Feds clear Alaska Denali pipeline for open season

Federal regulators clear competing Alaska pipeline project to seek shipping commitments

Becky Bohrer, AP Business Writer, On Monday June 7, 2010, 8:02 pm EDT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Federal regulators approved plans Monday allowing a second gas pipeline project in Alaska to begin seeking shipping commitments in what’s known as “open season.”

Monday’s decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sets the stage for overlapping open seasons by competing projects, though it’s widely expected that there will be just one major gas line — if one gets built at all.

Backers of Alaska’s two projects have seen the buy-in of the North Slope’s major players — Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC and ConocoPhillips — as critical to the viability of a natural gas pipeline, which has long been seen as a way to create jobs and help shore up revenue for the state as North Slope oil production declines.

TransCanada Corp. began its 90-day open season April 30. It holds an exclusive license with the state, under terms of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act pushed by then-Gov. Sarah Palin, that provides up to $500 million to advance a project. TransCanada is working with Exxon Mobil Corp. to do so and has reported early, positive interest.

Denali, which got the go-ahead Monday and is proceeding without the special state incentives, plans to begin its open season July 6. Denali is a joint effort of BP and ConocoPhillips, and its president, Bud Fackrell, has defended Denali’s proposal as highly competitive.

The open seasons will play out against the backdrop of a gubernatorial race in which the pipeline has become a big issue among Republicans preparing for an August primary election.

Gov. Sean Parnell has called the open seasons a positive for Alaska and said he’d work to protect Alaska’s interests throughout the process. Among his challengers are Republicans Bill Walker, who supports a so-called “all Alaska” line and Ralph Samuels, a former state representative who has called the inducement act a “colossal mistake.” Samuels says the process that’s led to this point may have put Alaska at a disadvantage when the time comes to discuss fiscal terms on a project.

TransCanada and Denali have put forth plans to deliver about 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day to North American markets by larger lines to Canada, with goals of being in service by around 2020. Denali estimates its project cost at $35 billion; TransCanada, $32 billion to $41 billion.

TransCanada also has offered a shorter, cheaper option — at $20 billion to $26 billion — that would lead to a liquefied natural gas facility that could export fuel by ship. Denali spokesman Dave MacDowell said Denali would consider such an option as well, if its potential customers asked it to do so.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did require some changes to Denali’s plan, including deletion of a provision requiring bidders to resubmit bids and signed agreements if a revised open season is called.

MacDowell said none of the issues raised in the regulators’ decision caused Denali any concern.

Online:

Denali: http://www.denalipipeline.com

TransCanada and Exxon Mobil’s plan: http://www.thealaskapipelineproject.com

        Pull your head out of the sand and your ass’s and start to pay attention as to what is going on around you, get in their faces and stay there till you get some results. If they ignore you take some time and camp out in there offices, and start talking to everyone coming in.

Stand up for once, stop bending over..

Richard

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com

Transocean; oil services company Halliburton, Cameron Inc

Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion refers to the catastrophic April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent fire on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform situated about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the Louisiana coast in the Macondo Prospect oil field. The explosion, occurring after a North Korean torpedo attack^[1], killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others; another 98 people survived without serious physical injury. It caused the Deepwater Horizon to sink and burn, and started a massive ongoing offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is now considered the largest in U.S. history, and an environmental disaster.^[2][3]

Background

] Deepwater Horizon

Main article: Deepwater Horizon
 

The Deepwater Horizon was a floating oil drilling platform — a fifth-generation, ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, column-stabilized, semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU). The platform was 396 feet (121 m) long and 256 feet (78 m) wide and could operate in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep, to a maximum drill depth of 30,000 feet (9,100 m).^[4] Press releases from Transocean state the platform had historically been used for deeper wells, including the deepest underwater gas and oil well in history at 35,055 feet (10,685 m) in 2009. ^[5] The $560 million platform was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea and completed in 2001.^[6] It was owned by Transocean, operated under the Marshalese flag of convenience, and was under lease to BP until September 2013.^[7] At the time of the explosion, the Deepwater Horizon was on Mississippi Canyon Block 252, referred to as the Macondo Prospect, in the United States sector of the Gulf of Mexico, about 41 miles (66 km) off the Louisiana coast.^[8][9][10] In March 2008, the mineral rights to drill for oil on the Macondo Prospect were purchased by BP at the Minerals Management Service’s lease sale.^[11] The platform commenced drilling in February 2010 at a water depth of approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 m).^[12] At the time of the explosion the rig was drilling an exploratory well.^[13] The planned well was to be drilled to 18,000 feet (5,500 m) below sea level, and was to be plugged and suspended for subsequent completion as a subsea producer.^[12] Production casing was being run and cemented at the time of the accident. Once the cementing was complete, it was due to be tested for integrity and a cement plug set to temporarily abandon the well for later completion as a subsea producer.^[14]

[edit] Pre-spill risks and precautions

Offshore drilling rigs are large, complex, mechanical operations that operate in conditions subject to both human error and adverse natural conditions.^[15] Minerals Management Service records show that since 2001, there have been 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries and 858 fires and explosions in the Gulf of Mexico.^[16] There were 39 fires or explosions on offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in the first five months of 2009, the last period with statistics available.^[17][18]
In February 2009, BP filed a 52 page exploration and environmental impact plan for the Macondo well with the Minerals Management Service (MMS), an arm of the United States Department of the Interior that oversees offshore drilling. The plan stated that it was “unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities”.^[19] In the event an accident did take place the plan stated that due to the well being 48 miles (77 km) from shore and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts would be expected.^[19] The Department of the Interior exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact study after concluding that a massive oil spill was unlikely.^[20][21] In addition, following a loosening of regulations in 2008, BP was not required to file a detailed blowout plan.^[22]
The BP wellhead had been fitted with a blowout preventer (BOP), but it was not fitted with remote-control or acoustically-activated triggers for use in case of an emergency requiring a platform to be evacuated. It did have a dead man’s switch designed to automatically cut the pipe and seal the well if communication from the platform is lost, but it was unknown whether the switch was activated.^[23] Regulators in both Norway and Brazil generally require acoustically-activated triggers on all offshore platforms, but when the Minerals Management Service considered requiring the remote device, a report commissioned by the agency as well as drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness.^[23] In 2003, the agency determined that the device would not be required because drilling rigs had other back-up systems to cut off a well.^[23][24]

