http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/12/12/1707129/cuba-shows-us-its-response-plans.html

ERIKA BOLSTAD – MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Dec 12, 2011

WASHINGTON – As Cuba prepares to embark on a new round of exploratory offshore drilling, U.S. officials are slightly more enlightened about the island nation’s plans in the event of a catastrophic oil spill on the scale of last year’s Deepwater Horizon explosion. Several Caribbean countries – including the United States and Cuba – met last week in the Bahamas to talk about response plans. U.S. officials got an opportunity to see the Cuban disaster-response plans; Cuba already has participated in a mock response drill in Trinidad with the Spanish oil company that’s doing the first round of drilling. That company, Repsol, also agreed to allow U.S. inspectors from the Interior Department to look at the rig that will be doing the drilling.

Sarah Stephens, the executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, said she was encouraged that Cuban and American officials had met, along with other nations that have an interest in regional oil production. “There should be a lot more direct conversation and collaboration between the U.S. and Cuba and others about the rig, because it’s inevitable,” she said.

U.S. officials say their priority is mitigating any potential threat to the United States and its territorial waters from oil drilling in Cuban waters. They say they’ve done nothing to facilitate oil drilling in Cuban waters, and that their main goal is to be prepared for the possibility of a spill and how they’d respond to it. “The United States will continue to engage multilaterally to advance regional collaboration and to ensure responsible stewardship of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea,” the State Department said in a statement issued before the meeting in the Bahamas. Although U.S. officials say they’re not actively working to keep Cubans from drilling in their own waters, the Cuba embargo that’s been in place since the 1960s may have slowed things down.

Repsol had to find an oil rig made from fewer than 10 percent U.S. components – not an easy task. Although few rigs are made in the United States, many components of them are, including software and blowout preventers. The rig, which is owned by a subsidiary of the Italian oil company Eni, will be used next by a rotation of state-owned oil companies: Petronas, a Malaysian company, and the Oil and Natural Gas Corp., an Indian company that will be partnering with Russia’s Gazprom. “That rig was custom-built to be sure that it met the embargo limitations,” said Jorge Pinon, a former Amoco executive and a visiting research fellow with Florida International University’s Latin American and Caribbean Center’s Cuban Research Institute. “That’s why it’s taken so long, over the last three years, for international oil companies to be able to drill in Cuba.”

Pinon and other experts in Cuba’s drilling and regulatory abilities remain concerned that the U.S. government hasn’t spoken with the state-owned oil giants that will be leasing the rig after Repsol to drill in Cuban waters. “Politics have exceeded common sense in protecting the environment and economy of Florida,” Pinon said.

The United States doesn’t have the same leverage with the companies next in line, however, Interior Department officials told Congress in October. But because it’s a public company and because of its other extensive U.S. interests, Repsol is likely to exercise caution in a prospect less than 100 miles from the Florida coastline.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/gulf-offshore-drilling-leases-challenge_n_1146254.html

This is good news; to begin leasing again when the same drill is in place is insanity. Thank you Oceana, Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity. DV

By ALAN SAYRE 12/13/11 04:04 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS — The federal government will move ahead with the first auction of offshore petroleum leases in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon disaster – despite a lawsuit challenging the sale.

The suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington claims that the federal government failed to take steps to avoid a repeat of BP’s disastrous oil spill in 2010, which leaked more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The suit was filed by Oceana, Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Attorney Catherine Wannamaker said the action is not intended to stop the sale, but the groups want the court to vacate an environmental analysis of the sale based on claims within the lawsuit. That could make the sale moot, although a judge eventually could toss the analysis but allow the sale to stand, she said.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement plans to auction 3,900 blocks off the Texas coast on Wednesday in New Orleans. The sale covers about 20.6 million acres.

The tracts are far from the site of the BP spill, which began in April 2010 about 50 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Interior Department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said the bids will be opened as scheduled. She said the agency could not comment on the suit.

According to agency figures, the sale has already attracted 241 bids from 20 companies on 191 tracts. The last western Gulf sale in August 2009 drew 189 bids from 27 companies on 162 tracts.

