tagged w/ offshore
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Another reason the Ryan Budget Plan is BAD for America...
With Paul Ryan’s proposed “territorial“ tax, the US could tax only income earned within its borders. This would allow multinational corporations to bring home profits earned abroad without paying additional taxes. Unlike Saverin, they would not have to renounce American citizenship; they just need to have at least one subsidiary outside the US.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=35963Another reason the Ryan Budget Plan is BAD for America...
With Paul Ryan’s... more
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The Obama Campaign's First In-Your-Face Ad Aimed at Romney's Offshore Accounts and Record on being a 'Job Creator'...
http://veracitystew.com/?p=34816The Obama Campaign's First In-Your-Face Ad Aimed at Romney's Offshore... more
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Ever heard of the "Dutch Sandwich?" -- It's not really a sandwich. It's a clever tax loophole that allows Google to avoid paying Billions in U.S. Taxes each year...
http://veracitystew.com/?p=33235Ever heard of the "Dutch Sandwich?" -- It's not really a sandwich.... more
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I'm all for a world-wide economy, but I also want to work. I am currently competing with Asian and European developers who charge less than a third of what I need to live on in the USA.I'm all for a world-wide economy, but I also want to work. I am currently... more
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BG Group has said that it expects to recover total gross reserves of approximately 2.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), approximately 600 million boe net to BG Group, from the three floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Santos Basin fields, offshore Brazil.
BG Group said that the Tupi field has two FPSO vessels and the Guara field has one FPSO vessel within the concession periods.
The first FPSO on the Tupi field has a production capacity of 100 000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and up to 177 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd).
It commenced production in October 2010. The second FPSO on the Tupi field is due onstream in 2013 and will have a production capacity of 120 000bopd and 177mmscfd of gas.
A similar FPSO will be deployed on Guara and is also due onstream in 2013. All three FPSOs will be leased.
The gas export pipeline with capacity to service all three FPSOs is in place, linking the Tupi area to Brazilian domestic gas infrastructure via the Petrobras Mexilhao platform.
The company expects to recover oil utilizing a total of approximately 40 production and injection wells.BG Group has said that it expects to recover total gross reserves of approximately 2.2... more
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Atlantic Wind Connection backbone will connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines
Google has signed an agreement to financially assist the establishment of a backbone transmission project that will further progress offshore wind development off the Mid-Atlantic coast. The project, which is called the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) backbone, is financed by Google, Marubeni Coprporation and Good Energies. It will be led by Trans-Elect, which is an independent transmission company.
The AWC backbone is a huge design covering 350 miles off the coast from New Jersey to Virginia. It will connect 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind turbines, which is comparable to 60 percent of the wind energy installed throughout the entire United States last year. This amount of power is capable of providing for 1.9 million homes.
To collect this kind of power, the AWC backbone will draw power from several offshore wind farms and then deliver it to high capacity parts of the land-based transmission system via sub-sea cables.
The AWC backbone will assist states in meeting their renewable energy goals and standards by installing turbines 10 to 15 miles offshore where they are out of sight from land and are able to take advantage of heavier winds. The project is specifically advantageous to the east coast because transmission is overstretched in this area, and "relieves grid congestion" in one of the National Interest Transmission Corridors. The AWC backbone also prevents developers from having to install individual radial transmission lines from the shore to each offshore wind project, saving both time and money.
In addition to environmental benefits, Google sees the AWC backbone as an opportunity that will offer "a solid financial return" and will create thousands of jobs.
"We believe in investing in projects that make good business sense and further the development of renewable energy," Rick Needham wrote the Google Blog. "We're willing to take calculated risks on early stage ideas and projects that can have dramatic impacts while offering attractive returns.
"This willingness to be ahead of the industry and invest in large scale innovative projects is core to our success as a company."Atlantic Wind Connection backbone will connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines... more
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The Thanet Offshore wind farm was officially opened today, which is reported to have 100 turbines off the south east coast. The article says it is the biggest off shore wind farm in the world, which will set the UK's on/offshore wind energy to over 5GW.
"The total capacity of the UK's onshore and offshore wind turbines now exceeds 5GW, enough to power all the homes in Scotland. "-Independent.
