Dirty Crude???

[pipes]

wander what the American view is on our tar sands oil is now in light of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

 

[tmix]

they will always find something wrong with us eh!!!

 

[my mod]

that is just one drilling rig, they all leak a little bit once and a while
We just pillage the landscape to get our oil

 

[QMAO]

wander what the American view is on our tar sands oil is now in light of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

I have been wundering the same thing.

 

[imdoo'n]

i see BP possibly going under with the cost of this disaster. they already have their lawyers in high gear spinning tall tales of how they are not responsible. brings back fond memories of a discussion with an honoured member of this site about how wonderful oil companies and how they look after there employees and the general public. this has the potential to be the biggest disaster of all time. valdez at least had an limited amount of oil, this is unlimited, until it is capped. it"s a wait and see as the weather has been good till this time.

isn"t BP wonderful.

 

[RMK Junky]

A company of this stature insures themselves. Any large company will do this for the simple reason they can afford to. Concequences vary drastically depending on what part of the world it happens in. Canada is governed with an iron fist in reguards to rules, regulations, and saftey concerning the enviroment and personnel well being. Other countries...not so much The media watches it for awhile then it seems to become a thing of the past. Funny how that goes. Don't kid yourself, this will become a thing of the past as well in time. This is just my opinion and might not mean jack skat to some or many..but that's how it goes

 

[Modman]

We had a meeting about it here at work Tuesday - the analysts are thinking much the same. Here read this:

Oil disaster may prove tipping point for world oil production
A likely moratorium on offshore drilling means that decline in production in much closer than before
JEFF RUBIN

Globe and Mail Update

May 5, 2010 at 6:13 AM EDT

What are the consequences of another Three Mile Island?

Will the unfolding environmental catastrophe from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico become deep-water oil’s equivalent to the Three Mile Island accident?

In terms of environmental degradation and economic cost, it’s already become much more. The real legacy of Three Mile Island wasn’t what happened back in 1979, though, but rather what happened, or more precisely didn’t happen, over the course of the next 40 years in the United States. Literally overnight, the near-meltdown of the reactor core changed public acceptance of nuclear power plants. No company in the U.S. has built a new one since.

Deepwater Horizon was not a producing well, nor will it likely ever be one. Hemorrhaging anywhere from 5,000 to 25,000 barrels of oil every day, the spill is already approaching the size of the discharge from the Exxon Valdez. What’s worse, BP has no way to shut it off, short of drilling a relief well to divert the pressure, which will take three months. At 25,000 barrels a day, three months means a cumulative discharge of 2.25 million barrels of oil, or 94.5 million U.S. gallons (one barrel equals 42 U.S. gallons), or roughly eight Exxon Valdez spills. Even at 5,000 barrels a day, that’s almost 20 million gallons of oil. And to top it all off, by the time a relief well can be drilled, we’ll be smack in the middle of hurricane season.

The scene of hurricane-force winds raining oil on New Orleans and the rest of America’s Gulf Coast will no doubt make for an apocalyptic image of the end of the age of oil. Unfortunately, our dependence on the stuff will survive this catastrophe, even if the fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and the marsh ecosystems of the Mississippi Delta won’t. But what might also not survive is deep-water drilling: No company’s shareholders will be willing to accept the consequences that BP will soon have to face.

President Barack Obama has suspended his recent decision to open new offshore areas for oil development and has declared a moratorium on new drilling. You can imagine what the regulatory environment will be like after three months of the spill, just as you can imagine what those satellite photos of the Gulf of Mexico will look like.

But what you might not imagine are the implications for world oil supply. Conventional oil supply has not grown since 2005. Without a steady stream of oil from fields below the ocean floor, not only can’t world oil production grow, it can’t even stand still, since we rely on oil from new deep-water fields to replace the bulk of the four million barrels per day of global production we lose every year to depletion (out of a total of roughly 86 million barrels per day).

If the Deepwater Horizon disaster is the offshore energy industry’s Three Mile Island, then not only has world oil production already peaked, but it will also very soon start to shrink.

So if you think oil prices are high today, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

[Modman]

A company of this stature insures themselves. Any large company will do this for the simple reason they can afford to. Concequences vary drastically depending on what part of the world it happens in. Canada is governed with an iron fist in reguards to rules, regulations, and saftey concerning the enviroment and personnel well being. Other countries...not so much The media watches it for awhile then it seems to become a thing of the past. Funny how that goes. Don't kid yourself, this will become a thing of the past as well. This is just my opinion and might not mean jack skat to some or many..but that's how it goes

Doubtful this will become a thing of the past - I work directly in the industry and was speaking about this to a client (one of the top 5 oil companies in the world) on Tues night over dinner. This is a huge deal in the oil industry from a risk management issue and one that company reps from all the major oil companies are seriously reconsidering. This will likely change the face of oil production and exploration permanently.

