http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/25/2817313/regulators-to-test-anti-spill.html

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS — An oil spill consortium set up after the BP spill to develop methods for containing deep sea spills will do a drill with its state-of-the-art equipment this summer.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a news release the Marine Well Containment Company will see how stacking caps could be dropped over an out-of-control well and safely used to plug a blowout.

The consortium will be required to move a capping stack from its on-shore base to the seabed of the Gulf, the Interior Department said.

The consortium was formed after the 2010 BP spill with the mission of stocking state-of-the-art spill-fighting equipment for the Gulf if another such disaster occurs.

Interior officials said a second consortium developing other containment equipment, the Helix Well Containment Group, will do a similar exercise at an unspecified date.

Tougher drilling rules passed after the BP spill require oil companies to prove they can control a blowout similar to the April 20, 2010, incident at the Macondo well where 11 workers were killed in explosions that sank the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon.

Salazar said other measures put into place should prevent a blowout from occurring again, but he said making sure the industry has effective capping stacks on hand should another blowout happen is important.

“One thing Deepwater Horizon taught us is that you must always be ready to respond to the worst-case scenario,” Salazar’s statement said. “This exercise is an opportunity to deploy systems, test readiness, and train under real-time conditions.”

James Watson, the director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said his agency has tested MWCC and capping stacks already. But he added “putting them through their paces in the deep waters of the Gulf will give us added confidence that they will be ready to go if needed.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/25/2817313/regulators-to-test-anti-spill.html#storylink=cpy

Special thanks to Richard Charter

More info at: > Una gran cadena humana en la playa del Reducto vuelve a decir ‘no’ a las prospecciones petrolíferas
> http://no0ilcanarias.wordpress.com

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/a1f6ec6384dc4271a8785521ee5dc3a9/AK–Shell-Greenpeace/

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: May 29, 2012 – 9:16 pm
Last Updated: May 29, 2012 – 9:18 pm

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A federal judge has made it more difficult for representatives of Greenpeace USA to board Shell Oil’s drilling vessels.

In March, Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage ordered the group to stay a kilometer away from Shell Oil’s drilling ships destined for Arctic waters off Alaska’s northern coast. The restrictions applied to U.S. territorial waters up to 12 miles from shore.

On Tuesday, Gleason extended the restrictions to 200 miles offshore. Shell intends to drill 18 miles off the Beaufort Sea coast this summer, and 70 miles off the Chukchi coast.

Shell sought the preliminary injunction after Greenpeace New Zealand activists, including actress Lucy Lawless, in February boarded the Shell drill ship Noble Discoverer before it left for the U.S. West Coast for cold-weather modifications.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/spanish-energy-firm-repsol-stops-offshore-cuba-oil-exploration-after-hitting-dry-well/2012/05/29/gJQAk1T8yU_story.html

I am so happy! The Florida Keys are safe from Cuban oil drilling for the time being. DV

(Alberto Di Lolli/ Associated Press ) – Repsol president Antonio Brufau gestures during a press conference in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 to present the company’s strategic future plans.

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, May 29, 9:34 AM

MADRID – Spanish oil firm Repsol said Tuesday it will stop looking for oil in Cuba after hitting a dry well drilled at a cost of more than $100 million, a blow to the island nation desperate to find its own energy sources amid deep economic hardship.

Speaking to investors and reporters about the firm’s plans over the next four years, Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau said the company “won’t do another” well in Cuba.

“The well we drilled turned out dry and it’s almost certain that we won’t do any more activity there,” Brufau added.

Cuba’s last chance for hitting oil in the near future could come from Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), which started drilling last week in an area of the Florida Straits known as the Northbelt Trust, about 110 miles (180 kilometers) southwest of Repsol’s drill site. Results are expected in July.

Experts say it is not surprising that Repsol’s 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) deep exploratory well was a bust. Four out of five such wells find nothing in the high-stakes oil game, and petroleum companies are built to handle the losses.

The Scarabeo-9 platform that Repsol used is the only one in the world that can drill in Cuban waters without incurring sanctions under the U.S. economic embargo, but it is scheduled to head to Brazil after being used for one to four more exploratory Cuban wells.

A delay in finding oil would hurt Cuba because 80-year-old President Raul Castro is trying to lift the country’s economy through limited free-market reforms, and has been forced to cut many of the subsidies islanders got in return for salaries of just $20 a month.

It could also make Cuba more dependent on Venezuela, which provides $3 billion of subsidized oil each year. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is suffering from cancer, and the deal might disappear if he dies or doesn’t win re-election in October.

Industry experts have said Repsol YPF SA was under contract to drill a second Cuban well but could get out of the deal by paying a penalty to an Italian company that owns the drilling platform used for Repsol’s well.

Brufau didn’t mention the penalty, and Repsol spokesman Kristian Rix said he could not immediately provide details on how the arrangement would work.

The Scarabeo-9 was built in Asia with less than 10 percent U.S.-made parts to avoid violating Washington’s embargo.

Because of the embargo, Cuba is shut off from borrowing from international lending institutions. An oil find could change the situation, with Cuba using future oil riches as collateral to secure new financing, economists say.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://action.earthday.net/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10569

Click on link above to sign petition. DeeVon

To World Leaders at Rio+20:

Fossil fuel subsidies drive climate change, drain public resources, and make it virtually impossible for clean energy sources to compete in the market. They must end.

Last year alone, over $500 billion was given to some of the richest corporations on the planet to promote fossil fuel extraction and use. Recently, 53 countries have made specific commitments to phase out fossil fuel subsidies in the coming years, but little progress has been made in key countries to create policy and change laws to streamline this process.

We need a binding international commitment to end fossil fuel subsidies around the world.

Rio+20 offers an opportunity for world leaders to come together to determine the future of sustainable development on our planet. It will be impossible to usher in the green economy with fossil fuel subsidies hampering the progress of clean energy technologies.

As EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said, “We must internationally get the pricing right. The way we measure GDP today… we must take care that there is a price attached to harming the common environment. One place to start would be to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.”

We call on you to create a plan to phase out perverse fossil fuel subsidies at Rio+20.