[edit] Pre-spill problems and warnings

There had been numerous previous spills and fires on the Deepwater Horizon; the Coast Guard had issued pollution citations 18 times between 2000 and 2010, and had investigated 16 fires and other incidents. The previous fires, spills, and incidents were not considered unusual for a Gulf platform and have not been connected to the April, 2010 explosion and spill.^[15] The Deepwater Horizon did, however, have other serious incidents, including one in 2008 in which 77 people were evacuated from the platform when it listed and began to sink after a section of pipe was accidentally removed from the platform’s ballast system.^[25]
Internal BP documents show that BP engineers had concerns as early as 2009 that the metal casing BP wanted to use might collapse under high pressure.^[26] In March, 2010, the rig was experiencing problems that included drilling mud falling into the undersea oil formation, sudden gas releases, a pipe falling into the well, and at least three occasions of the blowout preventer leaking fluid.^[26] According to a report by 60 Minutes, the blowout preventer was damaged in a previously unreported accident in late March, and BP overruled the drilling operator on key operations. BP declined to comment on the report.^[27] The American Bureau of Shipping last inspected the rig’s failed blowout preventer in 2005.^[28]
On March 10, 2010, a BP executive e-mailed the Minerals Management Service that there was a stuck pipe and “well control situation” at the drilling site, and that BP would have to “plugback the well.”^[29] A draft of a BP memo in April warned that the cementing of the casing was unlikely to be successful.^[26] Halliburton, a week after the explosion, said that it had finished cementing 20 hours before the fire,^[15] and that it cemented the Macondo well but had not set the final cement plug to cap the bore as “operations had not reached a stage where a final plug was needed”.^[30] A special nitrogen-foamed cement was used which is more difficult to handle than standard cement.^[31]
In late April, 2010, Adrian Rose, a vice president of Transocean, Ltd., said that workers had been performing their standard routines and had no indication of any problems prior to the explosion.^[17] However, preliminary findings from BP’s internal investigation released by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on May 25 indicated several serious warning signs in the hours just prior to the explosion.^[32][33] Equipment readings indicated gas bubbling into the well, which could signal an impending blowout.^[26]

[edit] April, 2010 explosion and fire

The fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon reportedly started at 9:45 p.m. CDT on April 20, 2010. According to Transocean executive Adrian Rose, abnormal pressure accumulated inside the marine riser and as it came up it “expanded rapidly and ignited”.^[14] According to interviews with platform workers conducted during BP’s internal investigation, a bubble of methane gas escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding.^[34] Rose said the event was basically a blowout.^[14] Survivors described the incident as a sudden explosion which gave them less than five minutes to escape as the alarm went off.^[35]
At an April 30 press conference, BP said that it did not know the cause of the explosion.^[36] Transocean chief executive Steven Newman described the cause as “a sudden, catastrophic failure of the cement, the casing or both.”^[31] The heavy drilling mud in the pipes initially held down the gas of the leaking well. When managers believed they were almost done with the well, they decided to displace the mud with seawater; the gas was then able to overcome the weight of the fluid column and rose to the top.^[31] The explosion was followed by a fire that engulfed the platform. Video of the fire shows billowing flames, taller than a multistory building, and a captain of a rescue boat described the heat as so intense that it was melting the paint off the boats.^[37] After burning for more than a day, Deepwater Horizon sank on April 22, 2010.^[38] The Coast Guard stated to CNN on April 22 that they received word of the sinking at approximately 10:21 am.^[39]
Casualties and rescue efforts
 

Survivors

According to officials, 126 individuals were on board, of whom 79 were Transocean employees, six were from BP, and 41 were contracted; of these, 115 individuals were evacuated.^[17] Most of the workers evacuated the rig and took diesel-powered fiberglass lifeboats to the M/V Damon B Bankston, a workboat that BP had hired to service the rig.^[40][41] Seventeen others were then evacuated from the workboat by helicopter.^[17] Most survivors were brought to Port Fourchon for a medical check-up and to meet their families.^[42] Although 94 workers were taken to shore with no major injuries, four were transported to another vessel, and 17 were sent to trauma centers in Mobile, Alabama and Marrero, Louisiana.^[17] Most were soon released.^[17][18][43] When the blowout occurred, 4 BP and Transocean executives were on board the platform for a tour of the rig, maintenance planning, annual goals review, a “Drops” safety campaign, and to congratulate the senior staff of the rig for 7 years of operations without a lost time incident (MMS reports show a lost time accident occured 2008-03-06 on a service vessel at a lease being worked by the Deepwater Horizon, in preparation for a crane operation under control of the Deepwater Horizon);^[44] they were injured but survived.^[34] Lawyers for some survivors of the blast claim that their clients were kept in boats and on another rig for 15 hours or more before being brought to shore and when they did get to shore, “they were zipped into private buses, there was security there, there was no press, no lawyers allowed, nothing, no family members.”^[45] They were then driven to a hotel under escort, secluded at the hotel for hours, questioned by company consultants and investigators and then given a form to sign before being released.^[45] These claims are denied by Transocean.^[46]

[edit] Missing and presumed dead

Initial reports indicated that between 12 to 15 workers were missing;^[47] reports soon narrowed the number of missing to nine crew members on the platform floor and two engineers.^[34] The United States Coast Guard immediately launched a massive rescue operation involving two Coast Guard cutters, four helicopters, and a rescue plane.^[48][49] Two of the cutters continued searching through the night. By the morning of April 22, the Coast Guard had surveyed nearly 1,940 square miles (5,000 km²).^[40] On April 23, the Coast Guard called off the search for the 11 missing persons, concluding that “reasonable expectations of survival” had passed.^[43][50] Officials concluded that the missing workers may have been near the blast and unable to escape the sudden explosion.^[51]
The 11 men killed in the explosion were: Jason Anderson, 35, Midfield, Texas; Aaron Dale Burkeen, 37, Philadelphia, Mississippi; Donald Clark, 34, Newellton, Louisiana; Stephen Curtis, 39, Georgetown, Louisiana; Gordon Jones, 28, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, Jonesville, Louisiana; Karl Klepping, 38, Natchez, Mississippi; Blair Manuel, 56, Eunice, Louisiana; Dewey Revette, 48, State Line, Mississippi; Shane Roshto, 22, Franklin County, Mississippi; and Adam Weise, 24, Yorktown, Texas. Jones and Manuel were employees of M-I-Swaco, while the other nine worked for Transocean.^[52][53]

[edit] Discovery of oil spill

Main article: Deepwater Horizon oil spill
 

On the morning of April 22, 2010 (2 days after the blowout accident), CNN quoted Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashley Butler as saying that “oil was leaking from the rig at the rate of about 8,000 barrels (340,000 US gallons; 1,300,000 litres) of crude per day.”^[54] That afternoon, as a large oil slick spread, Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael O’Berry used the same figure. Two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) were sent down to attempt to cap the well, but had been unsuccessful.^[39] Butler warned of a leak of up to 700,000 US gallons (17,000 bbl) of diesel fuel, and BP Vice President David Rainey termed the incident as being a potential “major spill.”^[39]
On April 22, BP announced that it was deploying a remotely operated underwater vehicle to the site to assess whether oil was flowing from the well.^[55] Other reports indicated that BP was using more than one remotely operated underwater vehicle and that the purpose was to attempt to plug the well pipe.^[56] On April 23, a remotely operated underwater vehicle reportedly found no oil leaking from the sunken rig and no oil flowing from the well.^[57] Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry expressed cautious optimism of zero environmental impact, stating that no oil was emanating from either the wellhead or the broken pipes and that oil spilled from the explosion and sinking was being contained.^{[58][59][60][61]} The following day, April 24, Landry announced that a damaged wellhead was indeed leaking oil into the Gulf and described it as “a very serious spill”.^[62]
 

 JUST FOR FYI  SIDE.

