More Trouble For Oil Industry? Gulf oil platform explodes and burning

 According to the article below, there's more trouble for the oil industry - thankfully not BP this time. Still, it's just another warning that catastrophic things can happen aboard an oil rig and that the coast is constantly in peril.
   . . . June


-------------------


Gulf oil platform explodes, burning off La. coast
By ALAN SAYRE, Associated Press Writer
 
"NEW ORLEANS, La. – An offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site where BP's undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.

The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the explosion, which was spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the site Thursday morning. All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not known.

They were rescued from the water by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, said Coast Guard Cmdr. She said they were taken to a nearby platform. All were being flown to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma to be checked over.

"Thirteen people were seen huddled together in the water wearing gumby suits or immersion suits, water protection suits, so we were able to confirm that all people were accounted for," Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said.

Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala., Ben-Iesau said. She said authorities do not know whether oil was leaking from the site.

The platform, known as Vermilion Oil Platform 380, was owned by Mariner Energy of Houston, according to a homeland security operations update obtained by The Associated Press. The platform was not producing oil and gas, according to the operations report.

Read More Of The Article . . .

Boat Captains and Deckhands No Longer Needed For Cleanup!

 It's great news that oil is no longer spilling into the Gulf, but many of the boat captains and deckhands hired now find themselves out of work and are as badly off as ever. How are BP going to compensate them now?  The article below enlarges on this problem.
   . . . June 


------------------


Gulf Oil Spill Hits Workers Hard, Aid Groups Out Of Money
KEVIN McGILL and TOM BREEN | 08/23/10 05:40 PM

NEW ORLEANS — The oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, and that should be a relief. But with fewer cleanup jobs to be had, many of the people hit hardest by the huge spill are struggling as badly as ever.

Boat captains and deckhands who managed to put food on the table over the summer because they got hired by BP to skim the oil are being dropped from the payroll while huge swaths of the Gulf remain off-limits to those who haul in shrimp, oysters and other seafood

Now, just when with the environmental and engineering crisis is easing, large charities providing food to coastal communities have run out of money, homeless shelters are filling up with men thrown out of work by the spill, and demand for drug and alcohol counseling is up.

In yet another source of anxiety for fishermen and others, the federal government took over the handling of oil-spill damage claims from BP on Monday, and many people along the Gulf are waiting to see how Obama administration appointee Kenneth Feinberg administers the $20 billion victims compensation fund set up by the company.

Already, there are indications he intends to be stricter than BP in some cases when it comes to handing out checks to individuals and businesses.

Read More from the article . . 

Are There Any Natural Cures For The Gulf Oil Spill?

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is now about four months old and the news about it has quieted down a bit. What seems to be most reported, though, is that the oil disappeared and is not declared to be a major concern, but is that really the case?

Any natural cures for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? August 18, 2010 at 9:19 PM Now that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is four months old, news about it has quieted down a bit. What seems to be most reported, though, is that the oil disappeared and is not declared to be a major concern. But if one were to use a modicum of common sense for a moment one would know that of the millions of barrels of raw oil that spewed from the ruptured reservoir a mile below the ocean surface much of it is still somewhere in the gulf. Certainly many gallons of the crude were retrieved but that oil captured is but a small percentage of what leaked. Know this that a large amount of the chemical Corexit was used even though it was banned from Europe; and for good reason. This dispersant is... Oil spilled. But hysteria did the real damage in the Gulf August 18, 2010 at 8:28 AM The saddest sight this week has been of America's first family taking a quick one-day holiday in Florida. Crashing visitor numbers and plummeting fish sales have devastated the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. There is talk of an 80% drop in revenues in some resorts. Yet figures show just 16 of the state's 180 holiday beaches are at all polluted, while the bulk of the spill appears to have dispersed, or be dispersing out at sea. Having hyped the disaster for political purposes, the president is now frantically trying to play it down. The spill has been another classic of state terror in which incident and response are wholly out of proportion to one another. As the oil... Scientists raise queries about Gulf oil left behind August 18, 2010 at 5:16 AM MIAMI - Two new scientific reports on Tuesday raised fresh fears about the environmental fallout from the world's worst offshore oil spill and questioned government assurances that most of the oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico was already gone. In one of the reports, researchers at the University of Georgia said about three-quarters of the oil from BP's blown-out Macondo well was still lurking below the surface of the Gulf and may pose a threat to the ecosystem. Charles Hopkinson, who helped lead the investigation, said up to 79 percent of the 4.1 million barrels of oil that gushed from the broken well and were not captured... This email was sent to dyna999399.bp99@blogger.com. Delivered by Feed My Inbox 230 Franklin Road Suite 814 Franklin, TN 37064 Account Login Unsubscribe Here

Environmental Studies Needed Before Deepwater Drilling

The Obama administration will no longer grant permits for deepwater drilling without environmental studies. The administration imposed a moratorium on most offshore drilling activities until November following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. See the article below


June

-----------------------


No deepwater drilling without environmental studies, says Obama admin 

by Agence France-Presse  16 Aug 2010 10:44 PM

  "WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced on Monday that it will grant no more permits for deepwater oil exploration without requiring studies on their impact on the environment.

The Interior Department said it would award offshore drilling permits only to projects 'involving limited environmental risk' while it undertakes a comprehensive review of its procedures under U.S. environmental protection laws.

The administration imposed a moratorium on most offshore drilling activities until November following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released several million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a ruptured BP well.

The Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) said it has directed its staff not to grant 'categorical exclusions' for deepwater drilling activities even after the moratorium is lifted, the Interior Department said."

Read More

BP Anounces Funding For Stress And Depression

The Gulf coast And BP's oil spill BP to donate $58m to fight depression, stress in oil spill states August 16, 2010 at 9:24 PM BP announced overnight $US52 million ($58 million) in funding for health groups dealing with stress and depression in four southern US states hit by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. "We appreciate that there is a great deal of stress and anxiety across the region," said Lamar McKay, president of BP America. "We are providing this assistance now to help make sure individuals who need help know where to... Responders to Gulf oil spill wrap up defining week August 16, 2010 at 6:47 PM NEW ORLEANS — BP PLC closed the books on a defining week in an epic battle to defeat its ruptured oil well, with exhausted engineers forcing the surging crude underground with a torrent of mud and cement, preparing to make a final push to plug it from the bottom. More than three months after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and triggered one of the world's worst oil spills, authorities weighed how to gather evidence from the mile-(1.6-kilometer)deep waters to help investigators determine what happened — and who could be at fault. Even retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who was brought in by the government to oversee the... BP pledges Angola, Azerbaijan oil as it builds US spill fund August 16, 2010 at 2:11 PM London: BP Plc is pledging oil sales from Angola and Azerbaijan to raise $5 billion (Dh18.3 billion) of loans as it builds a cleanup fund for the worst US environmental disaster. The larger of the two loans, for as much as $3 billion, is backed by oil sales from BP's interest in fields off Angola, lenders said. A second, $2... So much for an exit strategy August 16, 2010 at 9:03 AM      Aug 17, 2010 Page 1 of 3 CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN So much for an exit strategy Commentary and weekly watch by Doug Noland Ten-year Treasury yields dropped another 14 basis points (bps) last week to 2.68%. Yields on benchmark Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities (MBS) sank 13 bps to a record low 3.43%. Tuesday's announcement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) further emboldened a highly speculative fixed-income marketplace.... This email was sent to dyna999399.bp99@blogger.com. Delivered by Feed My Inbox 230 Franklin Road Suite 814 Franklin, TN 37064 Account Login Unsubscribe Here