of them...

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

That what is called globalization and a free world market....


and yes because our government will not get behind the nat gas bill we will be exporting that in huge quantities very soon...

I've actually read that in a lot of other discussions that we are drilling and hydraulic fracturing to get more natural gas to export.

But notice something really important here. These exports are being made possible because of better fuel conservation as well as other sources of energy.

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

Oh and btw we are building a new huge port in Jacksonville FL to ship coal to other countries cause they need energy for all the jobs we shipped them in the last 10 years....

Great fucking country our law makers have made for us....

and sorry but Obama is as much to blame as the rest of them...

I could not disagree with you more about President Obama being just another President when it comes to energy and the oil companies. One of the reasons I voted for him and continue to support him because President Obama is doing everything HE can to help us convert to green and renewable energy and lessen OUR dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels.

And the story proves its working.

Also no one should be surprised President Obama approves things like the oil pipeline from Canada. He said all along we need all our forms of energy and he's apparently right even if it is for export.

[stumbler]

Here's two more headlines today.

Natural Gas prices hit an all time low. But there are 2,007 drilling rigs running right now and 800 of them are drilling (and fracking) for natural gas.

And the real news is; the headline you won't read, drilling contractors are building new rigs and looking for anyone who might make a driller.

I've said this many times. The oil monopoly stays 10 years ahead of the government and 20 years ahead of the general public. And the fact we are exporting our energy while claiming its on of our most important problems proves that to anyone but fools.

[RandyKnight]

We got to face the facts that average people do not want to dig into the issues or read investigations about corruption at any level.

They want to send their kids to school get their checks pay their bills drink their beer or smoke their joint with their head buried in the sand.

Right now there is maybe 3% fighting for 99% and 5% laughing all the way to the bank.

[stumbler]

Avoiding fracking earthquakes: expensive venture

A 4.0 New Year’s Eve quake in Ohio prompted officials to shut down five wells used to dispose of fluid used in the hydraulic fracturingprocess. That comes less than a year after Arkansas declared a moratorium due to a surge in earthquakes as companies developed the Fayetteville Shale reserve.


Experts say the quakes do not necessarily appear to be caused during the process of fracking, a controversial extraction technique that involves injecting chemical-laced water and sand into shale rock to release oil and gas.


Instead, it’s the need to dispose of millions of gallons of contaminated fluid extracted from each drilling site, either to be recycled or trucked to a separate location to be pumped deep underground.



The pressure caused by water pushed far below the surface for a long period has been linked to an increase in seismic activity, as water enters fissures and lubricates fault lines which can cause earthquakes in places otherwise free of them.


“It basically greases the wheels of the earthquake process that is there naturally and causes the earthquakes to occur at lower stress levels than they might normally have needed to occur,” said Larry Brown who chairs the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.


Precautions can be taken to mitigate risks of earthquakes near disposal wells, such as lowering injection pressure and avoiding areas with a history of seismic activity, though none of these guarantee total safety.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/0...nsive-venture/

[stumbler]

What do you suppose the Bulgarians know that we don't?

Thousands protest Bulgaria ‘fracking’ plans

Several thousand Bulgarians demonstrated across the country on Saturday against plans for shale gas exploration by US companyChevron that they say could harm the environment.


About 1,000 youngsters marched along the streets of the capital Sofia, beating drums and blowing whistles as “a wake-up call to all Bulgarians,” an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.


They urged people to push the government to impose a ban on hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, the most commonly used method for shale gas exploration that opponents say might contaminate drinking water.


The protestors marched on the government buildings carrying banners saying “No to shale gas, Yes to nature”, and “Chevron go home” to protest the US company’s plans to extract shale gas in the European Union’s poorest member.


Similar-sized demos were held in the northeastern region of Dobrudzha, where Chevron wants to operate, as well as in the Black Sea cities of Varna and Burgas, Plovdiv in the south and Pleven to the north, national radio reported.


Environmental pressure group Fracking Free Bulgaria said Saturday it had obtained a promise from parliamentary speaker Tsetska Tsacheva for lawmakers to consider a moratorium on fracking for shale gas.
Similar legislation was already passed in France last June.
Fracking, which uses high pressure injections of water, sand and chemicals to blast through rock to release oil and gas trapped inside, has been widely used in the United States.


Bulgaria, which depends almost totally on Russian natural gas deliveries via Ukraine, has seen its shale gas potential as a possible way to diversify supplies.


Bulgaria’s government granted Chevron last June a five-year testing permit to explore a potentially huge field near Novi Pazar in northeastern Bulgaria.


The country’s reserves are estimated at between 300 billion and one trillion cubic metres of shale gas, Energy Minister Traicho Traikov had said, citing data by companies.


Environmental groups claim that some preliminary drilling was already done in the northeast as well as in the Black Sea shelf but the government has not confirmed this.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/1...racking-plans/

[stumbler]

Let the howling begin.

Keystone XL Pipeline: Obama Administration Announcing It Will Not Go Forward With Controversial Plan

WASHINGTON -- The State Department will not approve a permit for the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, sources told multiple media outlets on Wednesday.


The news comes after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced at a Tuesday afternoon press conference that President Barack Obama cannot approve the pipeline by the Feb. 21 deadline imposed by Congress.


An announcement is expected from the State Department at 3 p.m.


This is a developing story. More information to come

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1213136.html

And I'm betting the Obama Administration has rope a doped the conservative/Republican/Tea Baggers into another political disaster because there's no possible way the needed environmental impact statements can be completed in the time the GOP lawmakers insisted on.

[Kimiko]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Let the howling begin.

Keystone XL Pipeline: Obama Administration Announcing It Will Not Go Forward With Controversial Plan




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1213136.html

[/I]And I'm betting the Obama Administration has rope a doped the conservative/Republican/Tea Baggers into another political disaster because there's no possible way the needed environmental impact statements can be completed in the time the GOP lawmakers insisted on.

I guess they'll just have to get rid of NEPA too, eh?