Richard

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com

BP stock tumbles as feds announce oil-spill probes

By MIKE KUNZELMAN and GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writers Mike Kunzelman And Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writers – 33 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – BP’s stock plummeted and took much of the market down with it Tuesday as the federal government announced criminal and civil investigations into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP engineers, meanwhile, tried to recover from a failed attempt to stop the gusher with an effort that will initially make the leak worse.

Attorney General Eric Holder, who was visiting the Gulf to survey the fragile coastline and meet with state and federal prosecutors, would not say who might be targeted in the probes into the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

“We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill. If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response,” Holder said in New Orleans.

BP’s stock nose-dived on Tuesday, losing nearly 15 percent of its value on the first trading day since the previous best option — the so-called “top kill” — failed and was aborted at the government’s direction. It dipped steeply with Holder’s late-afternoon announcement, which also sent other energy stocks tumbling, ultimately causing the Dow Jones industrial average to tumble 112.

After six weeks of failures to block the well or divert the oil, BP was using robotic machines to carve into the twisted appendages of the crippled well. The latest attempt involved using tools resembling an oversized deli slicer and garden shears to break away the broken riser pipe so engineers can then position a cap over the well’s opening.

Even if it succeeds, it will temporarily increase the flow of an already massive leak by 20 percent — at least 100,000 gallons more a day. And it is far from certain that BP will be able to cap a well that one expert compared to an out-of-control fire hydrant.

“It is an engineer’s nightmare,” said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental sciences. “They’re trying to fit a 21-inch cap over a 20-inch pipe a mile away. That’s just horrendously hard to do. It’s not like you and I standing on the ground pushing — they’re using little robots to do this.”

The operation has never been performed in such deep water, and is similar to an earlier failed attempt that used a larger cap that quickly froze up. BP PLC officials said they were applying lessons learned from the earlier effort, and plan to pump warm water through pipes into the smaller dome to prevent any icing problems.

“If all goes as planned, within about 24 hours we could have this contained,” BP’s Doug Suttles said Tuesday after touring a temporary housing facility set up for cleanup workers in Grand Isle. “But we can’t guarantee success.”

Since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and eventually collapsing into the Gulf of Mexico, an estimated 20 million to 40 million gallons of oil has spewed, eclipsing the 11 million that leaked from the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Oil has fouled many fishing areas and miles of ecologically sensitive coastline. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said oil from the spill was found in his state for the first time, on a barrier island, and newly expanded federal restrictions mean that nearly a third of federal waters are closed to fishing.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday ordered the co-chairmen of an independent commission investigating the spill to thoroughly examine the disaster, “to follow the facts wherever they lead, without fear or favor.” The commission is led by Bob Graham, a former Florida governor and U.S. senator, and William K. Reilly, a former head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Holder said the laws under review for the criminal and civil probes include the Clean Water Act, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act. He said the government would pursue criminal charges “if warranted,” a caveat he did not include for civil action.

“We will ensure that every cent, every cent of taxpayer money, will be repaid and that damage to the environment and wildlife will be reimbursed,” he said.

Washington lawyer Stan Brand said that two likely criminal law theories the Justice Department would pursue are false statements to the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service and obstruction by failing to produce evidence to investigators.

But Brand and longtime Washington lawyer Stephen Ryan, a former federal prosecutor and ex-congressional investigator, predicted it will be difficult to prove criminality.

“Bad business judgment isn’t a crime,” said Ryan.

BP is part owner of the blown well. Other companies involved include rig operator Transocean; oil services company Halliburton, which handled the cementing of the well; and Cameron Inc., which made the blowout preventer that apparently failed.

Criminal charges have met with mixed results in two previous high-profile U.S. oil spills.

Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the Exxon Valdez supertanker that ran aground off Alaska’s coast in 1989, was acquitted of being drunk when the accident occurred, but convicted of a misdemeanor for negligent oil discharge. He was fined $50,000 and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service.

Hong Kong-based Fleet Management Ltd. paid a $10 million fine after pleading to obstruction charges following a 2007 oil spill after one of the company’s cargo ships struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The ship’s pilot pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

The government would have a lower burden of proof in a civil case. In the Valdez spill, thousands of fishermen, cannery workers, landowners and Native Americans were initially awarded $5 billion in punitive damages, but the amount was eventually reduced to $507.5 million.

BP is part owner of the blown well. Other companies involved include rig operator Transocean; oil services company Halliburton, which handled the cementing of the well; and Cameron Inc., which made the blowout preventer that apparently failed.

BP engineers began putting underwater robots and equipment in place this week after an attempt to plug the well by force-feeding it heavy mud and cement — called a “top kill” — was aborted over the weekend. Crews pumped thousands of gallons of the mud into the well but were unable to overcome the pressure of the oil.

The next plan has BP engineers placing a cap-like containment valve over the well. Not all the gushing oil will be captured through the “cut and cap” method, but the company said it could siphon most of the crude to a vessel on the surface.

Eric Smith, an associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, likened the procedure to trying to place a tiny cap on a fire hydrant that’s blowing straight up.

Crews have forged two different caps in case one of them doesn’t work. Before it can place either one, the company plans to cut the riser in two different places, keeping it aloft with a crane so it doesn’t collapse.

Gigantic shears will cleave off the far end of the riser while a diamond cutter, lowered on top of the blowout preventer early Tuesday, will try to make an even cut through the other end of the tube. A clean cut from the diamond cutter, which resembles a deli slicer, is important because engineers will then lower a heavy cap on top of the sheared-off tube to seal the leak.

BP’s best chance to actually plug the leak rests with a pair of relief wells that likely won’t be completed until August.

          Did any of you follow what was being said about the fact that BP was not the only owner in this well! Search the other names and see who you come up with! You mighr be surprised as to who is in bed with who.