Wannamaker said the offshore regulatory agency “is continuing the same irresponsible approach that led to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and harm still being felt in the Gulf.”

“It’s easier for the government and oil companies to return to business as usual without the oil spill’s impacts on the Gulf, but it’s illegal and irresponsible,” said Wannamaker, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the environmental groups.

The suit alleges that the government has failed to advance preparedness for offshore oil spills and analyses to prevent oil spills since BP’s Macondo well blowout. The environmental groups said the government did not consider the merits of a delay in order to gather more information.

Before the blowout, the government generally held two offshore Gulf leases annually – one for the central Gulf off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and a second for the western Gulf, mostly off the Texas coast.

The western Gulf sale in recent years has been focused on potential natural gas finds, while deepwater oil has been more the target in the central Gulf, where the Macondo spill occurred.

Randall Luthi, head of the National Ocean Industries Association, an offshore trade group, said increased risk of lawsuits could chill industry plans to drill offshore, along with a drawn-out permitting process that is “below what is needed to have robust activity in the Gulf.” He also said higher minimum bid requirements for deepwater leases could discourage some bidding.

The government has said those minimums were raised to reflect fair market value.
“It probably won’t be a record sale,” Luthi said of Wednesday’s auction. “But it is a sale.”

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.pennenergy.com/index/petroleum/display/7602822871/articles/pennenergy/petroleum/exploration/2011/12/federal-panel_calls.html?cmpid=EnlDailyPetroDecember132011

December 12, 2011
A panel convened by the federal government has issued a call for the oil and natural gas industry to take place a greater emphasis on potential environmental damage when drilling, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Health, safety and environmental concerns have always loomed large in the energy industry, between the often dangerous working conditions of coal miners and the very dramatic, public impact of oil spills.

But the emphasis has shifted recently to the natural gas industry, with the rise of the process of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing. Pumping pressurized mixtures of chemicals with fluids or sands to loosen gas deposits in the bedrock, substantial concerns have been raised that the process could contaminate nearby water aquifers, underground water reserves that provide crucial supplies of drinking water.

The panel commented on a report released in November, noting that several of its recommendations regarding improving public understanding of the issue and cooperation with regulators have not yet been implemented. The New York Times reports that a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency suggests fracking could have already caused some water contamination in Wyoming, where traditional well capping techniques might have proven insufficient to prevent leakage of methane.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/12/07/feds-charge-bp-with-new-oil-spill-violations/

Posted on December 7, 2011 at 9:37 am by Jennifer A. Dlouhy
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Mickal Vogt of Covington, La., uses a stick to place tar balls in a jar that washed up on the shore in Orange Beach, Ala., Saturday, June 12, 2010. Large amounts of the oil battered the Alabama coast, leaving deposits of the slick mess some 4-6 inches thick on the beach in some parts. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

The federal government today issued fresh citations to BP in connection with the 2010 Gulf oil spill and accused the oil company of violating safety and environmental regulations governing offshore drilling.

The incidents of non compliance sent to firm today builds on earlier allegations that BP, Halliburton and Transocean together ran afoul of 15 offshore regulations in drilling, designing and cementing the failed Macondo well last year.

The companies already face up to $45.7 million in fines for those earlier citations, which were issued in October and based on the conclusions of a federal probe of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Today’s citations go further. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement issued the newest so-called incidents of non compliance to BP today after taking a closer look at how the Macondo well was drilled.

Bureau director James Watson said the new citations were a result of that deeper dive.
“Further review of the evidence demonstrated additional regulatory violations by BP in its drilling and abandonment operations at the Macondo well,” Watson said in a statement.
“Our federal regulations exist to ensure safe and environmentally-responsible activities,” Watson added. “We will continue to be vigilant in enforcing those regulations.”

The safety bureau today sent BP five citations and accused the firm of violating two different regulations governing work on the outer continental shelf (in the case of one of those regulations, the violation is alleged to have occurred four times, in different sections of the Macondo well).