However, Green groups have stated more is needed to create a low-carbon industry in the UK, with Friends of the Earth stating the UK green record is 'dismal'.
"And Friends of the Earth is calling on ministers to remove the barriers to developing offshore wind, for example by upgrading ports so they can ship out offshore wind turbine parts." -IndependentThe Thanet Offshore wind farm was officially opened today, which is reported to have... more
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This is a short film about people directly impacted by the Gulf oil disaster, set on July 4th, 2010. It's a snapshot of America on its most important holiday.This is a short film about people directly impacted by the Gulf oil disaster, set on... more
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Transocean Ltd. employees onboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig when it exploded in the Gulf of Mexico have become the focus of a U.S. government probe into the cause of the fatal disaster.
Stephen Bertone, chief engineer on the rig, and Mike Williams, chief engineer technician, were designated as parties of interest yesterday by a joint U.S. Coast Guard-Interior Department investigative panel. That boosted to five the number of Transocean workers who could face criminal charges stemming from the accident that killed 11 people.
No one from BP Plc, which leased the Deepwater Horizon to drill the Macondo well, or from other companies involved in the work has been named a party of interest, according to the panel’s website. Transocean, the largest offshore oil driller, may be held liable because under maritime law the vessel owner has ultimate responsibility for the safety of those onboard, said Paul Sterbcow, an attorney representing Williams.
Transocean “cannot delegate that duty to anybody else,” Sterbcow said in a telephone interview before his client was named. “The law prevents it and the facts prevent it.”
If the joint panel finds that BP advocated unsafe drilling practices or a questionable well design, Transocean employees may be faulted for acquiescing, Sterbcow said.
He later declined to comment on Williams.
Parties of Interest
Other parties of interest named by the panel include James Harrell, who as offshore installation manager was the highest- ranking Transocean drilling official on the rig; Captain Curt Kuchta, who escaped from the burning vessel by jumping from the deck 100 feet (30 meters) above the sea; and Douglas Brown, the chief mechanic, according to the panel’s website.
The panel began a third round of hearings this week in Kenner, Louisiana, near the New Orleans airport. Today’s hearing was canceled after four Transocean employees declined to testify, said Coast Guard Captain Hung Nguyen, co-chairman of the proceedings.
Guy Cantwell, a spokesman for Switzerland-based Transocean, declined to comment on the details of the investigation.
Under federal rules, anyone designated a party of interest could face criminal charges if the investigative panel concludes crimes were committed, Kyle Schonekas, an attorney representing Kuchta, said in a July 19 interview.
‘Marine Safety’
Pat Fanning, a lawyer representing Harrell, said it’s too soon to determine which individuals or companies may shoulder most or all of the blame.
The six-member panel, composed of equal numbers of Coast Guard officers and Interior Department regulators, appears to be divided about which element of rig operations to concentrate on, Fanning said in an interview in the lobby of the hotel hosting the proceedings.
“The Coast Guard guys are very focused on marine safety because they see it as a case of you’re the master of the vessel, so you’re responsible,” Fanning said. The Interior Department representatives are more interested in questions about the design of the well and drilling practices, he said.
Fanning said investigators’ focus eventually will turn to BP’s well design and the manner in which the company directed Transocean and other contractors to execute the drilling program. The Macondo well, about 40 miles off the Louisiana shore in 5,000 feet of water, was months behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget when the rig exploded.
Corporate Entities
“It’s becoming pretty clear as the testimony goes on that the rig was under BP’s control and BP was giving the orders,” Fanning said.
So far, the highest-ranking onboard BP managers who were overseeing the well when it exploded haven’t answered questions from the panel.
Robert Kaluza, a BP well-site leader who was on temporary assignment to the project, has refused to appear, citing his Constitutional right against self incrimination. Donald Vidrine, a well manager of equal rank, declined to testify yesterday, citing undisclosed health reasons.
Nine corporate entities have been designated as parties of interest by the panel. They are BP and its partners in the well, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., which is 70 percent owned by Japan’s Mitsui & Co.; Transocean; Halliburton Co.; Cameron International Corp.; Weatherford International Ltd.; M-I Swaco; and Dril-Quip Inc.