Yes, I think if you listen real close, you can hear the howls of wounded outrage coming from South Carolina as we speak.

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by Kimiko

I guess they'll just have to get rid of NEPA too, eh?

Yes, I think if you listen real close, you can hear the howls of wounded outrage coming from South Carolina as we speak.

Worse than that. This is one of the largest contradictions I've seen. Its a voter registration effort no less sponsored by the oil and gas interests.

http://vote4energy.org/

So essentially we have the Koch Brothers et. al. with the help of ALEC trying to pass voter repression legislation all over the nation and at the same time promoting voter registration within their demographic.

But I honestly don't think they are going to get away with it this time.

[stumbler]

Now I'm actually very suspicious about this. And that's the apparent 11th hour settlement BP reached with people who make their living in and around the Gulf of Mexico and its not chump change either; $7.8 billion payout according to reports.

And maybe this story is right. There's perfectly logical and reasonable reasons to take the payout now. But I wonder because sometimes the truth tends to come out during trials and now we're not going to have one.

With BP oil spill billions at stake, why did Gulf fishermen suddenly settle?

News that 100,000 fishermen and oil spill workers settled with BP for $7.8 billion rather than going to trial suggests a lesson from the Valdez spill: Drawn-out litigation can become its own tragedy.

ATLANTA

Gulf of Mexico fishermen battered by the aftermath of the 2010 BP oil spill suddenly settled a major class-action lawsuit against BP on Friday, agreeing to what's likely to be a $7.8 billion payout in return for dropping the litigation.


The settlement, representing some 100,000 fishermen, oil spill workers and others isn't likely to please all the potential litigants still trying to get compensated for the economic effects of the spill, the worst in US history, which bled 2.3 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf's most sensitive estuaries and fishing grounds, and onto its white sand beaches.


Others worried that the deal would simply shift the payout onus from BP onto a small cadre of lawyers, who themselves stand to make millions. And in reaching the settlement, BP managed to clear perhaps the single biggest hurdle to putting the 2010 spill behind it and moving on with oil exploration in the Gulf. It's still embroiled in civil litigation with the US government over spill damages and with Deepwater Horizon contractors over liability.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/03...uddenly-settle


(By the way the Christian Science Monitor is very much like Al Jazeera. They've got really suspicious sounding names and pretty weird sponsors. But the same challenge remains for both of them. If you can point to anything less than excellent standards and excellent unbiased reporting you do that. But until you do you're actually just believing your own bullshit. Because they are both really good news sources).

[stumbler]

Man I cannot believe that all hell could be breaking loose in Ohio over fracking and gas drilling and there's no report of it until "Super Tuesday."

But check this:

Ohioans face down fracking — and a lack of environmental oversight

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/0...tal-oversight/

But I think this is even more important because its the first retreat I've seen in the Drill Baby Drill Republican strategy. And it could be the first fracture in cracking the house.

Fracking Divides GOP As Kasich Introduces Bold Policy

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When it comes to the controversial gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, the Republican Party itself appears fractured – especially in the critical swing state of Ohio.
Super Tuesday voters are choosing among a field of GOP contenders who all support less regulation of the drilling technique, even as some Republicans in the state call for greater oversight and new taxes on companies using it to harvest natural gas.


Republican Gov. John Kasich plans to introduce a new energy policy next week that would place a new tax on hydraulic fracturing to reduce personal income taxes for the state's residents. Many Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail oppose any new taxes or the elimination of tax breaks for oil and gas companies.


Kasich has also placed a moratorium on the deep injection of drilling wastes for disposal within five miles of a well site, a process that is being studied for possible links to an unusual series of earthquakes in Ohio. The process is separate from fracking – which is the pumping of water, chemicals and sand underground to open fissures in rock to allow oil and gas to flow to the surface – but it is expected to grow as fracking in neighboring states sends more waste into Ohio.


In addition, the state's Republican attorney general, Mike DeWine, has called for steeper fines on the growing industry and for drillers to disclose the chemicals they're injecting, actions that would bring Ohio in line with the toughest regulations in the nation.


"I would hope everyone wants to protect the environment. That's not the issue," DeWine said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We need to do it right, we need to do it with safeguards, but we need to do it."


That stance has DeWine, who has endorsed former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, sounding more like President Barack Obama than the Republicans making a run for the White House. Obama has called for a cautious approach to more oil and gas drilling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...l?ref=politics

[stumbler]

Man talk about the blowout from hell this one is poison H2S gas.

North Sea Gas Leak Could Take Months To Stop

LONDON/OSLO, March 27 (Reuters) - A cloud of explosive natural gas boiling out of the North Sea from a leak at Total's abandoned Elgin platform forced wider evacuations off the Scottish coast on Tuesday as the French firm warned it may take six months to halt the flow.

Dubbed "the well from hell" by a Norwegian environmentalist who said the high pressure of the undersea reservoirs in the field made it especially hard to shut off, a plume of gas was visible over the platform, officials said, and a sheen of oil, also produced from the rig, was spreading over the water.

Officials imposed an air and sea exclusion zone around the platform, which had been pumping 9 million cubic metres of gas per day or three percent of Britain's natural gas output and lies some 150 miles (240 km) east of the city of Aberdeen.

A senior Total manager said the firm was looking at two main options - drilling a relief well, which could take six months, or the faster - potentially riskier - alternative of sending in engineers to "kill" the leak affecting a platform that also accounts for some 5.5 percent of Britain's total oil production.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1382215.html

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Now I'm actually very suspicious about this. And that's the apparent 11th hour settlement BP reached with people who make their living in and around the Gulf of Mexico and its not chump change either; $7.8 billion payout according to reports.

And maybe this story is right. There's perfectly logical and reasonable reasons to take the payout now. But I wonder because sometimes the truth tends to come out during trials and now we're not going to have one.

With BP oil spill billions at stake, why did Gulf fishermen suddenly settle?

News that 100,000 fishermen and oil spill workers settled with BP for $7.8 billion rather than going to trial suggests a lesson from the Valdez spill: Drawn-out litigation can become its own tragedy.
).