Richard

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com

           So all you hide my head in the sand people out there, are you going to start standing up or are you going to stay bent over so you came get the full favor of this ride.

How many times have we pointed out that BP lies just as much as the Bush/Chaney team did! Would I believe one thing that came out of one of the 7 sister’s oil companies mouths. Maybe a minimal fraction above what BP says. Do you think that I have no confidence in our past President and his lying buddies, your right. Would I believe BP about this, when they lied about the pipeline maintenance that they were suppose to do and never did! Should we take anything they say at face value, only if you can notice that they are lying and that what they are saying is a lie! So after this do you think we should pull BP’s oil leases and send them packing? I do. But first let’s freeze their assets and get our back Oil Royalty Tax’s first. Then when were done with them tell all the other ( including our 7 sisters oil companies) Oil lease holders that owe us Oil Royalty Tax’s, that they have 10 day’s to pay or leave the sites.

May 30, 2010

Is BP “Lying,” Asks Dem, or Just “Incompetent”?

Discussing What Went Wrong in the Gulf, Rep. Markey Says Oil Company Is “Making It Up as They Go Along”

By Lauren Seifert

(CBS)  Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said today that BP knew the initial estimates of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the site of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig were larger than what they were publicly stating was the flow.

In his appearance on CBS’ “Face The Nation” Sunday, Markey said that once video of the oil leak became public, independent scientists confirmed that the flow was much higher than the initial estimates made public by the company.

Holding what he said was an “internal confidential BP document” attesting to what they believed was the rate of the oil escaping into the sea, Markey told CBS News political consultant John Dickerson that BP “believed in the first week that it was 1,000-14,000 barrels per day. But what they said publicly was that it was 1,000 barrels per day.”

The Democrat, who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, said that the amount of oil flowing is tied to any fee that may be imposed on the oil company resulting from the spill.

“BP has a stake in their own liability here,” Market said. “That means that the fine which can be imposed upon them is dependent upon how many barrels per day is going out into the Gulf. If it’s 1,000 barrels per day, it’s a relatively low fine, but if it’s 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 barrels per day, it could wind up billions of dollars in fines that BP executives have to pay to the federal government.”

According to Markey, in the end, the focus was not on liability to the Gulf but liability to BP.

When Dickerson asked if he felt BP lied to the government, Markey said, “I think they were either lying or they were incompetent. Either way, the consequences to the Gulf and Mexico are catastrophic.”

Markey also paints a grim picture of his confidence over BP’s assessment of their next step to control the oil spill, now that the “top kill” procedure to stem the flow has been declared a failure.

“I have no confidence whatsoever in BP,” he said. “I think they do not know what they were doing, in terms of anything that they’re doing is going to turn out as they’re predicting.”

When Dickerson asked if BP should be held criminally responsible, Markey said, “Without question the word ‘criminal’ should be used in terms of an environmental crime against our country.”

Later on the program, CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson commented on the possibility of a criminal investigation into BP. “I do know that seven senators have written a letter asking the attorney general to open a criminal investigation. I think we may see that.

Attkisson said the perspective taken so far by investigators is the possibility that BP obtained a permit to drill under false pretenses. “They said, remember, they could take care of any scenario, this would not happen,” Attkisson said. “So far the inquiry is looking into whether leading up to this they misled the government - which may not have been doing its proper job in oversight but may have also been misled by BP.”
=============================================================

              So are we to believe that some one grew some balls or that they are just giving us great lip service like usual.. Must be nice to be part of the oil cartel, knowing your free from prosecution for the things you wanted to get away with. Thank you Bush/Chaney and Daddy Bush for this…

Rich

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com

     Well I have to say one thing about President OBAMA, at least he is not afraid to admit that our congress and the Oil Companies are in bed together. Must be nice for them getting 2 pay checks and other bennies. Well one thing is to make him aware of the fact that the Alaskan Pipe Line statements from Congress were a pile of Bull Shit, and that since the opening of said Pipe Line, no oil has been sent south to alleviate our need of foreign oil, as stated by our elected official’s . He might be aware of the fact that the Seven Sisters seem to carry the thought that they do what they want and that the government won’t do any thing. ( An attitude brought on by the Bush and Bush/Chaney years in the White House) Those must have been some big pay checks. And I hope he goes after the Oil leases for the Oil Royalty Tax’s still owed that the Bush/Chaney team would not go after. I for one of the land owners would like to see the tax’s collected .

