[img_assist|nid=1047038|title=oil spill|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427][img_assist|nid=1047039|title=oil spill|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]
off the west coast australia heading for indo’’
here is a comment from our great leader comrade rudd
Mr Rudd has defended his Government’s response to the oil slick,
which is now believed to cover an area about 25 nautical miles by 70
nautical miles as it leaks from PTTEP Australasia’s West Atlas oil rig.
Oil, gas and condensate has been leaking into the Timor Sea since August 21.
Mr Rudd said in Perth that the Federal Government would do whatever was necessary to deal with the “appalling incident”.
“The Government is following this exceptionally closely,” Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio Network.
“It’s appalling that it occurred, but we are working to deal with the situation as it unfolds.”
The
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is coordinating the
clean-up and has been spraying dispersants over the slick, which is
reported to be slowly spreading towards the Australian coast.
The cause of the leak in the Montara oil field is not yet known.
Thai-based
PTTEP plans to bring a mobile offshore drilling rig to its Montara
wellhead platform, where it will drill a relief well to stop the leak.
The company expects the mobile rig to arrive at the site within a week.
Mr Rudd said the spill would be thoroughly investigated by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority.
He said he expected PTTEP Australasia to be forthcoming with information.
“Absolute
transparency will be required on the part of the company to the
regulators, otherwise the company would not be being consistent with
Australian legal and regulatory requirements,” he said.
“We
will therefore be taking every necessary measure and response to
appropriate and considered technical advice, to deal with … an
appalling incident.”
Until the world loses it’s dependency on oil this sort of thing is just going to keep happening.
heres a bit more
Unanswered questions over Australian offshore oil spill
By Mike Head 7 November 2009
The disastrous oil leak from a drilling platform off Australia’s northwest coast was finally stemmed this week, after more than two months. A spectacular fire that engulfed the West Atlas rig last weekend then petered out. Yet these events only highlighted the many unanswered questions that remain about the oil spill and the response of the government.
The public has not been told how the leak
occurred and why it took nearly 11 weeks to end it. Questions remain
about how much oil and gas poured into the sea and how far the oil
slick spread toward the Australian and Indonesian coasts. Beyond that,
why did the government repeatedly downplay the leak and even award the
rig operator new exploration licenses in the same undersea region while
the crisis continued?
Throughout the crisis, the Rudd
government has been preoccupied with protecting the image and profits
of the multi-billion dollar offshore drilling industry, not the
environment, the safety of workers or the health and livelihoods of
people living across the region.
After three previous
failed attempts, PTTEP Australasia, owner of the Montara well head,
which sits below the rig, announced on Tuesday that it had pumped
high-density mud into a damaged pipeline and temporarily “killed” the
leaking well. Large quantities of sweet light crude oil, condensate and
gas had been spewing into the Timor Sea since August 21.
The
complex operation to plug the leak involved towing another rig from
Singapore and positioning it near the West Atlas platform, about 200
kilometres off Western Australia’s Kimberley coastline. The second rig
was used to drill an estimated 2.6 kilometres below the seabed to
locate a 25cm-wide cement casing surrounding the ruptured pipeline.
PTTEP reported that the leak originated from a cracked concrete and
rubber plug at the bottom end of the well pipe.
The
dangerous character of the spill and resulting oil slick was exposed
when the well head caught fire last Sunday several hours after PTTEP’s
drilling finally intercepted the damaged pipeline. For two days, the
West Atlas rig became a giant burning beacon, with flames and smoke
reaching hundreds of metres into the sky.
The media and
the government uncritically accepted the company’s own estimate that
about 300 to 400 barrels of oil had leaked daily. Even by that figure,
nearly 30,000 barrels poured into the ocean, or more than 4.5 million
litres. But the volume may have been far greater. Testifying before a
parliamentary committee, a government official, Martin Squire, conceded
that according to a Geoscience Australia calculation, the maximum
leakage rate could have been as high as 2,000 barrels of oil a day,
plus condensate.