 

[imdoo'n]

aren"t you a ray of sunshine:d. skuttle butt in the industry says we are going to get busy, looking for oil.

 

[Longhorn]

There is lots of talk like this, 'everybody get ready, its about to get busy', but cmon now...there are over 4000 rigs in the Gulf and only 1 goes down, hardly anything that will boost huge production levels. Oil lost is a HUGE and dramatic number, but again it is only the production from one rig, one well (yes there are 3 but 1 is capped, and the other is small in comparison). I really dont see it causing a panic in any other place than the media.

Environmental impact will be devastating for the industry worldwide, and this will add even more scrutiny on what we do in Canada...great just what we needed!

I have a nice PDF file showing the fire from start to end, and a write up from the witnesses, cool pictures. The file is too large to post here but if interested pm your email addy and I will send out to you.

 

[Modman]

There is lots of talk like this, 'everybody get ready, its about to get busy', but cmon now...there are over 4000 rigs in the Gulf and only 1 goes down, hardly anything that will boost huge production levels. Oil lost is a HUGE and dramatic number, but again it is only the production from one rig, one well (yes there are 3 but 1 is capped, and the other is small in comparison). I really dont see it causing a panic in any other place than the media.

Environmental impact will be devastating for the industry worldwide, and this will add even more scrutiny on what we do in Canada...great just what we needed!

I have a nice PDF file showing the fire from start to end, and a write up from the witnesses, cool pictures. The file is too large to post here but if interested pm your email addy and I will send out to you.

It's not about the oil lost, it's about the environmental impact once the oil hits the shoreline and coastal areas. This is one of the times that media sensationalism still is not grasping the entire picture of the potential impacts of this are in 1, 2, 5 10, and 50 yrs from now. The Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana clean up will be virtually impossible because there is just too much water.

You cannot remediate oil within the ocean, it's not tangible. We still do not know what the effects of the oil leaking out of the wellbore at 1500 m below the surface are doing to the sealife and what part of the volatile fractions of crude oil (like Benzene which is highly soluble in water) are being lost and what their effects are on the sea life as well. I'm an environmental scientist - oilfield remediation is what I do for a living. At least on land it's the ability to confine the impact to a specific area that has a huge benefit. They cannot contain the oil that is leaking from this well. So not only is it an infinite volume of oil that is currently leaking until its capped, but its impacting an infinite amount of ocean (and potentially shoreline down the road) right now.

The biggest impacts will be once the oil contacts the shoreline and then is pushed inland into areas like the coastal plains and deltas. These areas are recharged when hurricanes and tropical storms push water far inland, directly off the coastal shoreline. These coastal areas have relatively flat reliefs and even high waves can push water inland for miles (think New Orleans). These areas of shallow water are very vast, and it only takes a small amount of oil to "contaminate" a large volume of water.

The oil will likely not be contained in a small area or a thicker depth where it accumulates (think Valdez wreck along rocky shoreline), it will likely be spread very thin over a huge area. The US EPA has far more stringent guidelines than the CCME does in Canada (we are about 10-15 yrs behind them), BP's clean up criteria will likely be very stringent.

These tropical storms also deposit sediment onto the oil impacted soil and vegetation through wind and wave erosion. The oil gets covered with a thin film of soil and remains hidden for decades, slowly being released back into the environment and constantly contaminating water and soil. In the meantime, nothing will grow there which complicates soil erosion by wind and water as there are no plants to hold the soil in place. As erosion happens, the oil will once again be exposed, moved and deposited, starting the process all over again. It becomes almost cyclical.

The area is a sensitive ecosystem and likely will not sustain prolonged environmental exposure to crude oil without degradation. One benefit is that the area has high re-generation capability once the oil is removed, and the complex ecosystem that is there, will likely have some bio-remediation and natural attenuation capacity for the oil.

If there is oil floating along the shoreline when water is pushed inland, the clean up will be extremely difficult. I can't even speculate on costs but if they do not get it stopped soon, expect that it will be 100's of billions if not more, possibly trillions, to clean up, and likely span the better part of 50+ years or longer.