______________________________________________________________________

Obama pledges permit review, end to cozy oil links

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer – Fri May 14, 6:03 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Declaring himself as angry as the rest of the nation, President Barack Obama assailed oil drillers and his own administration Friday as he ordered extra scrutiny of drilling permits to head off any repeat of the sickening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Engineers worked desperately to stop the leak that’s belching out at least 210,000 gallons of crude a day.
As Louisiana wildlife officials reported huge tar balls littering a beach, BP PLC technicians labored to accomplish an engineering feat a mile below the water surface. They were gingerly moving joysticks to guide deep-sea robots and thread a mile-long, 6-inch tube with a rubber stopper into the 21-inch pipe gushing oil from the ocean floor — a task one expert compared to stuffing a cork with a straw through it into a gushing soda bottle.
It’s the latest scheme to stop the flow after all others have failed, more than three weeks since the oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the disastrous leak.
Obama, whose comments until now have been measured, heatedly condemned a “ridiculous spectacle” of oil executives shifting blame in congressional hearings and denounced a “cozy relationship” between their companies and the federal government.
“I will not tolerate more finger-pointing or irresponsibility,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by members of his Cabinet.
“The system failed, and it failed badly. And for that, there is enough responsibility to go around. And all parties should be willing to accept it,” the president said.
Obama’s tone was a marked departure from the deliberate approach and mild chiding that had characterized his response since the huge rig went up in flames April 20 and later sank 5,000 feet to the ocean floor. Then came the leaking crude, the endangered wildlife, the livelihoods of fishermen at risk.
The magnitude of the disaster has grown clearer by the day and with it the apparent need for a presidential response to choke off any comparison to the Bush administration’s bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama had been growing increasingly frustrated with the situation, and the congressional hearings hardened that sentiment and prompted the president’s more forceful tone Friday.
Next week administration officials face their own Capitol Hill grillings for the first time since the accident, with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appearing before a Senate committee Monday and Salazar testifying on Tuesday.
The Obama administration insists its response has been aggressive since Day One, and Obama sought Friday to leave no doubts. He said he shared the anger and frustration of those affected and would not rest or be satisfied “until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of the Gulf are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods.”
Obama announced that the Interior Department would review whether the Minerals Management Service is following all environmental laws before issuing permits for offshore oil and gas development. BP’s drilling operation at Deepwater Horizon received a “categorical exclusion,” which allows for expedited oil and gas drilling without the detailed environmental review that normally is required.
“It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies,” Obama said.
Echoing President Ronald Reagan’s comment on nuclear arms agreements with Moscow, he said, “To borrow an old phrase, we will trust but we will verify.”
Obama already had announced a 30-day review of safety procedures on oil rigs and at wells before any additional oil leases could be granted. And earlier in the week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced plans to split the much-criticized Minerals Management Service into two agencies, one that would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil companies and enforcing safety regulations, while the other would oversee leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in royalties. Salazar has said the plan will ensure there is no conflict, “real or perceived,” regarding the agency’s functions.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced Friday it is opening an investigation into potential oversight lapses at the Minerals Management Service.
Obama decried what he called “a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill.” But the president, who’s announced a limited expansion of offshore drilling that’s now on hold, didn’t back down from his support for domestic oil drilling, saying it “continues to be one part of an overall energy strategy.”
“But it’s absolutely essential that, going forward, we put in place every necessary safeguard and protection,” he said.
This week executives from three oil companies — BP PLC, which was drilling the well, Transocean, which owned the rig, and Halliburton, which was doing cement work to cap the well — testified on Capitol Hill, each trying to blame the other for what may have caused the disaster. Obama decried that scene.
“I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter. You had executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton falling over each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else,” the president said.
“The American people could not have been impressed with that display, and I certainly wasn’t.”
BP hadn’t publicly discussed the latest maneuver to stop the leak until the past few days, and went ahead with it only after X-raying the well pipe to make sure it would hold up with the stopper inside, spokesman David Nicholas said. Technicians also had to check for any debris inside that may have been keeping the oil at bay — dislodging it threatened to amplify the geyser.
Philip Johnson, the petroleum engineering professor at the University of Alabama who made the soda bottle-and-cork comparison, said the idea was that a cork stopper by itself would probably be blown off, but a straw would lower the pressure on the cork, allowing the soda (or oil) to pass into another container — in this case a tanker at the surface.
BP has refused to estimate how much of the leak could be siphoned off through the skinny pipe, though Johnson said it could be a significant amount.
If it works, it would mark the first time since the rig exploded that BP has controlled any part of the rogue well. How much oil is actually leaking has become a matter of debate, and Obama said Friday that it was uncertain but that the federal government’s response was always geared toward a catastrophic event.
___

      I hope that if we can not collect the back Royalty Tax’s that we are owed, that at the least we could stop the flow of oil thru the  Alaskan Pipe Line or other wise known as T.A.P.S. , since we were Lied to by the Oil soaked Congress about what it was for. Also we should demand that the tax’s be paid or give them a 3 day pay or quit notice. Works for me.

Rich

richmartinphotgrapher@yahoo.com
 

  If some of you are surprised at the way the oil companies are slapping you in the face, with the out of line prices you are paying for gas, then you are brain dead!!! When the tag team of Bush/Chaney were in the White House and the Blog’s that we were writing about what they were not doing to control the 7 sisters. This should have done a lot to open your eye’s. When The tag team of Bush/Chaney didn’t, along with the oil soaked congress , go after the Oil Royalty Tax’s owed from the oil leases. Well hell that should have been a wake up call, but like usual you took the cowards way out and stuck your head up your ass and avoided seen the truth or even acting as if it bothered you. So don’t whine or whimper as this is what you have created by doing nothing. Now they have a man in the head position in the Dept of interior who is a Bush hold over that is trying to get the tax’s rescinded and leave the oil companies free and clear of this debt. What a solution huh! So whose bank account is going to get fat from that if it happens? Well just look at the last team and there congress that spent 8 years in office. Am I saying they are dirty and that there congress was dirty. HELL YES, I’m also saying that the congress was just as dirty and still are. WE THE PEOPLE, hey wake up and take your oil leases back till they pay what they owe, it’s your right to as citizens of this country, you own the property and the Dept of the interior is your management office to make sure the collect rent and tax’s for you!!!! DUHHHHH wake up and start making people accountable and stop being such visible cowards

                  Do I feel bad saying all this about you, hell no it’s the truth and you know it!

After rise in oil prices, Exxon 1Q profit jumps 38 percent; refining business still struggles

By Chris Kahn, AP
April 29th, 2010
 

Exxon Mobil 1Q profit jumps 38 percent
NEW YORK — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday its quarterly profit jumped 38 percent as oil prices rose in the first three months of the year.
That marks the first year-over-year increase in profits for Exxon since it posted an all-time record of $14.83 billion in the third quarter of 2008.
Still, earnings remain significantly below that level. During the first three months of this year, the Irving, Texas, oil giant had a profit of $6.3 billion, or $1.33 per share. That compares with $4.55 billion, or 92 cents per share, in the same period last year. Two years ago, Exxon earned $10.89 billion in the first quarter.
Revenue jumped 41 percent to $90.25 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $1.41 a share on revenue of $96.41 billion.
Exxon’s profit relied heavily on its exploration and production of oil and gas. Oil prices surged over the past 12 months, jumping from a low of $33 a barrel in the first quarter of 2009 to more than $80 a barrel this year. The company responded to the rise in price by pumping more from the ground.
Production of oil and natural gas increased 4.5 percent from the first quarter of 2009. New operations in Qatar came online. helping to boost profits even though natural gas prices had flattened from the previous year.
Exxon’s refineries struggled, however, especially those located in the United States. American petroleum consumption dropped in the first quarter, and refineries had trouble passing the higher oil costs along to consumers.
The company’s U.S. downstream operation, which includes refineries, lost $60 million in the first quarter, compared with a profit of $352 million in the year-ago period.
Meanwhile, Exxon’s chemicals business more than tripled its profits in the quarter to $1.25 billion. Exxon said it benefited from stronger profit margins and higher sales volumes. The company also said corporate and financing expenses nearly doubled to $800 million, primarily because of new health care benefits now required in the U.S.
During the quarter, Exxon continued to expand its business, increasing capital and exploration spending 19 percent year-over-year to $6.9 billion. Exxon said it plans to complete its acquisition of natural gas producer XTO by the end of the second quarter.