Speaking of the gulf oil spill....

LOL..a couple months ago I caught wind from some drinking buddies that Transocean (RIG) was to be released from all claims for the spill.

I bought 500 shares at 38 bucks....it is around 58 current price and pays a 7% dividend....

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

Speaking of the gulf oil spill....

LOL..a couple months ago I caught wind from some drinking buddies that Transocean (RIG) was to be released from all claims for the spill.

I bought 500 shares at 38 bucks....it is around 58 current price and pays a 7% dividend....

Now that was a great buy and great news. It was not the rig's or the roughneck's fault. In fact they died trying to save BP and Halliburton from their own stupidity, careless, and laziness.

And by the way I didn't bother to post it but I read a story the other day that the blowout and oil definitely killed patches of coral. That's a bad sign.

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Now that was a great buy and great news. It was not the rig's or the roughneck's fault. In fact they died trying to save BP and Halliburton from their own stupidity, careless, and laziness.

And by the way I didn't bother to post it but I read a story the other day that the blowout and oil definitely killed patches of coral. That's a bad sign.

just remerbered this.....one of my friends that works for a company that repairs in place drill pipe...said the other day they had given a bid to repair problems with the blow out rig and the BP fucked around not doing anything till it blew out...

That guy bull shits a little but his story sounded real....

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

just remerbered this.....one of my friends that works for a company that repairs in place drill pipe...said the other day they had given a bid to repair problems with the blow out rig and the BP fucked around not doing anything till it blew out...

That guy bull shits a little but his story sounded real....

Bullshitter or not I heard and read the same thing. They pulled a bit through their annular so it was fucked up and wouldn't hold but instead of repairing it they ran casing and didn't even have the right sized pipe rams. They had come out of the hole and were trying to run in with a bridge plug when the gas hit them.

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Bullshitter or not I heard and read the same thing. They pulled a bit through their annular so it was fucked up and wouldn't hold but instead of repairing it they ran casing and didn't even have the right sized pipe rams. They had come out of the hole and were trying to run in with a bridge plug when the gas hit them.

It all begans to explain why BP stopped fighting early and just started to cut as much loss as possible knowing they were going to pay a bunch....

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

It all begans to explain why BP stopped fighting early and just started to cut as much loss as possible knowing they were going to pay a bunch....

You know as well as I do that not since Spindle Top in 1910 has there been an excuse for your blowout preventers to fail. They are supposed to be checked everyday and written in the daily logs.

I bet they get a piece of Halliburton too though because they knew their cement jobs had failed and just went on to the next stages.

[stumbler]

I don't think this should really surprise anyone but I've read several stories lately where the environmental damage from the Deepwater Horizon blowout is worse than anyone thought it would be.





Gulf’s dolphins pay heavy price for Deepwater Horizon oil spill

New studies show impact of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster on dolphins and other marine wildlife may be far worse than feared.


A new study of dolphins living close to the site of North America’s worst ever oil spill – the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe two years ago – has established serious health problems afflicting the marine mammals.


The report, commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], found that many of the 32 dolphins studied were underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/3...ter-oil-spill/

[RandyKnight]

Here are some details about the LNG 8 billion dollar deal and it is already sold and to be shipped....


Cheniere Energy Partners L P entered into two multibillion dollar contracts one with the BG Group this October valued at $8 billion to supply 3.5 million tons per year of LNG from its Sabine Pass Liquefaction project. The second deal was signed with Spain's gas Natural Fensoa for $9 billion to supply 3.5 million tons of LNG per year for 20 years with the option of extending it for another 10 years.

The third deal was signed with state-run Indian Energy Company Gail India Ltd to supply it with 3.5 million tonnes per year (mtpa) of LNG from Sabine Pass for 20 years starting in 2017. This deal is estimated to be worth at least $15 billion.

The BG deal translates roughly $400-$450 million in revenue per year. The deal with natural Fensoa is also good for another $420 -$460 million in revenue per year and finally the deal with Gail of India should generate even larger sums of revenue. This translates into roughly $1.3-1.6 billion a year in additional income.

Once the Sabine facility is running at full capacity and the new plant scheduled to be build near corpus Christi Texas, is operational Cheniere Energy Partners could potentially earn up to $3 billion a year.

[RandyKnight]

My next buy when charts look right

Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP)


52-wk Range:11.52 - 25.00


Market Cap:3.5B

Div Yield:$0.42 (7.96%)

[RandyKnight]

Other factors to keep in mind

• By 2035 China alone will consume more natural than all of Europe
• There is a huge price discrepancy between what natural gas sells in the US and what it commands in Asia and Europe. Given that the discrepancy is rather large it's fair to assume that US prices will slowly gravitate upwards as more companies get into the LNG businesses and start diverting US gas to the rest of the world.
• Cheniere Energy is already making plans to build a second LNG Export plant on the US Gulf coast (near Corpus Christi in Texas). This facility is expected to have a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day by 2017.
• Demand for natural gas in India is increasing in leaps and bounds as indicated by the deal inked out between Gail India and CQP.

Advantages of Natural gas
It is odorless, takes 1/1600th the volume when liquefied, is non corrosive, non toxic and has an energy density that is similar to petrol and produces significantly less pollution.

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

Here are some details about the LNG 8 billion dollar deal and it is already sold and to be shipped....


Cheniere Energy Partners L P entered into two multibillion dollar contracts one with the BG Group this October valued at $8 billion to supply 3.5 million tons per year of LNG from its Sabine Pass Liquefaction project. The second deal was signed with Spain's gas Natural Fensoa for $9 billion to supply 3.5 million tons of LNG per year for 20 years with the option of extending it for another 10 years.

The third deal was signed with state-run Indian Energy Company Gail India Ltd to supply it with 3.5 million tonnes per year (mtpa) of LNG from Sabine Pass for 20 years starting in 2017. This deal is estimated to be worth at least $15 billion.