It's been speculated that wells that were supposed to be drilled in the north may not be, because of potential risks of this happening on, in and under the ice. While the other rigs may not stop tomorrow on current production, as time goes on, they just may not drill any new wells. The US will have to expand exploration into other areas to identify new reserves to replace the ocean reserves, which will take time. Nothing is going to stop the world turning on a dime, but a change may take place in the industry over the next decade.

It's definitely a catalyst for something major. Things may look very different in 10 years from now. It does make our dirty crude a lot more appealing to some.

 

[Pinner]

Oil Spills and Disasters — Infoplease.com

 

[Summiteer]

It's not about the oil lost, it's about the environmental impact once the oil hits the shoreline and coastal areas. This is one of the times that media sensationalism still is not grasping the entire picture of the potential impacts of this are in 1, 2, 5 10, and 50 yrs from now. The Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana clean up will be virtually impossible because there is just too much water.

You cannot remediate oil within the ocean, it's not tangible. We still do not know what the effects of the oil leaking out of the wellbore at 1500 m below the surface are doing to the sealife and what part of the volatile fractions of crude oil (like Benzene which is highly soluble in water) are being lost and what their effects are on the sea life as well. I'm an environmental scientist - oilfield remediation is what I do for a living. At least on land it's the ability to confine the impact to a specific area that has a huge benefit. They cannot contain the oil that is leaking from this well. So not only is it an infinite volume of oil that is currently leaking until its capped, but its impacting an infinite amount of ocean (and potentially shoreline down the road) right now.

The biggest impacts will be once the oil contacts the shoreline and then is pushed inland into areas like the coastal plains and deltas. These areas are recharged when hurricanes and tropical storms push water far inland, directly off the coastal shoreline. These coastal areas have relatively flat reliefs and even high waves can push water inland for miles (think New Orleans). These areas of shallow water are very vast, and it only takes a small amount of oil to "contaminate" a large volume of water.

The oil will likely not be contained in a small area or a thicker depth where it accumulates (think Valdez wreck along rocky shoreline), it will likely be spread very thin over a huge area. The US EPA has far more stringent guidelines than the CCME does in Canada (we are about 10-15 yrs behind them), BP's clean up criteria will likely be very stringent.

These tropical storms also deposit sediment onto the oil impacted soil and vegetation through wind and wave erosion. The oil gets covered with a thin film of soil and remains hidden for decades, slowly being released back into the environment and constantly contaminating water and soil. In the meantime, nothing will grow there which complicates soil erosion by wind and water as there are no plants to hold the soil in place. As erosion happens, the oil will once again be exposed, moved and deposited, starting the process all over again. It becomes almost cyclical.

The area is a sensitive ecosystem and likely will not sustain prolonged environmental exposure to crude oil without degradation. One benefit is that the area has high re-generation capability once the oil is removed, and the complex ecosystem that is there, will likely have some bio-remediation and natural attenuation capacity for the oil.

If there is oil floating along the shoreline when water is pushed inland, the clean up will be extremely difficult. I can't even speculate on costs but if they do not get it stopped soon, expect that it will be 100's of billions if not more, possibly trillions, to clean up, and likely span the better part of 50+ years or longer.

It's been speculated that wells that were supposed to be drilled in the north may not be, because of potential risks of this happening on, in and under the ice. While the other rigs may not stop tomorrow on current production, as time goes on, they just may not drill any new wells. The US will have to expand exploration into other areas to identify new reserves to replace the ocean reserves, which will take time. Nothing is going to stop the world turning on a dime, but a change may take place in the industry over the next decade.

It's definitely a catalyst for something major. Things may look very different in 10 years from now. It does make our dirty crude a lot more appealing to some.

See I knew you were a smart dude....

 

[Longhorn]

Yea, good post dude!!

 

[imdoo'n]

oh no he's one of them:d. with this you will see investment go to zero for offshore drilling, wells being drilled may be shut down, oh you will feel the impact all right.

 

[Modman]

See I knew you were a smart dude....

Now now - Don't go jumping to conclusions....LOL

 

[imdoo'n]

he's the modman, able to leap tall buildings, faster than a speeding bullet{just ask the girls}, smarter than a 5 th grader:d

 

[Pinner]

but cmon now...there are over 4000 rigs in the Gulf and only 1 goes down,

You really think there are 4000 rigs in the Gulf ? I think your over by about... 4000.

 

[sumsupport]

You really think there are 4000 rigs in the Gulf ? I think your over by about... 4000.

I'm thinking he meant 4000 offshore rigs in total, not just the Gulf.

 

[trailblazer]

posted in "offshore mag.",in August,2010,there was a record number of rigs in the gulf...15.