Justice Department Letters
Cameron International and Mitsui Oil are among those that received letters on May 5 from the Justice Department telling them to preserve documents related to the oil spill.
The letters told the companies they need to take steps to preserve “potentially relevant information” related to the Deepwater Horizon accident. The Justice Department provided the letters in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Cameron, based in Houston, made the blowout preventer, a stack of values that’s meant to shut off the flow of oil and gas during a pressure surge, or blowout. Rhonda Barnat, an outside spokeswoman for Cameron, declined to comment.
Naoki Ishii, the assistant secretary of Moex USA, said in a May 10 letter to the Justice Department that “we had already made arrangements to preserve possibly relevant materials, including paper and electronic documents.”
Ronald Sepulvado, the BP well-site leader for whom Kaluza was standing in when the disaster unfolded, told the panel yesterday that Transocean’s offshore installation manager, or OIM, had the authority to veto any drilling operations he deemed unsafe.
Asked yesterday by Hariklia Karis, a Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney representing BP, “where the buck stops” on the rig with regard to safety, Sepulvado responded, “It stops with the OIM.”
A fourth round of hearings is scheduled for Aug. 23-27 in Houston.Transocean Ltd. employees onboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig when it exploded... more
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The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) believes the drilling suspensions announced by the Department of the Interior do very little to lessen the confusion and uncertainty surrounding offshore energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
Now termed 'suspensions' by the Department, the moratorium does not prohibit drilling specifically by water depth, as did its predecessor, but rather prohibits drilling operations that use subsea blowout preventers (BOP) or surface BOPs on floating facilities until November 30, 2010. The suspensions do not apply to anchored facilities using surface BOPs. Such facilities are generally used in shallow water, which makes the new suspension glaringly similar, if not even more restrictive than the original moratorium. It is not immediately clear how many facilities will be impacted.
The new moratorium also leaves the door slightly ajar to the possibility of earlier removal of restrictions if industry provides assurance acceptable to the Secretary that adequate containment and response capabilities are in place. The problem for industry is that it is unclear what exactly it will take to convince the Administration that such capability exists.
In fact, NOIA, the American Petroleum Institute, the International Association of Drilling Contractors, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the United States Oil and Gas Association and industry have joined together and convened task forces to address these very issues on containment and spill response. At this time, the Department of the Interior has not indicated how they will work with these task forces to assure that all information useful to them will be made available. NOIA and its members stand ready to provide assistance and suggestions outside the courtroom to find a safe and sensible solution. We welcome the opportunity to provide constructive input to the Department during their upcoming meetings with industry.
"The practical effect is that whether you call this a suspension or a moratorium, there is not a clear path for deepwater exploration companies to follow, and until such a path exists, exploration is at a standstill and more jobs will be lost," said NOIA Chairman Burt Adams. "If it looks like a moratorium, acts like a moratorium, and the effect is the same as a moratorium, it is a moratorium."
This announcement also fails to mention the legally challenged moratorium currently under appeal. "At least for the sake of some clarity, the Administration should only have one moratorium in play at a time," said Adams. "It's the classic shell game. The Administration keeps moving the shells around, only to reveal a new moratorium under the shell that is picked. However, in this case, there appears to be a moratorium under every shell."
The bottom line is that as long as there are lengthy delays and confusion a de facto moratorium exists and jobs continue to erode in the Gulf of Mexico, which is already reeling from the other economic effects of the spill.
Meanwhile, members of NOIA and the oil and gas industry as a whole have been working tirelessly to assist in the containment and clean up of the oil since April 20. In addition, the industry has done a top to bottom review of safety procedures to guard against a similar accident now and in the future. As part of this top to bottom review, industry has voluntarily suggested additional safety checks and backups to regain the public’s confidence in offshore exploration.
There was another path, a path for the Administration to constructively sit down with the oil and gas industry, not under the shadow of either a suspension or moratorium, and reach a sensible agreement that would allow exploration to proceed in the safest possible manner. However, it appears that the desire to reach an amicable solution is not as appealing to the Department as the urge to install another political moratorium, which may invite continued legal challenges, and continue to appeal the existing moratorium.The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) believes the drilling suspensions... more
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Texas Congressmen Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, and Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, promised to fight the Gulf of Mexico drilling moratorium, rallying nearly 300 at a July 7 town hall meeting called by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC).
