You are in the current Gulf Watchers BP Catastrophe - AUV #445. ROV #444 is here.
Bookmark this link to find the latest Gulf Watchers diaries.
Follow the Gulf Watchers tag on DK4 by going here and clicking on the "+". (The settings probably will not carry over when DK4 goes live and you will have to redo them).
Please RECOMMEND THIS DIARY, the motherships have been discontinued.
Gulf Watchers Diary Schedule
Due to the holidays there won't be an AUV posted this Friday and the Gulf Watchers Block Party will be posted on Thursday rather than Friday.
Monday - evening drive time
Wednesday - morning
Friday - morning
Friday Block Party - evening
Sunday - morning
Part one of the digest of diaries is here and part two is here.
Please be kind to kossacks with bandwidth issues. Please do not post images or videos. Again, many thanks for this.
A report from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling is extremely critical of the $360 mullion sand berm project for which the media gave Jindall so much face time. Hindsight, my backside. Every expert in the universe knew the sand berms were worse than useless but the media no equal camera time for them nor for the commission's report. Unsurprisingly, the media is showing absolutely no remorse for their prime role in flushing $360 million down the toilet.
In a report (pdf) issued on Thursday by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, staff concluded that national incident commander Ret. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen faced intense political pressure to approve the project, and that in hindsight, the 1,000 barrels of oil they captured do not justify the high cost of the still-ongoing project.
"The Commission staff can comfortably conclude that the decision to green-light the underwhelmingly effective, overwhelmingly expensive Louisiana berms project was flawed," the report states.
...
"In analyzing whether the berms would be effective, the National Incident Command sought to balance science with the demands of elected officials. Ultimately, pressure to build the berms overwhelmed the analysis."
The commission was pretty clear that the sand berms were not a cost-effective oil spill response. "$220 million for a spill response measure that trapped not much more than 1,000 barrels of oil is not a compelling cost-benefit tradeoff," the report states.
...
BP, which had originally (and perhaps correctly) objected to the sand berms as a "hurricane relief project," has spent $220 million on the project to date and has promised to pay another $140 million for the work still being done.
Assessing the environmental impact of BP's black monster may take as long as 20 years. Undoubtedly, Jindall and Louisiana politicians will display an amazing amount of creativity in figuring out how to spend this money on currying political favors with contractors rather than doing didley to benefit Louisiana's spill victims or environment.
An inventory of environmental impacts from the BP oil spill may take as long as two decades to complete, a top aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal said. But with Louisiana’s deteriorating coast on the line, the state is lining up emergency restoration projects it wants BP to pay for today.
The Natural Resources Damage Assessment is a study by Louisiana, the federal government and other Gulf Coast states that creates a ledger of environmental losses. Created after the Exxon-Valdez spill under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the study requires scientists to count every dead turtle and bird, every acre of affected marsh and every lost day for fishermen and swimmers. Researchers also look at the longer-term survival rate of flora and fauna that came in contact with oil. Then they create a restoration plan to make up for those losses, and BP pays to implement it.
...
Drue Banta, representing the state in the assessment process, said the state and federal agencies are close to signing an agreement that will be presented to BP to request money in advance.
State officials say getting an early share is especially important for Louisiana, which wants to use its portion build coastal-restoration projects already are approved by Congress.
Greg Palast recounts his arrest in Azerbaijan while covering the BP blowout there that was covered up. Palast claims he got out with his story but it's not up yet.
"Here in Azerbaijan we believe in human rights. PLEASE GIVE US YOUR FILM."
Oh, no, no, not good.
The enforcers here come in three colors: the military police still wearing their old Russian puke-green uniforms, the MSN (the dictator's secret police) in windbreakers without ID, and BP's own corporate police force in black tunics, sashes and full hats who look like toy soldiers from the Nutcracker ballet. They weren't dancing.
I showed all three flavors of police our press credentials in both English and Azeri, neither of which could be read by the officers. (The dictator had suddenly changed the Azeri alphabet, making most of the nation illiterate overnight.)
...
We'd been surreptitiously filming BP's cancer-making machine, the giant pipeline terminal near Baku, the capital, that sends the Azeri's Caspian Sea oil eastward to light Europe's Christmas trees.
