“Why Oil Doesn’t Corrupt Norway,” a PolyMatter video by Evan Edinger.
_____________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-xG8
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
The Strait of Hormuzm a 21 mile-wide passage between Iran and Oman, supports 20% of the world’s oil supply. The oil chokepoint is center of conflict between the US and Iran. A Vox video.
_____________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-tMA
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine
President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Texas governor Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy, a department GOP candidate Perry would have abolished if he could have remembered what it was:
On April 20, 2010, a well blowout a mile under the Deepwater Horizon exploration ship sent a surge of oil and gas up to the rig, setting it on fire and killing 11 crew members. The well leaked for 87 days, and 3.19 million barrels of crude oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico. BP just totaled up the amount of legal bills, damage settlements, restoration costs, and fines it has paid to hundreds of lawyers, 400 local governments, thousands of claimants and the federal government, and the tab comes to $61.6 billion.
More:
“BP’s big bill for the world’s largest oil spill reaches $61.6 billion,” Steven Mufson, Washington Post
_________________
Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-o8L
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine
Santa Claus and Vladimir Putin have something in common: They both live in Russia. If the UN says so, anyway.
Russia has submitted a formal bid to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) claiming more than 463,000 square miles of Arctic Ocean seabed, including the North Pole. Russia says that the underwater Lomonosov and Mendeleev Ridges under the Arctic are extensions of the country’s continental shelf. In December, Denmark claimed most of the same territory, saying the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of Greenland. Norway and Canada are preparing similar claims. Russia made a symbolic stunt claiming the Pole in 2007, putting a titanium flag on the sea floor under the ice cap.
Why would anyone want the Arctic seafloor, anyway? Oil and gas. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are reserves of 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas there, 22 percent of the world’s unrecovered oil and natural gas, and with Global Warming it’s becoming more accessible.
Another nation with interests in the Arctic is ineligible to file a UN claim, since it’s not a signatory of the Convention on the Law of the Sea: The United States of America.
Santa Claus and Hamlet have something in common: They both live in Denmark. That is, if you accept Denmark’s claim to the North Pole.
The big, cold island of Greenland is in the Kingdom of Denmark, and Denmark says the island’s northern continental shelf has a ridge that includes 895000 square km (345561 square miles) of the Arctic seabed. Russia and Canada have claims in as well.
Why would any of these countries want to own the Arctic? In addition to Santa’s Workshop, it’s got 22% of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable oil and natural gas. Global warming means it will become easier to get at these resources by boat.
On Thursday September 4, 2014 U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier, Louisiana born and bred, found BP to be “grossly negligent” in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, attributing 67% of the blame to the company, 30% to contractor Transocean, and 3% to submarine cement subcontractor Halliburton. BP may be liable for as much as $18 billion in fines under the Clean Water Act. BP had tried to claim its two partners in the drilling venture were equally responsible, so the ruling essentially doubles that. BP says it will appeal.
With this fine on top of other Deepwater fines, costs, and damage expenses, BP’s total bill for the disaster could reach $50 billion.
BP sent Anadarko Petroleum a bill for $272 million, a quarter of Gulf oil spill cleanup costs to date. Anadarko is a 25 percent partner in the Deepwater Horizon drilling project. Another 10 percent of the disaster is owned by Japan’s Mitsui, so that company got a $111 million invoice.
Anadarko CEO Jim Hackett issued a statement last month blaming the oil spill on “BP’s reckless decisions and actions,” so expect some resistence from the junior partner. Mitsui merely says it has until July 12th to reply. Corporate and maritime lawyers everywhere are on alert.
Other sources claim oil spill cleanup costs to date exceed $3 billion and may rise to $6 billion. Damages are something else again. BP has established a $20 billion fund to meet preliminary claims.
More:
“BP Wants Partners to Help Shoulder Spill Cost,” John Schwartz, New York Times.
“BP Passes the Buck to Oil Well Partners,” Dana Chivvis, AOL News.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine
Federal Judge Martin L.C. Feldman blocked President Obama’s six month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Judge Feldman knows lots about offshore drilling: he invests in it.
According to his last financial disclosure form, Reagan appointee Martin Feldman owns shares in Deepwater owner/operator Transocean and drilling service providers Parker Drilling and Rowan Companies, Inc. as well as offshore developer ATP Oil & Gas Corporation. During the report period, Judge Feldman cashed in his shares in Deepwater Horizon contractor Halliburton and Hercules Offshore.
“If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are?” wrote Judge Feldman. Obviously, the judge has not invested in Cameron International Corp., the company that manufactured the Blowout Prevention Valves on the Deepwater Horizon.
Many small-government Republicans are now screaming for massive federal involvement in Gulf oil spill mitigation. These GOP free-market fundamentalists and devout deregulators are currently calling for the scalps of BP’s CEO and board members.
Not so Congressman Joe Barton (R, TX-6). He apologized to BP’s CEO for the U.S. Government’s “shakedown” of the multinational oil corporation, the Administration’s insistence on a $20 billion escrow account to address claims by Gulf fishermen and others whose incomes are affected by BP’s blundering oil spill. Mr. Bolton has received an annual average of $80,000 in campaign donations from oil companies over two decades. This is an election year, and Mr. Bolton has racked up $100,000 in oil company contributions so far.
Republican leaders conducted a shakedown of their own, telling Joe Barton to retract his statement if he wanted to keep his post as ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Grudgingly, he did.
NotionsCapital 