IADC 2010 Chairman Louis Raspino, Pride International, noted: "The small businesses that hold the big players together can't afford six months of no revenue. In a very short period of time, we're going to see this industry implode."
The Congressmen warned not to rely on leadership, but to get involved individually and to educate others.
"The energy industry has been demonized for years. It's not just because people don't understand it. It's because there's no political price for damaging your industry," Cong. Brady said. "They don't see energy workers – they just see energy executives. So they feel free to undercut the two million workers in this industry because they don't think they have any energy workers in their districts."
Cong. Olson noted that the drilling moratorium will not make deepwater drilling safer, yet will damage the US economy. He warned of a bill in the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee that would increase the $75 million liability limit on offshore facilities. Cong. Brady has proposed an alternative that would consider the risks of each rig separately.
"I'm committed to making sure that we have a bill that does not kill more jobs or harm the industry even further," Olson said.
IADC recently formed the Deepwater Coalition to work with Congressional members to help them understand industry actions to improve safety and the dire economic implications of a deepwater drilling moratorium.
Technical experts described their involvement with the government's safety recommendations. Both Moe Plaisance, Diamond Offshore, and Tom Williams, Nautilus International, felt their work on separate committees had been misused to support a moratorium when that was not what their groups had recommended.
Plaisance led a group under the Joint Industry Task Force formed by IADC and the American Petroleum Institute to provide recommendations to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on how existing equipment could be used to improve offshore safety.Texas Congressmen Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, and Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, promised... more
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Saipem has been awarded new offshore contracts worth over 1 billion euro ($1.3 billion).
The contracts refer to activities to be carried out between 2010 and 2012 in the main offshore areas where Saipem is present, in particular in the Caspian Sea, both in the Kazakh and Azeri sectors, Brazil, the Middle East, West Africa, the North Sea and Mexico. The operations will be performed by Saipem's most powerful fleet vessels and include the laying of sealines, field development, as well as platform fabrication and installation.
Among the major awarded contracts, in Kazakhstan, Saipem has signed an extension of the Kashagan Trunklines contract with Agip KCO for the installation of the pipeline system connecting the offshore production facilities. This will be conducted as part of the experimental phase of the Kashagan field development program and is located in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, approximately 80 km southeast of the town of Atyrau.
The contract has been extended to December 2011 and encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of the production and service pipelines – for a total length of approximately 34 kilometers – and of the associated umbilicals and power and fiber optic cables – for a total length of approximately 40 kilometers. The project also encompasses the design and installation of pre-investment pipeline stubs for a total length of approximately 5.2km, which will allow the implementation of future field development phases without need of production shutdowns.
The offshore activities will be executed by the vessels Castoro 12 and Castoro 16, having onboard special trenching and backfilling equipment developed for the purpose of tackling the challenging environmental conditions of the northern part of the Caspian Sea: very shallow water, severe weather and stringent environment conservation restrictions.
In Brazil, the Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, has awarded Saipem the EPIC contract for the P55-SCR project, for risers and flowlines serving the semisubmersible platform P-55 to be installed in the Roncador field, in the Campos Basin, about 120 kilometers off the coast of the Rio de Janeiro State in Brazil.
The contract encompasses the engineering, procurement, transportation and offshore installation of 25 kilometers of flowlines and of 16 steel catenary risers, with a diameter ranging from 8 to 12 inches for a total length of approximately 50 kilometers of rigid pipe. These will connect the subsea wellheads to the production platform P-55, in water depths ranging from 1,500 to 1,900 meters. Roncador is one of the most similar fields, in terms of water depth and geological characteristics, to the new recent discoveries in the Santos Basin, in the Brazilian offshore. Because of the size of the field, the water depth and the product specification, Roncador is considered one of the most technically challenging deepwater developments to date.
The offshore activities will be performed in the second half of 2012.Saipem has been awarded new offshore contracts worth over 1 billion euro ($1.3... more
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Crew members of the Danny Adkins, a drilling rig owned by Noble Corp., watched new paint dry as they waited for the resolution of the Gulf's biggest drama: whether the temporary ban on offshore drilling imposed by the Obama administration will stick.