...
There is an awful lot of evidence that BP and Britain's MI6 had their hands in Baba's 1993 coup d'état which overthrew the nation's elected president. Within months of taking power, Baba signed "The Contract of the Century" giving BP monopoly control of Azerbaijan's Caspian reserves."
Baba headed the KGB when this Islamic land was an occupied "republic" of the Soviet Union, the good old days of relative peace, freedom and prosperity.
I was here in the desert to investigate a tip-off I'd had that BP had a near-disaster at its Caspian offshore rig that was extraordinarily similar to the Deepwater Horizon blow-out. But BP covered it up.
What I didn't know was that WikiLeaks was about to release a State Department memo which referred to a small piece of this BP game. Rather than go to Azerbaijan to check the facts, the Wiki newspapers called BP in London for comment.
That put BP on high alert and my sources in high danger.
...
Welcome to the Islamic Republic of BP, otherwise known as Azerbaijan. And good-bye.
I'm out of there. Out with the evidence we need about BP and how it lead to the Gulf of Mexico blow-out and an extension of the occupation of Iraq.
It's a hell of a story, and my holiday gift to myself is that I'm here and ready to tell it.
US embassy cables: Aliyev changes tune after Georgia invasion, says BP This is from a Wikileaks embassy cable published by The Guardian. BP calling anyone "arrogant" glaringly highlights the companies willful self-ignorance. h/t Yasuragi
Schrader [BP Azerbaijan President] said that previously Azerbaijan's leadership had been sounding increasingly self-confident -- even arrogant, at times -- and had downplayed the need for foreign investment in the next generation of projects. With events in Georgia, and heightened Russian activity in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan "may now be changing its tune." Schrader suggested that the Russia-Georgia conflict is forcing Azerbaijan to re-examine needs for regional stability and security, with leaders apparently coming to an early conclusion that a large foreign presence in Azerbaijan and the region creates an environment of greater security, predictability and dependability.
...
BP also retains hopes of clinching a separate agreement to develop non-associated or "deep gas" at the ACG fields. Azerbaijan had been holding a firm line in negotiations on PSA extension and "deep gas," criticizing BP for Shah Deniz production delays XXXXXXXXXXXX Recent events in Georgia, however, may be causing Azerbaijan to reconsider its line, according to BP's representatives.
...
The crisis in Georgia, and the myriad of oil and gas transport problems that resulted from it, has caused Azerbaijan's leadership to reconsider security and energy issues. Aliyev's expressed intention to re-open discussion with BP on PSA and ACG deep gas, after a long period of inaction, is significant, and likely a result of a new appreciation for the security benefits of a significant western presence in the energy sector in the wake of regional developments.
WikiLeaks: Azerbaijan Accused BP of "Mild Blackmail" Characterizing the blackmail as mild seems to be a gross understatement.
Apart from details on a hushed-up blowout in the Caspian Sea, the reports, shared through The Guardian, describe how the Russians, Turks, Georgians, Europeans and the ubiquitous British Petroleum vie to take a slice of Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon cake.
...
But BP, the biggest private player on Azerbaijan’s energy scene, was allegedly not willing to share the transit gas with Georgia -- and, even, Azerbaijan -- without getting something in return. BP had its eye on the “deep gas” in the giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field in the Caspian Sea and requested extending its agreement with Baku in exchange for letting Azerbaijan keep more of its own gas.
Aliyev [President of Azerbaijan] described BP’s position as “mild” form of “blackmail” and allegedly instructed the corporation not to get ahead of itself.
US embassy cables: Azerbaijan wants more from BP, US told This is from a Wikileaks embassy cable published by The Guardian. BP was free to make any sort of production claims to Azerbaijan without suffering any sort of negative consequences for not meeting the. That certainly puts BP in the cat's bird seat in it's relationship with Azerbaijan.