The BG deal translates roughly $400-$450 million in revenue per year. The deal with natural Fensoa is also good for another $420 -$460 million in revenue per year and finally the deal with Gail of India should generate even larger sums of revenue. This translates into roughly $1.3-1.6 billion a year in additional income.

Once the Sabine facility is running at full capacity and the new plant scheduled to be build near corpus Christi Texas, is operational Cheniere Energy Partners could potentially earn up to $3 billion a year.

Well that explains a bunch. That's why they are still drilling for natural gas when its at near record low prices.

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

Other factors to keep in mind

• By 2035 China alone will consume more natural than all of Europe
• There is a huge price discrepancy between what natural gas sells in the US and what it commands in Asia and Europe. Given that the discrepancy is rather large it's fair to assume that US prices will slowly gravitate upwards as more companies get into the LNG businesses and start diverting US gas to the rest of the world.
• Cheniere Energy is already making plans to build a second LNG Export plant on the US Gulf coast (near Corpus Christi in Texas). This facility is expected to have a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic feet per day by 2017.
• Demand for natural gas in India is increasing in leaps and bounds as indicated by the deal inked out between Gail India and CQP.

Advantages of Natural gas
It is odorless, takes 1/1600th the volume when liquefied, is non corrosive, non toxic and has an energy density that is similar to petrol and produces significantly less pollution.

Thanks for this information. I think you've got the smoking gun on where our natural gas is really going to go.

[stumbler]

Update: North Sea Gas Leak

Recent developments at the Elgin Well head platform—the Well-from-Hell—in the North Sea, where a massive gas leak has been underway since 25 March:

• The operator of the platform, supermajor oil giant Total SA, says it's losing $2.5 million a day on the leak—$1 million daily on efforts to stanch the leak and $1.5 million in daily revenue,reports AFP.
• Greenpeace members aboard the German research vessel Koenigin Juliana sailed to the edge of the exclusion zone within three nautical miles of the platform and reported seeing oil on the water in the form of a multicolored sheen, plus a faint smell of gas in the air. Total claims what they saw was a gas condensate sheen and that it poses no threat to marine life, reports The Maritime Executive.
• The flare on the platform that had been burning when the rig was evacuated extinguished itself Saturday.
• Total has outlined plans to stop the gas leak by 1) boarding the platform to control the well, while also 2) drilling a relief well and 3) drilling a backup relief well. The operations are being planned as follows, reports the Oil & Gas Journal:

Total already mobilized two rigs to drill the relief well and backup relief well. Both rigs will move to Elgin after final suspension of their current operations. Both rigs already are working for Total. The Sedco 714 semisubmersible currently is drilling on Fettercairn field north of Elgin.

Transocean Ltd. owns and operates Sedco 714. The second rig is a jack up owned by Rowan Cos. Inc. The Gorilla V currently is drilling on West Franklin field. Total said it also is considering additional drilling rigs to maintain the widest possible options available for the response. Two support vessels also are standing by. One is a vessel to deploy remote-operated vehicles for underwater inspections in the vicinity of the Elgin platform. A second vessel is on standby to conduct seabed surveys of possible sites for relief wells.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2...h-sea-gas-leak

[stumbler]

Here's a pretty handy history of natural gas in the US. Its incomplete and over simplified but it does chart the course and maybe show us where we're headed.

Timeline: How We Learned to Love—and Hate—Natural Gas


From bridge fuel to fracking, a history of the little blue flame.

1825 In Chautauqua County, New York, William Hart discovers natural gas reserves. Uses gas to light buildings in Fredonia; town's official seal features five burners representing those lights.
1940s Worried about German subs targeting tankers, government supports construction of oil pipelines from Texas to East Coast; after war, pipelines approved for gas transport as well.
1950 Natural gas use begins steady climb, will nearly double over next two decades.
1954 Federal government establishes price controls for interstate gas sales, making it more lucrative to sell in states where it's produced. Shortages ensue across Midwest and East Coast.
1970 Gas' share of US energy consumption peaks at 30 percent (25 percent today).
Oct. 23, 1970 Streaking down Bonneville Salt Flats at 622 mph, gas-powered Blue Flame sets world land-speed record.

1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act passed to regulate hazardous waste; gas will be made exempt.
Jan. 20, 1977 Jimmy Carter inaugurated amid energy crisis, sets White House thermostat at 65, dons cardigan.

Jan. 26, 1977 Facing record cold, Pennsylvania Gov. Milton Shapp orders schools closed for three days because of gas shortage. On the same day, Carter proposes Emergency Natural Gas Act, deregulating the industry.
1979 In his book The Politics of Energy, influential environmentalist Barry Commoner introduces notion of gas as "bridging fuel" to greener future.
1986 Congress passes Community Right to Know Act requiring companies to report toxic releases; pleading trade secrets for fracking fluids, gas drillers get exemption.
1987 Gas industry granted exemption from Clean Water Act amendments designed to keep pollution out of storm water.
1990 Gas drillers given de facto exemption from Clean Air Act.
July 25, 1991 International Gas Union releases report declaring that gas is "trump card" in the fight against destruction of the environment.
Nov. 4, 1991 Automotive News touts gas as "cheap, plentiful, patriotic" solution for motor vehicles.
May 21, 1992 President George H.W. Bush's EPA chief, Bill Reilly, meets with industry execs including Enron CEO Ken Lay, praises gas' "relative environmental cleanliness."
1993 Ford develops natural-gas-powered Crown Victoria that ends up in cab fleets in NYC, LA, and other cities. Project partially funded by gas industry.
Dec. 20, 2000 President-elect George W. Bush: "Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our own neighborhoods."
Jan. 2001 Shortly after taking office, VP Dick Cheney (previously CEO of oil and gas firm Halliburton) forms energy task force. Its report incorporates much of gas industry's lobbying wish list, including drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

2005 Cheney-backed energy bill contains "Halliburton loophole," which exempts frackers from the Safe Drinking Water Act.
2007 Sierra Club director Carl Pope chooses to accept funding for Beyond Coal campaign from natural gas company Chesapeake Energy, does not tell his board or members. Chesapeake will give club more than $25 million over three years.
2008 Researchers release estimate that there's up to 250 times more gas in Marcellus Shale formation, which runs from New York to West Virginia, than previously thought.
July 8, 2008 Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens unveils "Pickens Plan" to reduce dependence on foreign oil by massively increasing gas drilling.
July 19, 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes in Financial Times that US is "awash with natural gas," which "has made it possible to eliminate most of our dependence on deadly, destructive coal."
Aug. 2009 Former Sen. Timothy Wirth and John Podesta of the Center for American Progress call gas "a bridge fuel to a 21st-century energy economy."
Nov. 2009 New York officials test fracking wastewater, find it's radioactive.
Jan. 24, 2010 Documentary Gasland premieres, introduces America to flaming tap water. Nominated for 2011 Academy Award.