The seven-story-tall rig was moved to this spot, 220 miles south of Houston, to drill a deepwater well for Shell in late May, a few days before the Interior Department decreed a six-month moratorium on Gulf of Mexico drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Even though a federal court struck down the moratorium, Shell, like other Gulf producers, isn't letting the rig return to work while an appeal is pending. For Shell and Noble executives, it's unclear how easy it will be to obtain a federal permit to drill, even if the ban is permanently overturned. In the meantime, the Anglo-Dutch oil major is still paying the rig owner an undisclosed amount. Typically, a rig like the Danny Adkins would fetch between $400,000 to $600,000 a day but Shell agreed to pay Noble a "reduced suspension rate" while extending the length of the contract.
Meanwhile, the Noble crew has been engaging in busy work, such as repainting the brand-new half-billion-dollar vessel. But there's only so much maintenance work they can do. The workers' frustration underscores a similar malaise among energy company executives and Gulf Coast officials at what they perceive is an arbitrary disruption of the region's main economic engine.
"We need to go to work," rig manager Jessie Jordan told U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, (R-Texas), Rep. Pete Olson (R, Texas) and a few reporters visiting the rig Tuesday. The company and politicians took part in the trip in an effort to promote the safety of deepwater drilling and its positive impact on the economy of coastal states.
"For 20 years, you guys have been doing things right," Olson told the rig workers.
As the legal battle over the moratorium reaches a critical point--the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case on Thursday--the offshore drilling industry and its political backers are ratcheting up their criticism. At stake, they say, are 150,000 jobs and the economic lifeline of a region that has weathered the recession better than the rest of the country.
Contractors fear the tighter regulation will squeeze them out of the Gulf, and some of the rigs that end up in Brazil, West Africa or other offshore areas, may never come back.
"Just about every rig sitting in the Gulf right now is trying to find a way to get out of the Gulf," said Louis Raspino, chief executive of drilling contractor Pride International Inc. (PDE). "In a very, very short period of time we're going to see this industry implode," he said Wednesday at a gathering of the International Association of Drilling Contractors in Houston.
Backers of the moratorium say it will help authorities make sure drilling is safe before it can continue, reducing the possibility of another massive oil spill such as the one unleashed by the explosion and sinking in April of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The blast killed 11 people, and the spill, which continues to spew crude into the Gulf, has become one of the worst offshore leaks in U.S. history.
The incident has incensed opponents of expanded offshore drilling in areas such as Florida and California, and has prompted Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass) to say that investment in deepwater drilling has far surpassed the industry's ability to deal with unintended consequences.
At the IADC meeting, drillers took a belligerent stance against the moratorium. The group's director, Lee Hunt, compared the measure to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's recent move to nationalize privately owned drilling rigs. In Venezuela, the rigs were "nationalized by fiat. We have 33 rigs that have been neutralized by fiat," he said.
A presentation slide called U.S. Judge Martin Feldman, who overturned the moratorium, a "hero." Olsen, a speaker at the meeting, was also hailed as a hero. He called the moratorium was "the wrong decision."
At the drilling rig, which was hired to drill at a depth of 9,000 feet below sea level, Noble crew members said they have the right safety procedures in place and the rig has been thoroughly inspected by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service. President Barack Obama ordered the reorganization of the agency after the Deepwater Horizon disaster amid accusations of lax oversight.Crew members of the Danny Adkins, a drilling rig owned by Noble Corp., watched new... more
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To improve the safety of oil and gas development in federal waters, provide greater environmental protection and substantially reduce the risk of catastrophic events such as the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar called for aggressive new operating standards and requirements for offshore energy companies and ordered a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. He also canceled a pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and a proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia, and suspended proposed exploratory drilling in the Arctic.
The recommendations in the 30-Day Safety Report Salazar sent President Obama include a recertification of all Blowout Preventers (BOPs) for floating drilling operations; stronger well control practices, blowout prevention and intervention procedures; tougher inspections for deepwater drilling operations; and expanded safety and training programs for rig workers.
"As we marshal every resource in support of the massive response effort for the BP oil spill, we must take appropriate action to prevent such a disaster in the future," Secretary Salazar said. "We are taking a cautious approach to offshore oil and gas development as we strengthen safety and oversight of offshore oil and gas operations."