Satellite images showed a 25,000
square kilometre slick that reached Indonesian waters. Seaweed farmers
on Indonesia’s Rote Island and fishermen in West Timor reported that
the spill had destroyed their harvest, affected their health and killed
masses of fish, cutting catches by up to 80 percent. The Australian
Embassy in Jakarta promptly issued a denial, asserting that any oil
posed “no threat to the marine environment”. Yet the embassy statement
admitted that oil had crossed into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone
and that oil sample testing had not been conducted.
Despite
repeated delays and failures, the repair operation was left in the
hands of the private operator, exposing the lack of public resources
and infrastructure to deal with such disasters. The environmental
cleanup was entrusted to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, a
270-member agency that depends financially on levies on commercial
shipping using Australian ports.
This week, PTTEP
Australasia director Jose Martins admitted that much hazardous work lay
ahead to plug the leak permanently, and revealed that it could take up
to seven years to assess and clean up the environmental damage.
Nevertheless, he declared that the company responded to the incident
“by the book,” had not breached any safety or legal regulations and he
was confident that the well would be in production by mid-next year.
Martins’
comments made plain the company’s expectation that its operations would
proceed unhindered, whatever the findings of the limited inquiry
belatedly announced by Resources Minister Martin Ferguson. The minister
foreshadowed the inquiry only last week, after two months of flatly
denying the seriousness of the spill. On August 23, two days after the
leak erupted, he falsely claimed that the oil was “evaporating
naturally”.
For weeks, Ferguson also defended the
company, insisting that it was utilising the best technology and
resources available to combat the leak. Just a month after the leak
erupted, the government gave its foreign investment consent for PTTEP,
a Thai conglomerate, to buy the exploration and mining rights over a
further 1,480 square kilometres of marine oil and gas fields. According
to the Australian Financial Review, PTTEP also plans to purchase the rights to another large field in the Timor Sea.
To
conduct its inquiry, the government has appointed a former senior
official, ex-Environment Department secretary David Borthwick. Although
he will have powers to summon witnesses and evidence, his hearings may
be held behind closed doors. Ferguson and Environment Minister Peter
Garrett have said that it is up to Borthwick to decide whether to hold
public hearings.
Nor will the inquiry cover a second
leak, from the East Puffin gas project about 50 kilometres from the
Montara well. Ferguson has admitted that he did not report the gas leak
to the public for seven weeks during the Montara crisis, claiming that
it was of a “minor nature”.
Without waiting for any
findings from the inquiry, the minister has already rejected calls to
delay new exploration proposals until Borthwick submits his report,
which is due in April.
Together with Garrett, Ferguson
has said that PTTEP would be disciplined if found to have breached
industry practices. But the pair has refused to release the drilling
operations plan approved by the government for the Montara well.
According to industry insiders quoted in the media, the plan may have
few legally enforceable requirements, effectively shielding the company
from penalties under the petroleum industry and environmental
protection legislation.
The government’s decision to
conduct an inquiry followed increasing expressions of concern from
sections of the industry itself, and others in the media and corporate
establishment, about the need to repair the damage to the industry’s
reputation.
The Australian Petroleum Production and
Exploration Association (APPEA) has expressed “strong support” for the
inquiry, emphasising that any harm to the standing of the industry
could affect more than $200 billion of natural gas projects proposed
for Australia. These plans are in addition to the $43 billion Gorgon
gas joint venture between Shell, Exxon-Mobil and ChevronTexaco, which
Ferguson and Garrett approved just before the West Atlas eruption.
Garrett
brushed aside environmental concerns to give permission for the Gorgon
gas to be processed into liquefied natural gas (LNG) on Barrow Island,
a nature reserve some 50 kilometres off Kimberley coast. On September
14, when Chevron and its partners confirmed the Gorgon project,
Ferguson declared that Australia was emerging as an “energy
superpower”. He described Gorgon as “Australia’s largest-ever resources
development” and said it was expected to generate $300 billion in
export earnings over 30 years.
According to the APPEA,
Australian exports of oil and gas increased from $12.5 billion in
2006-07 to $20 billion in 2007-08, generating $6 billion a year in tax
revenues. The Labor government is hoping for even faster growth through
the development of floating LNG rigs to tap remote undersea reserves.
