Gulf Coast Disaster - Friday, September 3

Day 137

Highlights in this issue
- Oil platform explodes in Gulf
- Second Gulf disaster puts moratorium back in play
- Temporary cap removed
- Allen: The well could have been killed sooner
- BP gets tough with Congress
- BP’s cost for spill hits $8 billion

This morning’s summary

A new explosion in the Gulf; Cap successfully removed
If you don’t think the disaster on the Deepwater Horizon was enough to convince many folks in Congress about the dangers of offshore oil drilling, we have another one for them. An oil platform exploded and caught fire off the Louisiana coast on Thursday. The difference here is that the platform was drilling in shallow water and not deepwater drilling. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said platform officials told him there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly after the fire broke out. There was no apparent leakage, but make no mistake about it. While the world has been focusing on the threats of deepwater drilling in the Gulf, there are about 3,400 shallow drilling platforms operating in the Gulf, according to the American Petroleum Institute. And this latest explosion may put new teeth into the Obama administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling. An Interior Department spokeswoman said that the Nov. 30 date to lift the ban had not been revised in light of Thursday’s accident. And finally there’s is some good news out of the Gulf. The cap was successfully removed on Thursday from the renegade well, the first move to the final ‘bottom kill.’

Quotable Quote
“It’s clear that the government now has the ammunition to move ahead with a drilling moratorium. There will be higher costs and a slowdown in production from the Gulf,” said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks and Opinions LLC in Houston, after the explosion of the oil platform in the Gulf.

National News

AP: Oil platform explodes in Gulf
An oil platform exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in their protective "Gumby suits." Mariner Energy Inc., the platform owner, said Thursday afternoon that the fire aboard its oil and gas platform was out, and that it was "not a blowout."

Read more:
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewContent.act?tag=3.5721%3Ficx_id=D9I0GJDG0

Check this one out, too
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0224497620100902

And see this one
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090202733.html


AP: Second Gulf spill puts moratorium back in play
A second Gulf explosion is putting Big Oil’s feet to the fire. The fact that different companies would experience major accidents within a few months of each other is a disaster for drillers hoping to be welcomed back to the Gulf. Despite years with no major accidents, the offshore oil industry will now be forced to recover from a stigma that it's accident-prone and can't be trusted. And it gives a new impetus to keep the Obama deepwater drilling moratorium in place.

Read more by Chris Kahn
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9I01C700.htm

Check this one out, too
Washington Post: Fire at shallow drilling site raises new oil questions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090205730.html


AP: Temporary cap removed
Engineers have removed a temporary cap that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's blown-out well in mid-July. The cap was removed Thursday as a prelude to raising the blowout preventer, the massive piece of equipment underneath that failed to prevent the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. No reports of oil leaking out again.

Read more
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9I01GA82

See this one, too
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0902/Mariner-Energy-oil-rig-fire-extinguished-no-sign-of-oil-spill-in-Gulf


Wall Street Journal: BP’s cost for spill hits $8 billion
It’s hard to feel sorry for BP, but it’s taking a big hit in its pocketbook for the oil spill. The oil giant said Friday it has spent around $8 billion to date in response to the massive oil spill. That includes the cost of the spill response; containment; relief-well drilling; the "static kill" operation of providing mud and cementing; grants to the Gulf states; compensation claims paid; and federal costs.

Read more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703946504575468902411545436.html


MSNBC: Mariner may be facing a BP-style crisis
On Thursday, Mariner Energy, a Houston-based independent oil and gas company, found itself in the middle of a potential BP-style crisis, with a oil platform off the coast of Louisiana that exploded. Mariner shares dropped on the news, shedding more than 2 percent. Shares of Apache also fell.

Read more
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38976509/ns/business-oil_and_energy/

Check this out too
Mariner cited for 10 accidents in last 4 years
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/09/owner_of_oil_platform_that_exp.html


Press-Register: Allen: The well could have been shut down sooner
At a recent editorial meeting with the Press-Register, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said events could have unfolded differently in the Gulf oil spill. If BP had removed the 5,000-foot-long tangle of riser pipe from its damaged Gulf well in the early days of the spill, a new blowout preventer or cap could have been installed, shutting down the well perhaps within weeks instead of months, he said.

Read more:
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/09/thad_allen_in_hindsight_bp_mig.html


New York Times: BP gets tough with Congress
BP is warning Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the money to pay for all the damages caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company says a ban would also imperil the ambitious Gulf Coast restoration efforts that officials want the company to voluntarily support. The Gulf provides 11 percent of the company’s global production. It's hard to know if this stand will have any impact on lawmakers, but it just might.

Read more by Clifford Krauss and John Broder:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/business/03bp.html


Regional

NOLA press release: More than 5,000 miles of Gulf reopen for fishing
NOAA Thursday reopened to commercial and recreational fishing 5,130 square miles of Gulf waters stretching from the far eastern coast of Louisiana, through Mississippi, Alabama, and the western Florida panhandle. No word on whether the latest oil platform explosion would affect this decision.

Read more:
http://forshorefishing.blogs.theledger.com/12852/noaa-reopens-more-than-5000-square-miles-of-closed-gulf-fishing-area/


Editorial

Thehill.com: Rep. Conyers: Feinberg let BP renege on compensation promise
“The victims have been waiting for BP to make them whole. Unfortunately, thus far BP's response has been a day late and a dollar short -- many dollars short... I urge the Senate to quickly take up the SPILL Act when they return in September, and ask Administrator Feinberg to truly make the victims whole,” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., writes.

Read more
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/116923-feinberg-let-bp-renege-on-compensation-promise


Feature

Bloomberg: BP gives itself an ‘A’ on new oil spill tech
In a report to the federal government that was released Thursday, BP said the oil industry is better prepared to respond to a major offshore spill because of equipment and systems developed after the oil spill disaster. Innovations include equipment to cap a well that, after several misses and partial successes, stopped the gusher in July. Equipment developed to contain the spill include five “Sand Shark” vehicles that aid beach cleanup by digging deep enough in sand to capture below-surface oil, BP said. Removing oil from the surface was aided by four “Big Gulp” skimmers, based on a design by a barge owner who added gear to handle emulsified oil and sea grass, it said.

Read more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-02/bp-says-industry-is-better-prepared-after-its-gulf-oil-spill.html

Check this one out, too
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090204714.html


Graphics

Photos of the oil platform explosion
http://photos.nola.com/tpphotos/2010/09/mariner_oil_rig_explosion.html

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