According to the safety bureau, BP violated a rule requiring the company to conduct an accurate pressure integrity test at the 13-5/8″ liner shoe. The bureau also argues that BP violated a separate regulation four times, by failing to suspend drilling operations at the well when the safe drilling margin that had been identified in the company’s government-approved permit to drill was not maintained.

That drilling margin represents the difference between the weights of drilling fluids at the site and the estimated formation and pore pressures there.

Each violation carries a penalty of up to $35,000 per day per incident. In the case of the oil spill, violations may have covered just one day or up to 87 days – the time crude was gushing into the Gulf – creating a maximum potential tab per incident of $3.05 million.
The new violations could add anywhere from $175,000 to $15.23 million to BP’s tab, on top of the $21.32 million in penalties the company was facing from the citations issued earlier.

The safety bureau’s sanctions are separate from fines and penalties expected under the Clean Water Act, which could reach $21 billion for BP, based on estimates that 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf after its Macondo well blew out on April 20, 2010. The failure triggered a lethal explosion on board Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and unleashed the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Halliburton was responsible for cementing work at the site.

The incidents of non compliance kick off a long process of assessing civil fines. The companies ultimately are able to challenge a fine assessment to the administrative Interior Board of Land Appeals.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.catholic.org/green/story.php?id=43958

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
12/7/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Risk of offshore drilling in pre-salt reserves must be reevaluated.

A growing offshore oil spill continues to threaten the delicate marine environment off the coast of Brazil. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, and its likelihood to upset the regional ecosystem, authorities are still yet to determine its cause, its true size, or the extent of the environmental damage. In any case, it is bound to be great.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (Catholic Online) – The spill occurred in an area which is rich in fish and other marine life. Officials are still working to ascertain the extent of the damage to regional ecosystems. There is no question however, that the final report will be devastating.

The oil spill occurred in an offshore region known to many as the “pre-salt oil reserves.” Pre-salt oil reserves are recently discovered deep-sea oil deposits which are difficult to reach that are believed to contain millions of barrels of oil.

The spill took place on a Chevron platform, on November 7, and government officials blame the “geological complexity” of the pre-salt deposit for the disaster. They also note that it is unclear if the spill has actually been contained despite the fact that the disaster has been ongoing for over a month.

The Brazilian government has previously expressed willingness to tap into the pre-salt reserves as a source of revenue for the government. In fact, as news of the spill broke the government was in the process of debating how to spend monies collected from drilling.

The Brazilian government has suspended Chevron’s drilling activities in the area until the cause of the disaster can be ascertained and responsibility assigned. If the disaster is shown to have been caused by human negligence, those convicted could face jail time and a multimillion dollar fine.

The Brazilian people, and the drilling companies must carefully reevaluate whether or not they are prepared to tap into the pre-salt reserves. The pre-salt reserves provide a challenge to oil companies because they can exist at depths around 7000 meters. While the oil is of very high quality, it’s extreme depths and the fact that it’s offshore, means that it is difficult to obtain. Additionally, because the oil is offshore the threat to the environment in the event of a mishap is extreme — as is being seen today.

Common sense and a modicum of environmental and personal responsibility would suggest that none should attempt to drilling in the pre-salt reserves until they are absolutely certain they can safely extract the oil without significant risk of damaging the environment. Just now, it appears evident that such a statement cannot yet be made.

Still, the lure of oil money especially given the relatively high price for oil on commodities markets, means that both governments and corporations are more willing to take risks because the profits are so great. Unfortunately, the risks these companies take do not simply involve governments and corporations alone. The risk is a common risk shared by all. Hapless marine animals, aquatic plant life, and even millions of people who depend on the health and integrity of those environments for their livelihood and survival, have a stake in the decision to drill for offshore oil.
Until governments and corporations can provide reasonable assurance that they can safely tap into these resources in a manner which compensates people and the environment upon which they depend for survival, the decision to drill in the sensitive ecological areas should be suspended.
© 2011, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

Special thanks to Richard Charter