Ferguson recently predicted that LNG exports alone would reach $24
billion by 2017-2018. In another media release, he said a recent
scientific report had estimated Australia’s stranded gas reserves to be
around 140 trillion cubic feet and worth around $1 trillion.
In
other words, expanding oil and gas exploration across the entire region
from the Kimberley coast to the Timor Sea has become critical to the
future of Australian capitalism. The global financial crisis has
increased its dependence on mineral exports, primarily coal, iron ore
and gold, but also gas and oil products, to Asian markets, particularly
China and Japan.
That is why the Labor government, with
Ferguson and Garrett in the vanguard, is bending over backward to
protect the industry, regardless of the environmental and safety risks.
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Don't worry huie, peter garretts onto it, oh wait hang on, peter garretts onto it.
Huie im with you on this!!! i am amazed out how little press this has got considering 400 barrels a day for 10 weeks!!!(i think this is right).Seems that because Australia has mining ,oil and gas in abundance we are prepared to slip this under the carpet,(lets not rock the boat were all getting rich on this guys!!!shhhhhhh).As for the fact they have been granted rights for further exploration before a hearing is crazy,and as for peter garrett when your hands are tied and your in bed with the devil,there is nothing you can do
Just my 2 cents
like it says on the heading
who gives a flying f####k certainly not to many on here eh’’
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**
Huie,this incident ( or disaster ) hasn't been in the news much, becuase people have been living in fear over a few people on a boat south of Indo. There is talk of a royal inquiry ( more bullshit) , but the damage is already done ! Sit back and watch em all run for cover- we havn't heard the last
I Love Oil!!!! The truth is oil is safe to extract and transport. Spills and accidents are rare to begin with and safety records are steadily improving. Without oil there are no modern surfboards or wetsuits. No cars. No computers. Virtually everything we use in our daily lives depends in some way on oil. Yes, I LOVE OIL!!!!
World Without Oil
by Lise Maring
When most of us think about oil, we tend to think about heating oil for the furnace and about the gasoline and diesel fuel that keeps our cars and trucks on the road. What most of us don't realize, however, is that oil does more than just fuel our vehicles and keep us warm in winter. It has become the foundation upon which our entire modern civilization has been built. Recently, that foundation has begun to develop some cracks and has become a little shakier than it used to be, as cheap oil and natural gas become harder to find and acquire. Even if we were to develop a new source of energy and a more fuel-efficient car today, without oil, modern civilization as we have come to know it is still in deep trouble.
To start with the basics, armies aren't the only organizations that run on their stomachs. So do civilizations. Agribusiness is totally dependent upon large machines and artificial fertilizers and pesticides in order to raise, harvest, and transport the vast quantities of grain, fruit, and vegetables we enjoy today. Fertilizers and pesticides require oil and natural gas, not only in their distribution, but in their manufacture as well. Also, feed for beef cattle, chickens, and turkeys depends very heavily on these same fertilizers and pesticides. When cheap sources of oil and gas are not readily available, the chemical industry passes the increased costs on to agriculture. The increasing prices for fertilizers and pesticides then results in increased food prices for the rest of us.
We may find ourselves eating farther down the food chain in the near future. In other words, we eat the grain instead of feeding it to something else first, since each link added in the food chain results in energy loss. In the future, the turkey and chicken "factories" we have now may not exist. The vast feedlots where cattle are fattened on grain before being slaughtered and made into hamburger patties for the nation's fast food restaurants may no longer be economical. Thus, wastes from such industries may no longer be available to those who believe it could serve as a viable large-scale energy source for the future.
The world is now consuming roughly 77 million barrels of oil a day. And the demand grows every year as other countries aspire to our style of living and level of consumption. What's really interesting is that out of that 77 million barrels, the U.S. consumes most of it. In 2002, the U.S. consumed 19.66 million barrels a day on the average--more than one-quarter of the entire world's oil consumption--and the demand in this country continues to grow every year. You can check this out for yourself on this US Department of Energy web site: eia.doe.gov
Today, much of our food travels an average of 1200 to 1500 miles before it gets to our tables. Most of the vegetables consumed in the East were transported overland by truck from California. The roads the trucks roll on are made of asphalt. Where does asphalt come from? You guessed it--from petroleum. When the supplies of asphalt become more restricted, our entire transportation system may very well begin to deteriorate. There are some substitutes, but certainly not in the quantities required to maintain a national road system. And the substitutes also require energy to manufacture and transport. Which roads will be sacrificed first? Will it be the interstate system on the edge of town, or the street in front of your home?