- (C) SUMMARY. In an April 18 conversation with the Ambassador, Energy and Industry Minister Natiq Aliyev said that GOAJ would continue its close cooperation with BP, and that in principle the GOAJ [Government of Azerbaijan] supported BP plans for ACG PSA extension and ACG deep gas. The GOAJ also wants BP as Shah Deniz operator to accelerate Phase Two production and to work with SOCAR to develop other fields. He said that the GOAJ cannot commit gas that "belongs to BP," and any specific public commitments or comments about future levels of Azerbaijani gas production should be made and supported by both BP and the GOAJ. The GOAJ needs some type of "lever" over BP to ensure that it lives up to its production commitments. He suspected BP was purposefully dragging its feet on Shah Deniz Phase Two development due to ambiguity about transit costs and the ultimate market for this gas. END SUMMARY
...
- (C) Aliyev also said that the GOAJ had no power to compel BP to produce gas on schedule, and that BP has no strong obligation to implement the GOAJ's annual production program, which was designed based on BP gas production estimates. He complained that "BP has no responsibility for fulfilling production quotas; under the PSA there is no recourse for non-performance." There had been a delay of "three to four years" with BTC, and with Shah Deniz, Azerbaijan was committed to deliver gas to Turkey in 2006, but hadn't been able to because of production delays. "We must have strong cooperation with BP," but Aliyev said he didn't know "how to ensure that BP fulfills its obligations - we can't punish them or make claims against them." BP provides gas production estimates to the GOAJ, but "these aren't obligations, and BP can change them anytime."
US embassy cables: BP may never know cause of gas leak, US told This is from a Wikileaks embassy cable published by The Guardian. There is no indication in the cable that the embassy had the slightest concern that BP not knowing the cause of its well blowout might end up having tragic implications in the U.S. BP having only a single functioning generator on their rig sounds like more typical BP SOP. h/t Yasuragi
ACG OIL PRODUCTION PROBLEMS
- (C) Schrader [BP Azerbaijan President] said that the September 17th shutdown of the Central Azeri (CA) platform, in which the "red button" was pressed after detection of a gas leak on the Central Azeri Platform that led to the evacuation of 211 platform workers off the platform, was the largest such emergency evacuation in BP's history. Given the explosive potential, BP was quite fortunate to have been able to evacuate everyone safely and to prevent any gas ignition. Gas bubbles on the water's surface were no longer observed from the air by September 19th. Due to the blowout of a gas-injection well there was "a lot of mud" on the platform, which BP would analyze to help find the cause of the blowout and gas leak. Gas samples would have to be taken to London to determine whether the gas was shallow (biogenic) or deep (foundation). Central, Eastern and Western Azeri Azeri platforms remain shut down. 9. (C) Schrader said that Western Azeri Platform was shut down due to its only functioning generator being powered by a cable from the Central Azeri Platform, and BP hoped to be able to restart this platform in November. "Black-starting" a platform (i.e. restarting a platform when all of its operations had been fully shut down) was a very difficult, time-consuming process, and would have to be taken slowly, on a step-by-step basis. BP Azerbaijan would slowly start to get its people back out on the CA Platform later this week to begin re-starting selective systems that would help ascertain the problem's source.
- (C) It is possible that BP Azerbaijan "would never know" the cause of the gas leak, but BP is continuing to methodically investigate possible theories, Schrader said. Although the production decrease had not been a significant story heretofore, he thought it likely that more attention in the industry would be paid to it after October 2, when SOCAR nominated volumes to be sold at Ceyhan for the coming month. Schrader said although the story hadn't caught the press's attention, it had the full focus of the GOAJ, which was losing "40 to 50 million dollars" each day that the ACG production remained at 300,000 bpd vice its earlier daily production of approximately 900,000 bpd.
BP restarts production at Azerbaijan platform after fixing faulty firefighting pumps. I would come close to betting real money those pumps would still be broken with production going full tilt if it hadn't been for the diplomatic cable that had been leaked.
BP has restarted production at one of its offshore oil platforms in Azerbaijan after repairing faulty firefighting water pumps.
The Chirag platform, which produces 90,000 barrels a day, was shut down last Saturday after the problems were discovered during routine maintenance. It is part of the vast Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field in the Caspian Sea, which produces 854,000 barrels a day.
The Guardian published leaked US cables last week that reported that the company experienced a near fatal blowout in September 2008 at a well near its offshore Central Azeri oil production platform in the ACG field in the Caspian Sea. BP at the time only publicly acknowledged that a gas leak had taken place.