Feb. 2010 Congressional investigation reveals fracking companies are injecting diesel fuel and other toxic chemicals underground.
July 28, 2010 Senate Democrats seek to compel disclosure of chemicals in fracking fluid. Bill fails.
Sept. 2010 Obama EPA asks frackers for information about fluids. Only Halliburton refuses.
Sept. 9, 2010 Natural gas pipeline explodes in San Bruno, California, killing eight.
Jan. 25, 2011 In State of the Union, Obama rolls out clean energy plan that includes major expansion in natural gas.
March 2011 Study in journal Climatic Change suggests cumulative greenhouse impact of natural gas may be at least 20 percent higher than coal's because of methane leakage from wells.

Aug. 2011 US Geological Survey reduces estimate of undiscovered gas in Marcellus Shale by 80 percent.
Oct. 2011 RFK retracts support for gas, credits New York Times reporting for alerting him to risks.
Nov. 2011 EPA moves toward regulating toxic fracking discharges; industry pushes back.
Jan. 2012 Geologists link fracking to earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma.
Jan. 2012 Cornell University veterinarian publishes study on cats, dogs, horses, and cows having seizures and dying after exposure to fracking chemicals.
March 15, 2012 Actor Mark Ruffalo, a.k.a. the Hulk, launches Water Defense to oppose fracking, mountaintop removal, and other "destructive fossil fuel practices."

http://motherjones.com/environment/2...l-gas-fracking

[stumbler]

Estimates are that all underground natural gas facilities (and that's a bunch folks) will be filled to capacity by fall.

But even with the price of Gas under $2.00 per mcf we've got more than 600 rigs drilling and fracking for natural gas while we ask questions like this.

Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes?


http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2...se-earthquakes

PS Since most brainwashed parrots won't bother to read it, the best answer is no, as far as they can tell the actual act of hydraulic fracturing has not been linked to earth quakes. But waste water injection wells to depose of the formation water from fracking and gas production has.

[stumbler]

If you listen to the US news today it sounds like BP is getting ready to amicably settle with the various interests for the damage caused by their inexcusable blow out.

But if one reads Al Jazeera a different picture emerges.

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

New Orleans, LA - "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."


Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.


Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants.


Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster.


Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.


Eyeless shrimp

Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp.


"At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these," Kuhns told Al Jazeera while showing a sample of the eyeless shrimp.


According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP's oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets."


Eyeless shrimp, from a catch of 400 pounds of eyeless shrimp, said to be caught September 22, 2011, in Barataria Bay, Louisiana [Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera] "Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico]," she added, "They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes … they look like they've been burned off by chemicals."
On April 20, 2010, BP's Deepwater Horizon oilrig exploded, and began the release of at least 4.9 million barrels of oil. BP then used at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic Corexit dispersants to sink the oil.
Keath Ladner, a third generation seafood processor in Hancock County, Mississippi, is also disturbed by what he is seeing.


"I've seen the brown shrimp catch drop by two-thirds, and so far the white shrimp have been wiped out," Ladner told Al Jazeera. "The shrimp are immune compromised. We are finding shrimp with tumors on their heads, and are seeing this everyday."


While on a shrimp boat in Mobile Bay with Sidney Schwartz, the fourth-generation fisherman said that he had seen shrimp with defects on their gills, and "their shells missing around their gills and head".
"We've fished here all our lives and have never seen anything like this," he added.


Ladner has also seen crates of blue crabs, all of which were lacking at least one of their claws.


Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs "with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within … they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they've been dead for a week".


Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.


"We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills."


Rooks, who grew up fishing with her parents, said she had never seen such things in these waters, and her seafood catch last year was "ten per cent what it normally is".


"I've never seen this," he said, a statement Al Jazeera heard from every scientist, fisherman, and seafood processor we spoke with about the seafood deformities.


Given that the Gulf of Mexico provides more than 40 per cent of all the seafood caught in the continental US, this phenomenon does not bode well for the region, or the country.


BP's chemicals?

"The dispersants used in BP's draconian experiment contain solvents, such as petroleum distillates and 2-butoxyethanol. Solvents dissolve oil, grease, and rubber," Dr Riki Ott, a toxicologist, marine biologist and Exxon Valdez survivor told Al Jazeera. "It should be no surprise that solvents are also notoriously toxic to people, something the medical community has long known".


The dispersants are known to be mutagenic, a disturbing fact that could be evidenced in the seafood deformities. Shrimp, for example, have a life-cycle short enough that two to three generations have existed since BP's disaster began, giving the chemicals time to enter the genome.


Pathways of exposure to the dispersants are inhalation, ingestion, skin, and eye contact. Health impacts can include headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, chest pains, respiratory system damage, skin sensitisation, hypertension, central nervous system depression, neurotoxic effects, cardiac arrhythmia and cardiovascular damage. They are also teratogenic - able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus - and carcinogenic.


Cowan believes chemicals named polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), released from BP's submerged oil, are likely to blame for what he is finding, due to the fact that the fish with lesions he is finding are from "a wide spatial distribution that is spatially coordinated with oil from the Deepwater Horizon, both surface oil and subsurface oil. A lot of the oil that impacted Louisiana was also in subsurface plumes, and we think there is a lot of it remaining on the seafloor".


Marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia published results of her submarine dives around the source area of BP's oil disaster in the Nature Geoscience journal.


Her evidence showed massive swathes of oil covering the seafloor, including photos of oil-covered bottom dwelling sea creatures.


While showing slides at an American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington, Joye said: "This is Macondo oil on the bottom. These are dead organisms because of oil being deposited on their heads."


Dr Wilma Subra, a chemist and Macarthur Fellow, has conducted tests on seafood and sediment samples along the Gulf for chemicals present in BP's crude oil and toxic dispersants.


"Tests have shown significant levels of oil pollution in oysters and crabs along the Louisiana coastline," Subra told Al Jazeera. "We have also found high levels of hydrocarbons in the soil and vegetation."


According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, PAHs "are a group of semi-volatile organic compounds that are present in crude oil that has spent time in the ocean and eventually reaches shore, and can be formed when oil is burned".


"The fish are being exposed to PAHs, and I was able to find several references that list the same symptoms in fish after the Exxon Valdez spill, as well as other lab experiments," explained Cowan. "There was also a paper published by some LSU scientists that PAH exposure has effects on the genome."


The University of South Florida released the results of a survey whose findings corresponded with Cowan's: a two to five per cent infection rate in the same oil impact areas, and not just with red snapper, but with more than 20 species of fish with lesions. In many locations, 20 per cent of the fish had lesions, and later sampling expeditions found areas where, alarmingly, 50 per cent of the fish had them.


"I asked a NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] sampler what percentage of fish they find with sores prior to 2010, and it's one tenth of one percent," Cowan said. "Which is what we found prior to 2010 as well. But nothing like we've seen with these secondary infections and at this high of rate since the spill."


"What we think is that it's attributable to chronic exposure to PAHs released in the process of weathering of oil on the seafloor," Cowan said. "There's no other thing we can use to explain this phenomenon. We've never seen anything like this before."


Official response

Questions raised by Al Jazeera's investigation remain largely unanswered.


Al Jazeera contacted the office of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, who provided a statement that said the state continues to test its waters for oil and dispersants, and that it is testing for PAHs.


"Gulf seafood has consistently tested lower than the safety thresholds established by the FDA for the levels of oil and dispersant contamination that would pose a risk to human health," the statement reads. "Louisiana seafood continues to go through extensive testing to ensure that seafood is safe for human consumption. More than 3,000 composite samples of seafood, sediment and water have been tested in Louisiana since the start of the spill."


Signs of the impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and scientists and fishermen point fingers towards BP's oil as being the cause [Keath Ladner] At the federal government level, the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency - both federal agencies which have powers in the this area - insisted Al Jazeera talk with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA won't comment to the media because its involvement in collecting information for an ongoing lawsuit against BP.


BP refused Al Jazeera's request to comment on this issue for a television interview, but provided a statement that read:


"Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and, according to the FDA and NOAA, it is as safe now as it was before the accident."


BP claims that fish lesions are common, and that prior to the Deepwater Horizon accident there was documented evidence of lesions in the Gulf of Mexico caused by parasites and other agents.
The oil giant added:



"As part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment, which is led by state and federal trustees, we are investigating the extent of injury to natural resources due to the accident.


"BP is funding multiple lines of scientific investigation to evaluate potential damage to fish, and these include: extensive seafood testing programs by the Gulf states; fish population monitoring conducted by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Auburn University and others; habitat and water quality monitoring by NOAA; and toxicity tests on regional species. The state and federal Trustees will complete an injury assessment and the need for environmental restoration will be determined."


Before and after

But evidence of ongoing contamination continues to mount.
Crustacean biologist Darryl Felder, in the Department of Biology with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is in a unique position.


Felder has been monitoring the vicinity of BP's blowout Macondo well both before and after the oil disaster began, because, as he told Al Jazeera, "the National Science Foundation was interested in these areas that are vulnerable due to all the drilling".


"So we have before and after samples to compare to," he added. "We have found seafood with lesions, missing appendages, and other abnormalities."


Felder also has samples of inshore crabs with lesions. "Right here in Grand Isle we see lesions that are eroding down through their shell. We just got these samples last Thursday and are studying them now, because we have no idea what else to link this to as far as a natural event."


According to Felder, there is an even higher incidence of shell disease with crabs in deeper waters.


"My fear is that these prior incidents of lesions might be traceable to microbes, and my questions are, did we alter microbial populations in the vicinity of the well by introducing this massive amount of petroleum and in so doing cause microbes to attack things other than oil?"


One hypothesis he has is that the waxy coatings around crab shells are being impaired by anthropogenic chemicals or microbes resulting from such chemicals.


"You create a site where a lesion can occur, and microbes attack. We see them with big black lesions, around where their appendages fall off, and all that is left is a big black ring."


Felder added that his team is continuing to document the incidents: "And from what we can tell, there is a far higher incidence we're finding after the spill."


"We are also seeing much lower diversity of crustaceans," he said. "We don't have the same number of species as we did before [the spill]."


[Continues below the slideshow]
Felder has tested his samples for oil, but not found many cases where hydrocarbon traces tested positive. Instead, he believes what he is seeing in the deepwater around BP's well is caused from the "huge amount" of drilling mud used during the effort to stop the gushing well.


"I was collecting deepwater shrimp with lesions on the side of their carapace. Under the lesions, the gills were black. The organ that propels the water through the gills, it too was jet-black. That impairs respiratory ability, and has a negative effect on them. It wasn't hydrocarbons, but is largely manganese precipitates, which is really odd. There was a tremendous amount of drilling mud pumped out with Macondo, so this could be a link."


Some drilling mud and oil well cement slurries used on oil extraction rigs contains up to 90 per cent by weight of manganomanganic (manganese) oxide particles.


Felder is also finding "odd staining" of animals that burrow into the mud that cause stain rings, and said: "It is consistently mineral deposits, possibly from microbial populations in [overly] high concentrations."


