BP might be America’s bette noir right now after the Deepwater Horizon spill, but its fierce rival Shell is planning a massive expansion in the region. Shell plans to expand its operations in tar sands and in deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico. So never mind the repeated calls by environmental groups, communities and investors … Read More
offshore drilling
BP Will Survive, But What About the Others?
It is not rocket science that fickle City investors responded to the news of BP’s final plugging of the Macondo well by sending the company’s share price rising. BP’s share price rose by just under 2 per cent to $38.68, helping to recover a small portion of the billions wiped off BP’s market capitalisation during … Read More
Another day, another fire
Yesterday, as BP tried to weasel its way out of its promised $20 billion payout, another Gulf rig caught fire, this time thankfully without any associated loss of life. Vermillion 380-A, owned and operated by Mariner Energy reportedly caught fire as workers were painting and water-blasting. There are two main points that are illustrated well … Read More
It’s as if Deepwater Never Happened..
When the Deepwater disaster occurred in the Gulf of Mexico four months ago, many commentators argued that this was a “game changer” that would change the energy debate forever. Politicians and the public would realise that the ecological and social cost of offshore drilling was becoming unacceptable, the thinking went. If you morph the lessons … Read More
Ability to Find New Reserves Now on a “Knife Edge”
Well we always knew that the oil spill disaster would have severe repercussions for the industry, a fact now conceded by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA has warned that the spill from BP’s Macondo’s well “places the ability of the industry to access important new reserves on a knife edge“. Its latest monthly … Read More
Scientists told to “Shut Up” Over Spill
Yesterday the environmental campaign group Greenpeace announced it was launching a three-month expedition to analyse the impact of BP’s oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico. The Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise will “host independent scientists who will be researching the impacts of oil and chemical dispersants on Gulf ecosystems and marine life,” said John … Read More
“Of particular concern is the ability to stop a blowout once it has begun.”
When Time magazine compiled a list of its “Dirty Dozen” people it held responsible for BP’s oil spill it is hardly surprising that BP’s two recent CEOs John Browne and Tony Hayward topped the list. Number three on the list, though, was a name most people had never heard of: Chris Oynes. Oynes was the … Read More
“Its too early to make any conclusions about the true scale of the damage.”
Yesterday the reporting on this issue went like this: BP has successfully plugged the well, and the US government said that 75 per cent of the oil had been cleaned up. This means the Gulf disaster was exaggerated, Tony Hayward was right after all about a small drop in a large ocean and, hey presto … Read More
The Good News, the Bad and the Ugly
First the good news. BP says its “static kill” on its Macondo well has succeeded so far, describing the moment as a “significant milestone”. The “static kill”, which started yesterday, involved pumping heavy drilling mud from the top of the well slowly down, pushing the oil back down into the reservoir. The oil was stopped … Read More
BP: The Biggest Polluter as spill confirmed as “world’s worst”
Whatever happens today when BP begins to finally cap its Macondo well with a “static kill”, latest estimates are that the spill is the world’s biggest accidental oil leak. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed from the well before it was capped last month. When the spill first occurred back in April, people … Read More