Striking similarities between the Azerbaijan near-miss and the Gulf of Mexico disaster, which took place less than 18 months afterwards, emerged from the cables. Responding to the Wikileaks revelations, BP said it had safety evacuated all its 212 workers on the Central Azeri platform. It added: "BP continues to have a successful and mutually beneficial partnership with the government of Azerbaijan."
The Joint Incident Command writes off oil on the ocean floor as unrecoverable. This is an old No Oil At All (NOAA) sleight of hand—just count what is oil is conveniently recoverable. Mind you, no one in the government has deemed it worthwhile to even make any attempts to see if there might be effective methods to recover what is perceived as being unrecoverable oil. Also, given the government's track record in being unable to find oil that independent scientists have had no trouble finding, claims that residual oil is below EPA guidelines should probably be totally ignored unless independently confirmed by reputable scientists. I suppose it is a baby step forward that they are acknowledging tar mats that have been widely reported and pictured in the media.
A new federal report that discusses the location of submerged oil remaining in the Gulf was released today.
The report defines much of the oil sitting on the bottom around the Deepwater Horizon well as “unrecoverable” and suggests that oil concentrations in most of the Gulf are below environmental benchmarks established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
One of the 2 “areas of concern” highlighted in the report involves the failure of federal officials and BP to find all of the tar mats buried in shallow areas along the Gulf Coast. Those tar mats could cause a re-oiling of some shorelines, according to the report. The report calls the lack of information about oil near shore a “sampling gap.”
In recent weeks, new tar mats have been discovered off of Gulf Shores. The Press-Register also found a number around Pensacola during November.
...
The report does not discuss what will happen to oil that remains on the seafloor, nor does it address the long-term damage caused by the spill.
...
Entitled, Summary Report for Sub-sea and Sub-surface Oil and Dispersant Detection: Sampling and Monitoring (pdf), the document compiles data collected from 17,000 samples collected in water and sediments. The report suggests that only the area without about ten miles of the wellhead contains significant amounts of oil on the seafloor.
“No recoverable offshore oil was identified through this sampling effort,” read a government press release. The report did not address recent underwater surveys by scientists in deep diving submarines that revealed thin layers of oil coating corals and parts of the seafloor. It is unclear if technology exists to collect such material in thousands of feet of water.
NOAA scientists expresses concern about oil remaining on the seafloor. It's refreshing to see a No Oil At All (NOAA) scientist deviating from the agency's baseless optimistic view of the environmental impact of BP's black monster. It is also worth noting the pathetic positive spin in officials' use of the word "could" rather than "will" in the statement about microbes eating the remaining oil. The truth is that they don't have a clue and neither does anyone else and no attempts are even being made to see if there might be a way to clean up the oil on the seafloor. - h/t Phil s33
Oil from BP PLC's blown-out well has lodged in the sediment of the Gulf of Mexico at levels that may threaten marine life, according to a federal report released Friday.
Heavy contamination from the oil spill is limited to a few locations in the Gulf relatively close to BP's Macondo well, officials said. Chemical tests have confirmed that oil in some sediment there matches oil from the BP well, according to the report by scientists advising federal spill-response officials.
There is no practical way to clean up the spilled oil that has settled deep in the Gulf, officials said, adding that microbes in the water could eventually eat it up.
"We've reached that point of diminishing returns," said Charlie Henry, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration involved in the report. Tests show levels of oil contamination that could threaten organisms in the Gulf. But "there's no longer any action we can take" to remove spilled BP oil far offshore, he said.
Closer in, from Florida to Louisiana, patches of oil remain in the water beside some beaches that were hit particularly hard by the spill. Some of that oil clearly "is from the Macondo well," said Sam Walker, another NOAA scientist
...
The report leaves unanswered many questions about the spill's environmental impact that scientists are likely to be researching—and BP and the government are likely to be fighting over—for years.
Unified Area Command and Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft kiss off the Gulf after issuing a "no recoverable oil" report. No one seems to care enough about this issue to even put the commander of the Coast Guard's 8th district in charge.