A direct link

Dr Andrew Whitehead, an associate professor of biology at Louisiana State University, co-authored the report Genomic and physiological footprint of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on resident marsh fishes that was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in October 2011.


Whitehead's work is of critical importance, as it shows a direct link between BP's oil and the negative impacts on the Gulf's food web evidenced by studies on killifish before, during and after the oil disaster.


"What we found is a very clear, genome-wide signal, a very clear signal of exposure to the toxic components of oil that coincided with the timing and the locations of the oil," Whitehead told Al Jazeera during an interview in his lab.


According to Whitehead, the killifish is an important indicator species because they are the most abundant fish in the marshes, and are known to be the most important forage animal in their communities.
"That means that most of the large fish that we like to eat and that these are important fisheries for, actually feed on the killifish," he explained. "So if there were to be a big impact on those animals, then there would probably be a cascading effect throughout the food web. I can't think of a worse animal to knock out of the food chain than the killifish."


But we may well be witnessing the beginnings of this worst-case scenario.


Whitehead is predicting that there could be reproductive impacts on the fish, and since the killifish is a "keystone" species in the food web of the marsh, "Impacts on those species are more than likely going to propagate out and effect other species. What this shows is a very direct link from exposure to DWH oil and a clear biological effect. And a clear biological effect that could translate to population level long-term consequences."


Back on shore, troubled by what he had been seeing, Keath Ladner met with officials from the US Food and Drug Administration and asked them to promise that the government would protect him from litigation if someone was made sick from eating his seafood.


"They wouldn't do it," he said.


"I'm worried about the entire seafood industry of the Gulf being on the way out," he added grimly.


'Tar balls in their crab traps'

Ed Cake, a biological oceanographer, as well as a marine and oyster biologist, has "great concern" about the hundreds of dolphin deaths he has seen in the region since BP's disaster began, which he feels are likely directly related to the BP oil disaster.


"Adult dolphins' systems are picking up whatever is in the system out there, and we know the oil is out there and working its way up the food chain through the food web - and dolphins are at the top of that food chain."


Cake explained: "The chemicals then move into their lipids, fat, and then when they are pregnant, their young rely on this fat, and so it's no wonder dolphins are having developmental issues and still births."


Cake, who lives in Mississippi, added: "It has been more than 33 years since the 1979 Ixtoc-1 oil disaster in Mexico's Bay of Campeche, and the oysters, clams, and mangrove forests have still not recovered in their oiled habitats in seaside estuaries of the Yucatan Peninsula. It has been 23 years since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska, and the herring fishery that failed in the wake of that disaster has still not returned."


Cake believes we are still in the short-term impact stage of BP's oil disaster.


"I will not be alive to see the Gulf of Mexico recover," said Cake, who is 72 years old. "Without funding and serious commitment, these things will not come back to pre-April 2010 levels for decades."


The physical signs of the disaster continue.


"We're continuing to pull up oil in our nets," Rooks said. "Think about losing everything that makes you happy, because that is exactly what happens when someone spills oil and sprays dispersants on it. People who live here know better than to swim in or eat what comes out of our waters."


Khuns and her husband told Al Jazeera that fishermen continue to regularly find tar balls in their crab traps, and hundreds of pounds of tar balls continue to be found on beaches across the region on a daily basis.


Meanwhile Cowan continues his work, and remains concerned about what he is finding.


"We've also seen a decrease in biodiversity in fisheries in certain areas. We believe we are now seeing another outbreak of incidence increasing, and this makes sense, since waters are starting to warm again, so bacterial infections are really starting to take off again. We think this is a problem that will persist for as long as the oil is stored on the seafloor."


Felder wants to continue his studies, but now is up against insufficient funding.


Regarding his funding, Cowan told Al Jazeera: "We are up against social and economic challenges that hamper our ability to get our information out, so the politics have been as daunting as the problem [we are studying] itself. But my funding is not coming from a source that requires me to be quiet."

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fea...318260912.html

[RandyKnight]

Halliburton profit up 22.7%

By CHRIS KAHN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Halliburton Co. said Wednesday its firstquarter profit increased 22.7 percent as the oil industry aggressively searched for new oil fields in North America.

[stumbler]

Two Years After the BP Spill, Gulf Oysters Are Full Of Heavy Metals

n the second anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, evidence of the spill's ongoing impacts on Gulf people and ecosystems continues to mount. As if eyeless shrimp, toxic beaches, and dead dolphins weren't bad enough, a new study suggests that Gulf oysters are also in trouble.

A team of scientists led by Dr. Peter Roopnarine of the California Academy of Sciences says that oysters in the Gulf contain higher concentrations of the heavy metals found in crude oil now than they did before the spill. Using a method known—awesomely—as "laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry," the scientists vaporized oyster shells and superheated them, causing different elements to radiate light at specific, known frequencies so they could be identified. They measured higher concentrations of vanadium, cobalt, and chromium—three heavy metals present in oil—in the oysters sampled after the spill. Even more worrisome, the team found that 89 percent of post-spill specimens displayed the signs of metaplasia, a condition in which tissues are transformed in response to stress. Oysters suffering from the condition often have trouble reproducing, which could have worrisome implications for oyster populations and the species further up the food chain that depend on them.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2...-metal-oysters

[stumbler]

I can't tell whether this is the beginning of something bigger or the butt of a painful joke.

Government Files First Criminal Charges In BP Oil Spill

"The first criminal charges in connection with the BP oil spill have been filed in Houston, Texas against a former BP engineer named Kurt Mix," NPR's Carrie Johnson reports exclusively.


Carrie just told our Newscast unit that Mix has been charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly deleting text messages after the spill. The texts were related to the amount of oil gushing onto the Gulf. Mix will make his first appearence in court today.


Carrie adds that there has been an expectation that criminal charges would be brought against individuals, but this is the first person charged since the spill happened two years ago.


These are preliminary charges and a law enforcement official says there are more charges to come, Carrie reports.
We'll have more on this story as it develops.