        So what part of this whole picture are you not getting or don’t want to believe. Exxon is just one of the 7 sisters doing the, I’ll do what I want to do and the Government won’t do anything to me dance. Guess what, they are right. Our oil soaked congress will stand by and do nothing. Why would they! If they did it would interfere with the money they get for doing nothing. It’s to hard to look past the piles of cash to see what this is all doing to the American Public, and why would they care, it’s not bothering them. Right!
Greed and Cowardice what a combination, oh yeah them the greed you the cowardice.. When you wash the shit out of your eye’s maybe you’ll see the truth. Oh and go to Big Lot’s they are having a sale on Balls, just in case you need a new set.
      To bad myself and others are the only ones to write about and demand from our Congress people what’s ours and our rights.
Rich
richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com
 

 Never ceases to amaze me at what you will put up with as the American Public before you react, but one thing for sure is that you are Cowards, oh yes Cowards… When oil was where it is at today around *@ dollars a barrel we were paying in the $1.80-$2.27 range, depending where you live, now we pay $3+ a gallon Thank you President Bush and your pocket buddy Chaney… Here we have BP once again in the head lines for the second time in 5 years, the 1^st for the pipe line blow out due to lack of maintenance, now we have a rig blow out due to lack of the same thing. So they will use the Oil Tax Royalty money they owe us to pay for this and still not hamper the profit line they have.

Overview

More than a century and a half after it was discovered, oil continues to play an essential role in the global economy, despite fears that reliance on petroleum is fueling rapid climate change. Oil plays another economic role as well: Over the last decade, the price of oil has taken a roller coaster ride, rising steadily from 2002 to 2007, soaring in 2008 to a peak of $147 a barrel before plummeting to $33 just five months later as the global economic meltdown suppressed demand. After a year of less wild fluctuations, in 2010 signs of economic recovery and worries over vulnerabilities in supplies helped push prices up over $80 a barrel.

While it remains the top source of energy, oil has fallen off its pedestal since the energy shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, which proved how reliant the developed world had become on petroleum products, and how vulnerable it was to shortfalls in supplies.

In 1973, oil accounted for 46 percent of the world’s total energy consumption; by 2005, its share had declined to 35 percent. But oil remains well ahead of other energy sources: coal meets 25 percent of the world’s energy needs, natural gas is next with a market share of 20 percent, and nuclear power meets 6 percent of the planet’s energy needs.

The spectacular run-up in oil prices, between 2002 and 2008, was sparked by the rapid growth in oil demand from developing countries, particularly China, and the industry’s inability to increase production fast enough. Additional factors, such as a growing interest by investors in commodities, and concerns that oil might be running out, all contributed to pushing prices to an all-time peak of $147 a barrel by July 2008.

The bubble burst in the wake of the financial crisis, which provoked a global recession and depressed demand, and led to a price collapse. Within months, however, oil had recovered, and many experts anticipate that prices will continue to creep up as the global economy recovers.

Besides the price volatility, concerns about energy security, as well as the threat of global warming, has once again put oil’s position under pressure.

Historical Background

The existence of oil seeps has been known since the dawn of civilization. But the industrial revolution created the need for better lighting.

The first commercial oil well was struck by Colonel Edwin L. Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, igniting an oil rush that quickly spread to Texas and California. At the time, oil in the form of kerosene was used as fuel for lamps.

Spurred by the automobile revolution at the beginning of the new century, which brought on a huge demand for gasoline, the nascent industry quickly expanded around the world, with geologists fanning the globe and striking oil from Russia to Indonesia. By the 1950s, most of the big fields of the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia’s giants, had been discovered.

After the Second World War, the business was dominated by a small group of very powerful and mostly American companies, which were dubbed the Seven Sisters: Standard Oil of New Jersey, which later become Exxon; Royal Dutch Shell, an Anglo-Dutch company; British Petroleum, which eventually shortened its name to BP; Standard Oil of New York, or Socony, which became Mobil; Standard Oil of California, or Socal, later Chevron; Gulf Oil; and Texaco.

At the height of their power, these companies dominated the petroleum trade, and set international oil prices.

OPEC and the Birth of Oil Nationalism

The turning point in the politics of oil came in the 1960s and 1970s, when new governments formed after the independence movement that swept through Africa and the Middle East began demanding a bigger share of the natural resources lying under their country. These demands led to the creation of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in 1960, in Baghdad.

Within a few decades, these governments nationalized their oil industries, formed national companies, and, in many places, kicked out foreign companies.

In the 1970s, international companies had unrestricted access to 85 percent of the world’s known oil reserves at the time. The former Soviet bloc controlled 14 percent, and national oil companies only restricted access to one percent of the globe’s known oil pool.

By the middle of this decade, the picture had changed dramatically. International oil companies only have full access to seven percent of the world’s oil reserves today, mostly in the Untied States and the North Sea. The rest is either controlled by Russian companies or by national oil companies that offer limited access to foreign investments. Saudi Arabia, which holds a quarter of the world’s known oil reserves, does not allow any foreign investments; its oil industry is controlled by Saudi Aramco.

Oil Shocks

The Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973, some Arab producers led by Saudi Arabia set up an oil embargo against the United States to protest against their support of Israel. While the embargo was short-lived, it drove up prices and showed how potent a weapon oil could be.

But for producers, the weapon turned out to be a doubled-edged one. Consuming countries began to establish energy policies that aimed at reducing their dependency on oil, encouraged conservation, and boosted the development of other sources of energy, including nuclear power.

The second oil shock of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which followed the Iranian Revolution, precipitated that movement. It also spurred a new wave of exploration in the North Sea and Alaska, where massive new reserves were discovered.

By the mid-1980s, however, with oil prices falling, energy policy in the United States took a backseat for the next two decades.

The Rise of China

Since the beginning of the 2000s, the industry has undergone another major shift. The rise of China’s economy meant that the developing world was becoming an increasingly important consumer of oil.

Between 1998 and 2008, China accounted for a third of the growth in global oil demand. Its consumption, which reached 8 million barrels a day, rose more than five times faster than the rest of the world.

Still, the United States remains the world’s top consumer, accounting for roughly one in four barrels of oil. In 2008, it consumed 19.4 million barrels a day in 2008, out of a total of 84.4 million barrels a day.

The Third “Oil Shock”

The inability of oil producers to crank up their production fast enough, and fears that demand might overtake supplies, helped fuel the run-up in prices of 2008. Investors piled into the commodity markets, which became increasingly viewed as a one-way street, while some market analysts and pundits talked about the prospect of oil at $200 per barrel.

Over the summer, the surge in prices turned into a stampede. By July 2008, prices had surged to a record of $147 a barrel, driving gasoline prices in the United States well above $4 a gallon.

But as the global economy faltered, so did oil demand, and prices tumbled to $34 a barrel by December. However, the respite was short-lived. By the middle of 2009, oil prices had again rebounded to $70 a barrel. In March 2010, the price reached $82 a barrel, leading to predictions that gas prices would top $3 a gallon during the summer driving season.