In a press release issued this morning from Deepwater Horizon Response Unified Area Command, it was announced that Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft, who's headed the response since Adm. Thad Allen stepped down in September and the response consolidated in NOLA, is stepping down. Replacing him is Capt. Lincoln Stroh, who has worked alongside Zukunft and the Unified Area Command for several weeks, the PR stated.
...
In so doing, Zukunft and the Unified Area Command will transfer oversight of cleanup operations to the existing Gulf Coast Incident Management Team as part of the Coast Guard’s 8th District.
Stroh will report to the Coast Guard's 8th District Commander, Rear Adm. Mary Landry, who leads Coast Guard operations in the Gulf from NOLA headquarters.
...
"Summary Report for Sub-sea and Sub-surface Oil and Dispersant Detection: Sampling and Monitoring" does not identify "recoverable offshore oil" from the 17,000 samples but "continued sampling and monitoring activities will be conducted as part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) process. In keeping with the Federal Government's commitment to transparency and collaboration, all the data that were analyzed in this report are available online at restorethegulf.gov," said the release.
This news comes as Dr. Samantha Joye released her own news, just last week in an NPR report, that a thick layer of oil was found on the sea floor near the Macondo well. Joye, a prominent researcher and marine biologist from the University of Georgia, has spoken to the Examiner and will soon respond to questions in a Q&A to be published in this column.
BP pleads not guilty to probation violations for its 2006 Prudhoe Bay spill, the largest in Alaska's North Slope history.It's obvious that pocket change fines have done absolutely nothing to persuade BP to change their lackadaisical attitude concerning safety.
BP today pleaded not guilty to probation violations relating to its criminal conviction for a major North Slope oil spill in 2006.
If found guilty of the violations, BP could face maximum penalties including five years of additional probation and a $12 million fine, assistant U.S. attorney Aunnie Steward told a federal magistrate judge today in Anchorage.
Federal prosecutors say BP violated its probation when it spilled about 13,000 gallons of oil onto the tundra at the Lisburne oil field in 2009. The company's probation officer, Mary Frances Barnes, filed a petition to revoke probation in November.
The company has been on probation since it pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal violations of the federal Clean Water Act for its 2006 spill from a corroded and neglected pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, the nation's largest oil field.
...
BP's 2007 plea agreement included three years of probation and $20 million in fines and restitution.
In the petition filed in November, Barnes, the probation officer, said BP violated its probation when it failed to take action on warning signs that the Lisburne pipeline was compromised months before it leaked. The company's conduct was negligent under state law and the federal Clean Water Act, according to Barnes.
Feinberg owns up to claims inconsistencies but promises more transparency. I wouldn't wish Feinberg's job on my worst enemy but I wish he would have been much quicker in providing more transparency about the claims process and providing Gulf victims assistance in filing their claims.
The administrator of the fund paying claims related to the BP oil spill acknowledged inconsistencies in payments Monday but said rules providing greater transparency will be released within two weeks.
Ken Feinberg told the USA TODAY editorial board that inconsistencies are unavoidable in a process that has paid 170,000 claims worth $2.5 billion. But he also said neighbors comparing notes about payments might not be familiar with how each claim was resolved.
"I'm not biased against you," Feinberg, independent administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, said of a hypothetical conversation with a Gulf resident. "Your next-door neighbor had different circumstances, different documentation, different facts — so your next-door neighbor got Y and you got X."
...
"I don't need a CPA to bring all that documentation to me in a wheelbarrow, but don't come to me with nothing — that we do everything here with a handshake," Feinberg said.
...
Tempers are flaring because most claims haven't been paid. Of about 450,000 filed, Feinberg said 125,000 arrived with no documentation — resulting in automatic rejection — and another 100,000 came in with "woefully inadequate" paperwork.
About 2,500 claims appeared fraudulent. Fifty of those have been referred to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. Hundreds more may follow.
...
Questions involving eligibility and documentation are Feinberg's toughest challenges.
Eligibility is clear for commercial fishermen unable to earn a living because of the spill, and for a hotel with oil on its beachfront. He said he initially denied claims from distant hotels claiming lost tourism because of news coverage of the spill but has since paid $200 million in claims from hotels as far away as Tampa and St. Petersburg.