Update at 12:14 p.m. A Bit Of Background:


To provide a bit of background: The oil spill started after an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. As our friends at State Impact reported earlier this month to mark the two-year anniversary, this was "the biggest accidental oil spill in history" and dumped more than 200 million gallons of oil.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...-a-bp-engineer

[RandyKnight]

Louisiana pipeline spills 80,000 gallons of oil

By The Associated Press
This article was published today at 9:19 a.m.



TORBERT, La. — ExxonMobil Corp. says it is cleaning up about 80,000 gallons of oil that spilled from a pipeline in a rural Pointe Coupee Parish, northwest of Baton Rouge.

The company says the pipeline was shut down Saturday night after a loss of pressure. The spilled oil was discovered on Sunday.

No injuries have been reported. The company doesn’t yet know what caused the pipeline to break.

ExxonMobil said vacuum trucks are cleaning up the site and air is being monitored for quality.

The oil came from a 22-inch pipeline that originates in St. James Parish southeast of Baton Rouge and carries crude oil to northern Louisiana.

ExxonMobil said federal regulators have been informed and the cleanup is being coordinated with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Man talk about the blowout from hell this one is poison H2S gas.

North Sea Gas Leak Could Take Months To Stop



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1382215.html

Let's update this since this blowout has been going on since 3/27/12 and they are just now trying to pump drilling mud into the well to see if they can kill it. Even so its expected to take another "several days" to see if this is going to work.

Total's Elgin Platform Gas Leak: Well Pumped With Mud In North Sea

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - France's Total started pumping heavy mud down its leaking well in the North Sea on Tuesday to try to stop an escape of gas that has lasted nearly eight weeks and could deprive Britain of nearly 6 percent of its supply this summer.

"The well intervention operation got underway at 09hrs20 (0820 GMT) this morning with the pumping of heavy mud into the well from the main support vessel," the oil and gas major said in a statement.

The work, at the Elgin platform, 240 km off the coast of Scotland, is expected to last several days before engineers can determine whether the leak has been stopped, Total said.

The leak is costing the company around $3 million a day in relief operations and lost net income.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change, which gave the go-ahead for the "well kill" work earlier this month, said it was monitoring the situation closely.

The company said last week the amount of gas leaking from the platform had shrunk to a quarter of the original quantity and that parallel work to drill a relief well continued.

In the meanwhile, a nearby gas field run by Royal Dutch Shell has had to be closed, initially as a precaution and now for maintenance. Other operations on smaller fields have also been affected.

The total loss in gas production from Elgin and nearby fields could cut British gas production by as much as 6 percent this summer, Britain's energy network operator has warned.

Environmental impact from the leak has been minimal with fish and water samples from just outside a two-mile exclusion zone around the platform have not shown any signs of hydrocarbon contamination, the Scottish government said.

Total has said it saw a possibility for production at Elgin to gradually restart later this year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1517146.html

[stumbler]

Total plugs gas leak off Scotland's coast after 7 weeks

By ITV News and msnbc.com staff

A gas leak on a North Sea oil platform has been stopped after more than seven weeks, its operators said Wednesday.


Heavy mud was pumped into the well in a bid to "kill" the leak on Total's Elgin platform, which is around 150 miles from Aberdeen, Scotland.


Gas had been escaping from the site since late March. Reuters reported the leak cost Total around $3 million a day in relief operations and lost net income.


The French firm's chief executive Christophe de Margerie has previously said the Elgin leak would cost the company more than $300 million in lost production in a worst-case scenario where production did not restart before the end of the year.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news...r-7-weeks?lite

[stumbler]

Oil Firm Responded to Kalamazoo Spill 'Like Keystone Cops'


A scathing report finds that Enbridge overlooked warning signs for five years before the 2010 spill that exposed 320 people to crude.

http://www.motherjones.com/environme...spill-michigan

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Oil Firm Responded to Kalamazoo Spill 'Like Keystone Cops'


A scathing report finds that Enbridge overlooked warning signs for five years before the 2010 spill that exposed 320 people to crude.

http://www.motherjones.com/environme...spill-michigan

I find it interesting that they used the name KEYSTONE as an adjective in Keystone Cops (which is as old as the hills)

Is there a hiden meaning? (the new Keystone pipeline project)..

The July 2010 rupture of the Enbridge pipeline caused the most damaging onshore oil spill in US history, poisoning 35 miles of waterways and exposing 320 people to crude oil. Clean-up costs were more than $800 million.


The National Transportation Safety Board said in presenting its report on Wednesday that the accident could have been avoided, and accused Enbridge of overlooking warning signs of corrosion, cracks, and thinning metal in the pipeline that first emerged in 2004.

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

I find it interesting that they used the name KEYSTONE as an adjective in Keystone Cops (which is as old as the hills)

Is there a hiden meaning? (the new Keystone pipeline project)..

Oh I'm sure that was no accident especially since this spill revealed what a potential environmental disaster the Keystone Pipeline could be.

Because as they found out on this spill the tar sands oil does not float on water it sinks and then there's almost no way to clean it up.

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Oh I'm sure that was no accident especially since this spill revealed what a potential environmental disaster the Keystone Pipeline could be.

Because as they found out on this spill the tar sands oil does not float on water it sinks and then there's almost no way to clean it up.

I did not see that this pipeline had tar sand oil running in it?

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by RandyKnight

I did not see that this pipeline had tar sand oil running in it?

Oh no it was tar sands oil that requires a bunch of chemicals to make it flow. But when the pipeline ruptures the chemicals used to cut the oil evaporate and then the tar sands oil sinks if its in water.

And in this case they never did get all the oil cleaned up.

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Oh no it was tar sands oil that requires a bunch of chemicals to make it flow. But when the pipeline ruptures the chemicals used to cut the oil evaporate and then the tar sands oil sinks if its in water.

And in this case they never did get all the oil cleaned up.

Which is why Obama and others do not want the Keystone Pipeline to run down the middle of the USA's biggest aquifer the Ogallala...

Hell Boone Pickens even agreeded with this...