And, oh, by the way, those tires on the trucks and on your family car? They also required petroleum in their manufacture and distribution. Along with the machinery that mined the iron ore, converted it into steel, and formed it into the frame for your car.
So, okay, what else is oil used for? Well, plastics for one thing! Look around you. How much of your world is made up of plastic? The keyboard you type on is most likely plastic, as are the casings for your monitor and your printer. Much of our food comes in plastic containers, even our eggs these days, and the spouts on our plastic-coated juice and milk cartons are themselves plastic as well. The hospitals depend on disposable plastic supplies, such as syringes and oxygen tubing. Bottom line: it would take a book to document all the uses of plastic, and plastic depends on the rich chemical soup called petroleum. Oh, and have you looked at what ink is made of? Or that pen in your hands?
But it doesn't stop there. The roofing tiles and tar paper used in home construction require petroleum for their manufacture and distribution; the lubricants in our engines and machinery--even "synthetic" oils--are currently oil-derived. Many medications require petroleum for their manufacture. Our synthetic textiles, such as nylon and rayon, depend on the chemicals derived from petroleum. Petroleum, in other words, touches every industry…every technology…every business…every home…and each and every one of us in one vital way or another, every single day of every single week.
Many people have suggested all we have to do is begin manufacturing oil and plastics from organic sources such as corn or soybeans or other such crops. Unfortunately, there is only so much land available, and most of the arable land is currently being used to grow food--or is being developed into more homes and shopping centers. The nice thing about oil is that it is underground and takes up relatively little space to extract. So, do we give up food production for energy substitutes and plastics instead? And who is it that will go hungry while perfectly good farmland is used to grow plastic for all those McDonald's Happy Meal toys?
It may be that in the not too distant future, we end up with several different schemes for energy production that will indeed keep us warm and allow us to keep driving our cars while the tires hold out. But one thing's for sure: no single method will be able to replace petroleum and everything we use it for.
Also, ask yourselves this: Do we really want to find something that will totally replace oil so our civilization can continue as it is right now? Even if we were to find a substitute, and energy doesn't become a limiting factor, then food and water are sure to be. While the corporate fishing fleets are busily mining the oceans and destroying the world's fisheries, similar corporate agricultural interests are busily mining our topsoil and groundwater. Personally, I'm beginning to think it might actually be better if our civilization were brought up short--so our planet doesn't end up becoming a giant, uninhabitable dust ball.
Totally agree with you Huie. These dickheads in government are only concerned with controlling the public with spin , spin and more spin.
How can that hypocrite Garrett sleep at night !!!
This is a disaster that needs some international attention then Rudd and Co might get serious about fixing the problem to avoid looking like the incompetents that they are.
Their motto is " Style over substance ".
Cheers
Mooneemick
I would like to think that oil companies, nuclear power companies, etc are operating in a safe and sane manner. Unfortunately with earthquakes, human error, etc, 'stuff' happens.
When things go wrong, I can't help but feel (as a user of electricity and petro products) that I have blood on my own hands. It has been pointed out to me that as long as I drive a car, turn on lights and other electrical items, and engage in consumption of all that is made available via those industries, I need to shut my pie hole. Even with my mouth shut, I feel as if my hypocrisy knows no bounds.
I hope they get a handle on it and somehow find a way to compensate those whose lives have been adversely affected.
hey john
the point i am try ing to make is the lack of will by our political masters
the big sand island just to the north of me got swamped with oil early this year
same govt same results sweet f##k all nearly every day the barge or some other vessel kills another dugong
**or turtle it allways gets hushed up think a moment for the very young just what sort of robots are they going to be?
**
Has anyone seen this guys movies? They are free to down load and well worth sitting down to on a friday night and diegesting. Watch the earlier one (2007) first, if your religious it might not sit so well however it will make you question a lot of things…