"I don't think a court would ever recognize that claim. It's too far away," Feinberg said. "Nevertheless, I paid those claims."
...
Keither Overton, chief operating officer of TradeWinds Island Resorts and chairman of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, praised Feinberg Monday after complaining in the past about slow payments. He said the claims fund has paid $1.3 million to condominium owners on St. Petersburg beach.
...
"Eligibility is Solomonic at the end of the day," Feinberg said. "You've got to decide who's eligible and who isn't."
Feinberg also cited three examples of tourism-related claims he's rejected: chiropractors who say they've lost fishermen as patients, beer distributors to coastal restaurants, and golf courses 10 miles inland.
"No court is going to recognize that claim," Feinberg said of a restaurant in Idaho complaining they couldn't sell shrimp scampi. "There's got to be some limits."
Documenting losses is another major challenge for claimants. Feinberg plans to release more details within two weeks about how he assesses claims.
There's a promise of quick payment, but no easy choice for coastal businessman For some people it may work out better to take the quick-pay claim than content with the hassle of a lawsuit. h/t Phil s 33
Like so many others along the Gulf, Chad Breland has a decision to make.
Breland is an independent distributor selling Bunny brand bread products to restaurants, grocers and convenience store operators in Gulf Shores.
...
The payment also means that Breland is among the 168,000 individuals or businesses that could, with little additional effort, snag another payment from Ken Feinberg's claims organization. Anyone who, like Breland, got at least one emergency payment can now opt for a quick-pay claim of $5,000 for individuals or $25,000 for businesses. To take the money, he must walk away from the claims process going forward and agree not to sue BP PLC or any other company involved in the well that spewed oil into the Gulf....
In his estimation, some businesses got "railroaded" and some people collected more than they deserved.
...
In the end, the $25,000, Breland said last week, isn't likely to make him whole. But it is worth thinking about.
"If for nothing else, for peace of mind, it is in the ballpark," he said. "To not have that aggravation over the next 18 months or two years .... it would almost be worth it to take it and say, 'It's over and done with.'"
Feinberg's paints a rosy picture for the Gulf's recovery. Given the less than stellar job he has done managing BP's fund for victims it would seem that Mr. Feinberg would be doing himself and everyone else a favor by tidying his own house before expounding on subjects for which he lacks qualifications to speak. I can't recall any scientist outside of government who does not share Greenpeace's, Davies, views on the subject.
The long-term impact of the Gulf Coast disaster could be relatively minor, and the Gulf is likely to fully recover from the April oil spill, the government-appointed compensation chief said Monday.
Speaking to USA TODAY's Editorial Board in a year-end interview, Ken Feinberg said his optimistic prediction is based on opinions the government has solicited from experts.
"We're asking everybody right now, scientists, biologists, give us your best estimate ... of the status of the Gulf," Feinberg said. "We're hearing right now, not much long-term adverse impact."
Kert Davies, director of research for the environmental group Greenpeace, says Feinberg's assessment is premature.
"We're talking about a very complex system, and it's impossible to say there's minimal long-term impact at this point," Davies said.
Scientist are still collecting data, he said. "I don't think we'll understand the full extent of the impact for five or 10 years."
A local is patrolling Plaquemines Parish to check for any new oil. This is an intersesting profile piece but it does leave one wondering why someone with a scientific eduction and some experience is completely missing from this monitoring picture.
Then off she roars, a singular woman named Albertine Marie Kimble, guiding her airboat across the grass and into the precious marsh waters, where she is most at home. An honor guard of green-winged teal ducks rises to greet her, the only resident of this southeastern Louisiana spot called Carlisle.
...
She is not an oil rigger, or an oysterman, or a shrimper. She is the coastal program manager for Plaquemines Parish, tending to its wounded banks. She is also the parish itself, rooted generations-deep in its soft soil, an outdoorswoman living in a remote mobile home raised nine feet off the ground by creosote poles and galvanized girders.
...
Imagine, too, her reaction to the lawsuit filed last week by the federal government, alleging that BP and other companies had not used the safest drilling technology, and had failed to take proper precautions. It’s all about the money, she says in disgust. All about testosterone. All about — lack of maintenance.