Secretary Salazar is ordering a moratorium on drilling of new deepwater wells until the Presidential Commission investigating the BP oil spill has completed its six-month review. In addition, permitted wells currently being drilled in the deepwater (not counting the emergency relief wells being drilled) in the Gulf of Mexico will be required to halt drilling at the first safe stopping point, and then take steps to secure the well.Additional safety checks will be imposed on ongoing deepwater drilling activities as they prepare to shut down their operations. The Department of the Interior will be issuing notices to lessees and other documentation necessary to implement the moratorium.
Secretary Salazar said the Administration will continue to take a cautious approach in the Arctic and, in light of the need for additional information about spill risks and spill response capabilities, will postpone consideration of Shell's proposal to drill up to five exploration wells in the Arctic this summer. In March, Secretary Salazar canceled the remaining four lease sales in the 2007-2012 program that the previous Administration had scheduled for the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in the Arctic, and the President formally withdrew Alaska's Bristol Bay from the oil and gas leasing program. The Department will make decisions about potential future lease sales in Alaska in the 2012-2017 OCS program based on public input, scientific analysis, and the results of on-going investigations and reviews into the BP oil spill.
The Secretary also canceled a proposed 2012 lease sale for offshore Virginia to allow additional consultations with the Department of Defense on military training requirements in the area, and canceled a lease sale for the Gulf of Mexico that was scheduled for August 2010. The findings of the Presidential Commission, environmental reviews, science-based analysis and public input will inform the Secretary's decisions about whether to move forward with other leases sales in the Gulf of Mexico that are currently scheduled for 2011 and 2012, along with decisions about what areas in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic should be considered for inclusion in the 2012-2017 OCS program.
"We must proceed with the utmost caution as we examine the many questions that the BP oil spill raises," Salazar said. "Prudence dictates that we pause and examine our drilling systems thoroughly so that we can ensure that this type of disaster does not happen again."
Interior's expedited Safety Report recommends a number of specific measures that can be taken on both a short and longer term basis to enhance the safety of offshore oil and gas activities. The report focuses on the two primary failures in the drilling process that may have led to the BP disaster: the loss of well control, and the failure of the blowout preventer (BOP) mechanism.
BOP equipment used on all OCS floating drilling rigs must be re-inspected and receive independent recertification to ensure that the devices will operate as originally designed and that any modifications or upgrades conducted after delivery have not compromised the design or operation of the BOP. Operators must also provide independent verification that the recertified BOP will operate properly with the drilling rig equipment and is compatible with the specific well location, borehole design and drilling plan. Within a year, all operations will require two sets of blind shear rams on BOPs to prevent system failure during an emergency.
The BOPs contain mechanisms designed to shut off the flow of oil and gas, either on command or automatically, when required or when a wellhead is damaged or experiences a blowout. Investigators are seeking to determine why the BOP atop the Deepwater Horizon well failed to activate as designed.
Well control design, construction and flow intervention mechanisms and procedures are being strengthened to require expert review and verification and mechanical and physical flow barriers in the drill casings and BOP equipment to prevent blowouts. Tougher requirements will improve the installation and cementing of drill casings in the wellbore to increase safety.
Some of Salazar's recommendations can be carried out immediately through Notices to Lessees, which will advise OCS lessees and operators of the requirements and provide guidance for their implementation. The Department will also immediately undertake an evaluation and revision of the manner in which it conducts drilling inspections on the OCS, and will issue a final rule covering operator Safety and Environmental Management Systems.
Other measures, although identified, are more appropriate to address initially through a formal rulemaking process. The Department will issue an interim final rule within 120 days to address these measures, and will provide a comment period to elicit input that may lead to further adjustments to this final rule.
Interior has identified a number of additional issues associated with the safety of OCS drilling that will benefit from further study and a wider discussion. The Department will therefore immediately provide for the establishment of DOI working groups to further develop measures and recommendations around these issues, seeking input as appropriate from academia, industry, and other technical experts and stakeholders. These issues involve highly technical and complex evaluations that must be undertaken with due care.
These working groups will present recommendations for further safety and environmental protection measures within 6 months, with implementation of the new recommendations through appropriate process within one year. The recommendations from these Departmental working groups may also inform the efforts of the President's new bipartisan National Commission.