Technical Features of Oil

Oil has unique features that make it hard to replace: Few other fuels pack as much punch in such a small volume, and can be so easily moved around. It also dominates the transportation sector, which accounts for 64 percent of all the oil used around the world. The rest is used in the petrochemical and plastics industry, as well as in construction and in some industries.

The various components that make crude oil can be separated by distillation. By increasing the heat, refiners can obtain various products, ranging from light fuels, like gasoline, to kerosene, gas oil, lubricating oil, and then to heavier products such as fuel oil, bitumen, and paraffin.

Running Out of Oil?

As long as the world has relied on oil, it has feared running out of it.

In recent years, the theory of peak oil has resurfaced, claiming that the world’s ability to increase production had reached its high-water mark, and that producers would not be able to maintain their output at current levels.

But thanks to new technologies, such as three-dimensional seismic imaging, horizontal drilling, or the ability to drill in ever-greater water depths, the industry has so far managed to raise its output. Many executives argue that the limits today are not to be found underground but in geopolitical factors above ground which limits access to oil reserves.

Still, policymakers are striving for ways to reduce oil consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, Congress has adopted very aggressive mandates to spur the development of biofuels, while encouraging the growth in hybrid and eventually electric vehicles.

            Part of what you read is bull shit, just flat out bull shit, there to keep you on place and to pat the oil companies on the back and put them in a positive light. They would be in more of a positive light if they Paid the Oil Royalty Back Tax’s they owe, that would help with some of the Financial problems we are having, Have BP pay after they fix the leaking oil rig or loose there oil leases on all American property, of course they don’t exist as we don’t lease to foreign oil companies, as that was one of the Biggest Lies told to the American Public in order to get the Alaskan Pipeline vote to pass, pass this approval and we reduce our dependency on foreign oil, Yeah Right,.,. You’re a flock of sheep, go check and see how much in Oil Royalty Tax’s are due, when you get off the floor then ask yourself why Bush did nothing yes nothing at all to collect this multimillion dollar debt owed, I believe he and Chaney and the rest of the oil soaked congress did collect, to bad we are still paying for it.. So what are you going to do about this latest BP disaster… Just like everything eles, NOTHING.

 Rich

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com

Reuters

Iraq auctions fields to move up oil’s big league

December 11, 2009

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq could challenge Russia’s number two spot among world oil producers after auctioning two prized oilfields on Friday, although it failed to attract companies to bid for deals in its most dangerous areas.

Royal Dutch Shell (LSE:RDSA.L - News) and Malaysia’s Petronas (PETR.UL) won the deal for Majnoon, one of the world’s largest untapped oilfields, on the first day of Iraq’s second oil contract auction since the 2003 U.S. invasion, a heavily protected event.

French oil major Total (Paris:TOTF.PA - News), partnered with China’s CNPC and Petronas, won the smaller Halfaya oilfield.

But no successful bids were made for more dangerous fields, including East Baghdad, which lies in part under the capital’s Sadr City slum and would be difficult to protect from attack.

The world’s largest energy companies also steered clear of fields in northern areas where Arabs and Kurds are at odds and Sunni insurgents like al Qaeda are still on the prowl.

“The new Iraq — after all it has suffered from wars and misadventures that led to destruction and upheaval –… is in grave need of developing its oil industry,” Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said as he opened the tender.

One of the choicest prizes, West Qurna Phase Two, with 12.9 billion barrels of reserves, will be offered on Saturday morning. Fierce competition was expected for the last of the supergiant fields on offer. Supergiants have reserves of 5 billion barrels or more.

Only two of five fields on offer on Friday were awarded.

But the projected boost in capacity, combined with other deals signed or in the pipeline, have put Iraq on track to quadruple production potential to 10 million barrels per day in six to seven years, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said.

That would match Russia and leave only Saudi Arabia ahead on 12.5 million bpd.

“Iraq will be at the forefront of producing and exporting countries,” he said.

Baghdad desperately needs the billions of dollars of revenue that more oil output would generate to rebuild after decades of war and sanctions and years of neglect and sabotage.

VIOLENCE CONTINUES

The country is beginning to emerge from the sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the U.S. invasion but violence has continued to keep investors at bay.

A series of car bombs killed 112 people in the capital on Tuesday, the third major assault on government buildings in Baghdad in four months and a bloody reminder of the fragile security as Iraq heads into a general election in March.

Iraqi army helicopters buzzed overhead while convoys of armored SUVs, carrying the oil executives hidden behind tinted windows, raced through town to and from the auction.

Iraqi police trucks and squads of police dressed in commando gear lined the streets to the Oil Ministry where the auction took place. The event, held in an auditorium called the “Nationalization Room,” started late as officials waited for Prime Minister Maliki to finish a meeting with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Executives from around 30 top oil companies braved security threats to compete for the 10 fields on offer over two days. Collectively, the fields contain about as much oil as that held by OPEC-member Libya. Forty-four firms were able to bid including Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM - News), BP (LSE:BP.L - News) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX - News).

SHELL OUTBIDS TOTAL

With 12.6 billion barrels of reserves, Majnoon in relatively stable southern Iraq is one of the largest untapped oilfields left on earth.

Shell and Petronas proposed a fee of $1.39 per barrel and pledged to increase output to 1.8 million bpd, more than double what Iraq had expected. They outbid Total, a favorite to take the field which it had sought to develop under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

Halfaya, with 4.1 billion barrels of reserves, was some consolation. CNPC, Total and Petronas won it with a fee of $1.40 per barrel and a plateau production target of 535,000 bpd.

In contrast to the first auction in June, when only one deal was awarded and most firms balked at stiff terms, the fee bid by companies this time was below what Iraq was willing to pay.

“In the first round, there was a big misunderstanding between what the ministry had intended and how the industry understood the contract, and you ended up with a big gap,” said Mounir Bouaziz, vice president for Shell Gas & Power. “This time… they got extremely competitive offers.”

BP and CNPC won a deal in the first round to develop Iraq’s biggest oilfield, Rumaila. Since then, Iraq has initialed deals on two other huge fields, West Qurna Phase One and Zubair. Together, those three deals could add 4.5 million bpd to Iraqi crude production.

             So where does this leave the USA’s 7 sisters, in a good bidding position for the other fields that are available, oh by the way if you were under the guise that they were not in this bidding war! WRONG AGAIN !!

          Let’s see if you can figure this one out.

Richard

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com

Giant oil spill in Alaska likely caused by ice

Oil spill, rupture in pipeline in Alaska’s North Slope likely caused by ice

• By Mary Pemberton, Associated Press Writer
• On 12:02 am EST, Thursday December 10, 2009

Buzz up! 0
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Officials believe that ice plugged up a pipeline and likely caused a rupture that sent 46,000 gallons of crude oil and water gushing onto snow-covered tundra on Alaska’s North Slope late last month.
AP - In this Dec. 7, 2009 picture provided by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, crews use steamer equipment …
The spill is one of the worst by volume since the March 2006 spill of 200,000 gallons of crude at Prudhoe Bay, the biggest spill ever on the North Slope, according to Department of Environmental Conservation figures.

BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said Wednesday that an ice buildup is likely to blame in the Nov. 29 spill, leading to an increase in pressure that caused the 18-inch diameter pipe to rupture.

Oil and water sprayed out of a 2-foot lengthwise rupture along the bottom of the pipe. Up to three-quarters of an acre of tundra was affected. Most of the oil and water congealed in a large pile under the pipe.

“There is a lot of material on the ground,” said Tom DeRuyter, the on-scene spill coordinator for the Alaska Department of Conservation.

The pipeline normally carried 75 percent water and 25 percent oil, as well as gas, to a processing center at the Lisburne oil field. It is not known what the percentages were when the line ruptured, Rinehart said.

Responders were using a variety of methods to clean up the spill. Methods include applying steam to loosen the congealed material and vacuum it up. Equipment also was brought in to scoop up the oil and frozen water and transport it to an area where it will be melted, separated and measured.

“That mechanical cleanup has proven to be pretty effective,” Rinehart said.

The ruptured pipeline, which is about 5 feet above the ground, is not affecting production from the Prudhoe Bay oil field, North America’s largest oil

Rinehart said the definitive reason for the most recent spill won’t be known until an investigation is completed.

BP is currently on probation for the 2006 spill after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor conviction and paying $20 million in fines and restitution. That spill was blamed on corrosion in a pipeline.

Rinehart said several weeks before the rupture the line was shut down because of restricted flowAnother larger pipeline adjacent to the pipe was handling the extra volume.

Rinehart said the paired pipelines were each equipped with individual temperature sensors near where the lines enter the processing center. He said he did not know if the sensors indicated there was a problem. A BP employee discovered the rupture in the line during a routine early morning inspection.

The line was last inspected in 2008 and found to be serviceable, he said.

After the rupture, the pipe was X-rayed and it was determined that there was approximately 1,300 feet between two large “ice plugs,” as the buildups are called. Engineers were considering methods for melting the plugs when it split. Those methods include applying heat, or introducing deicer and warm crude into the line.

Rinehart said ice plugs can form in pipelines and occasionally are a problem, even sometimes ending in a rupture.

So are you going to write him and stay after him till you get an answer or ?

Richard

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com

          As you read this article I want you to remember back a couple of years ago when are government was buying Gas and Oil for or Federal Reserve. Also I could not find in this article where they had collected the hundreds of millions of dollars still being owed! Look carefully at the excuses they are trying to pan you out with, then ask the question, Where is the money owed and where is it going? Has there ever been an audit pf the DOI and I mean an independent audit. I will say one thing, after reading this article it backs up what I have been bloging about the past 4 years. Thanks guys for add the credibility to my work. So as you wipe the egg off of your face, pull your head out of that dark space, get your balls back from where you hid them and stand up straight, for once in your life!

U.S. Ending Oil-Royalty Program After Scandal
By JOHN M. BRODER and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: September 16, 2009
 

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department announced on Wednesday that it was ending an oil and gas royalty program that ignited a scandal last year when it was disclosed that federal employees had engaged in corruption, drug use and sexual misconduct with oil industry officials.
Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, told a House committee that he was phasing out the royalty-in-kind program, which is administered by the department’s Minerals Management Service. It allows oil companies to pay the government in oil and gas rather than in cash for the right to drill on federal lands. Recent audits have shown that the government has failed to collect tens of millions of dollars worth of royalties owed it under the program.
Mr. Salazar called the program “a blemish on the department” in testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee. “Clearly, the department’s energy leasing and royalty programs have not been working as they should, and the American people have not been receiving the full benefits from these valuable assets,” he added.
The Minerals Management Service, based in Denver, was found to do a poor job of tracking drilling revenue and assuring that compensation was paid to the government, according to the Government Accountability Office. A report issued by the office this week found that the royalty-in-kind program had failed to collect at least $21 million in fees last year. A separate report found that oil companies might have misreported drilling revenue and underpaid $160 million in royalties to the government in 2006 and 2007.
The royalty program has been a large source of government revenue in recent years, collecting about $6.6 billion in deliveries of natural gas and oil in 2008.
The oil and gas industry criticized the decision to kill the program, saying it would be burdensome and costly for both the government and the companies.
“The companies and government will have to hire armies of accountants,” said Obie O’Brien, vice president for government affairs at the Apache Corporation, a big producer in the Gulf of Mexico. “You will have to perform a lot more audits and there will be a lot more disputes over whether a company got the best price that it could.”
Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement that “terminating this straightforward method of handling royalty payments runs the risk of raising administrative costs and adding additional layers of paperwork required to determine the value of oil and gas production.”
But some energy experts welcomed the change in policy as a logical move to enhance public confidence in the energy industry and bolster government finances.
“It’s a great idea to stop taking the oil and gas in kind because the federal Treasury needs dollars and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is very filled,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy analyst at Rice University. “We’ve added a lot in recent years.”
Mr. Salazar’s announcement appeared to be only a minor setback for the industry. Oil prices have stabilized in recent months after falling sharply from record prices last summer when the financial crisis curbed demand. In recent days, natural gas prices have also begun to recover. Oil and gas company stock prices rose during the day, along with the rest of the market.
Interior Department investigators said last year that the Minerals Management Service was riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and ethical breaches.
The report from the department’s inspector general said officials in the royalty program had accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to concerts and sports events.
The investigation also concluded that several of the officials had “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”
Mr. Salazar announced soon after taking office in January that he would enforce strict new codes of ethics, and one of his first trips as secretary was to the Denver headquarters of the Minerals Management Service to emphasize the new policy.

                     So one more question is on my lips, where is the money they said they spent for gas and oil to go to the Federal Oil Reserve go to? Kind of makes you wonder huh! It sure as hell makes me wonder, oh and this scandal has been going on unchecked even after they were told about it. During the 2 terms in office of our Bush/Cheney tag team.

Yeah you got it with full knowledge and telling the DOI not to do any thing about the monies. I say lets pressure congress to find out,

1.      Why he did nothing about it and told DOI to do nothing

2.      Where has this money been going to

3.      How much is really owed to the American public! That’s right folks , we are the land owners, it’s your money we are talking about.

4.      And where was our Oversight Committee at when this was brought to there attention?
                        These are just a few questions you should be asking to your elected officials that sort of represent you in congress.

Richard

richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com