On April 30, 2010, President Obama directed Secretary Salazar to prepare the expedited report evaluating additional offshore oil and gas safety measures that could be put into action on an interim basis, even before on-going investigations identify the root cause of the BP oil spill disaster. Interior consulted with a wide range of experts from industry, government, and academia. Draft recommendations were reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of EngineeringTo improve the safety of oil and gas development in federal waters, provide greater... more
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Activists opposed to new offshore drilling projects are seeing the Gulf coast oil spill as a call to action, using the crisis to urge President Obama toward a clean energy future. MoveOn.org added its voice with an ad released today titled "The Ban."
The ad features a plea for clean energy with images of the devastation caused by the oil spill and calls on Obama to reinstate the ban on new offshore drilling.
While Obama has put new offshore drilling plans on hold until the cause of the disaster is discovered, he has given no indication that future offshore drilling plans are off the table.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/move-on-moveon-ad-offshore-drilling_n_561298.htmlActivists opposed to new offshore drilling projects are seeing the Gulf coast oil... more
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The Obama administration said on Monday that it remains "premature" to rule out including additional offshore drilling as part of comprehensive energy legislation, even as Senate Democrats warn that such a provision would make the bill "dead on arrival."
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the president will determine whether to stay with or abandon his call for additional drilling off various parts of the coast once he gets the findings of an investigation into the massive oil spill in the Gulf.
"The president was specific in ordering [Department of Interior] Secretary [Ken] Salazar to look at all the possible aspects of what could go wrong in this instance [and] to report back to him in that thirty day period," Gibbs said in response to a question from the Huffington Post. "This is an administration that is going to take any information we can get from that and have that dictate our decision making going forward. I think it would be premature to get too far ahead of where Secretary Salazar's investigation is."
While the White House declines to fully abandon offshore drilling in light of the current spill, others in the Senate are ramping up their opposition. On Friday, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fl.) said any energy bill that included such exploration in its legislative language would be "dead on arrival" in the Senate. His office went even further, speculating that larger energy bill itself was now all but impassable in the Senate.
"It's dead on arrival if it contains oil drilling," an aide said, "if it doesn't have offshore drilling then you don't have Republicans."
Over the weekend, the lone Republican who had lent his support to a soon-to-be-introduced energy bill re-affirmed his stance that offshore drilling should be a component of the final product.
"We've had problems with car design, but you don't stop driving," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told the Greenville (S.C.) News. "The Challenger accident was heart-breaking but we went back to space. The biggest beneficiaries of this proposal to stop drilling would be overseas oil interests, OPEC and regimes that don't like us very much."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/gibbs-premature-for-obama_n_561313.htmlThe Obama administration said on Monday that it remains "premature" to rule... more
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In a move that has drawn criticism from virtually all sides, President Obama today proposed opening up vast areas of previously off-limits ocean to offshore oil and gas drilling.
Interestingly, this comes only a week after the Environmental Protection Agency proposed including the oil and gas industries among those industries that will be required to report carbon dioxide emissions beginning in 2011. When it comes to oil, the administration appears to be opening some doors while closing some windows.
“It’s like saying, ‘You want to quit smoking? Here, have a carton of cigarettes,’” said Jacqueline Savitz, a senior campaign director with environmental non-profit Oceana. “Not only does it make it harder to quit, it increases your chances of getting cancer. ...
http://solveclimate.com/blog/20100331/offshore-drilling-move-muddies-obama-s-relationship-oil-and-gasIn a move that has drawn criticism from virtually all sides, President Obama today... more
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WaPo:
Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban — compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.
McCain said the policy reversal came as a response to rising voter anger over soaring energy prices. At the time, about three-quarters of voters responding to a Washington Post-ABC News poll said prices at the pump were causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.[..]
McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.
“The timing was significant,” said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain’s oil industry contributions. “This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money.”
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. Of course, John McCain has been getting substantial donations from lobbyists all along. Methinks this report “Embedded or In Bed: John McCain and His Lobbyist Problem” (.pdf) needs to be updated.
BooMan and JedReport has more… WaPo:
Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain... more
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