...
The Louisiana coast already has profound problems with erosion — with the vanishing of land — thanks to several factors: The great Mississippi River flood of 1927. The water-diversion projects that altered the delivery of the river’s silt and freshwater, allowing Gulf of Mexico saltwater to eat away at the protective marsh grass. The wells and boat canals carved into the marshes by oil companies over the decades.
Then came the oil spill, insidious now in its quiet presence. Ms. Kimble recently went out to examine the aftermath, from the brown, dead marsh grass in Bay Jimmy to the malodorous oil found with a shovel’s nudge in the beach sad at South Pass. The ducks rising in her honor may be virgin white, but what dark damage has been done beneath the water’s surface? To the shrimp, the oysters, the marsh grass that provides coastal protection?
“Where did it go?” she asks about the oil. “Can you account for all of it?”
USDA will be offering subsidies for shrimpers. The BP black monster has been a serious blow to Gulf shrimping, already struggling due to imports. The market share of imported shrimp is surprising considering the poor to nonexistent safety standards many countries have.
For several hours one day last week, about 20 Gulf Coast shrimpers sat indoors on an unusually warm December morning in lower St. Bernard Parish, learning about a program that could net them $12,000 apiece in subsidies because of increased shrimp imports, smaller domestic catches and plummeting shrimp prices in the past five years.
It is the first time the U.S. Department of Agriculture has offered the subsidy program since Hurricane Katrina, and it's doing so because of the downturn in Gulf and South Atlantic states' shrimp catch and value.
More than 14,000 Louisianians, including about 800 from the New Orleans area, signed up by Sept. 23 for the first round of the program. The deadline for the second and final round is Thursday.
Even before the tumult caused by the spill, the past decade has seen massive declines in the domestic shrimp industry, with the annual catch falling from 322 million pounds in 2000 to 212 million pounds in 2008.
Meanwhile, the price per pound dropped from $2.78 in 2000 to $1.66 in 2008, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and an April paper prepared by Texas economists for the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, which runs the assistance program.
During that same eight-year period, annual imports jumped from 625 million pounds to 948 million, according to the economists' study.
Rex Caffey, director of the LSU Center for Natural Resource Economics and Policy, said that 20 years ago, 80 percent of shrimp consumed in the United States came from domestic producers, with 20 percent imported. Now, those numbers are reversed.
As a result, imports end up setting the price.
Minerals Management Service rebuffed Congress on BP Atlantis and offshore drilling concerns before Gulf oil blowout So far, there has been no indication that I've seen in the media that the renamed MMS (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement) has had a change of heart about the necessity of having "as-built" documents available on deepwater drilling rigs. h/t Google Doc News Doc
The New York Times reported on December 16 that the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which is charged with overseeing the safety of offshore drilling, was unresponsive to inquiries from members of Congress months before the BP Deepwater Horizon oil blowout, including concerns based on whistleblower disclosures about BP’s Atlantis deepwater drilling platform. This case exemplifies why, for government accountability, we need whistleblowers and freedom of information to document mismanagement and policy failures that the government would prefer to keep secret.
...
A staff member with the House Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee “pressed the agency about BP’s engineering plans and ‘as-built’ drawings for the Atlantis platform. He was told that “regulations do not require any qualified experts to verify the documents.” In their complaint, Food and Water Watch and Abbott [fired whistleblower BP Atlantis project manager] disagreed with MMS’s conclusion that “as-built” documentation was not required for the platform components in question. Pursuant to the Submerged Land Act, they petitioned for the suspension of BP’s lease to operate the rig, based on the “threat of serious, irreparable, or immediate harm or damage to life…or to the marine, coastal or human environment” posed by the faulty safety certifications.
The plaintiffs note that “BP management had been aware of the documentation problems in August 2008 and likely earlier,” and that Abbott’s predecessor acknowledged in an internal e-mail that the use of incomplete, unapproved drawings “could lead to catastrophic Operator errors due to their assuming that the drawing is correct. Turning over incomplete drawings to the Operator for their use is a fundamental violation of basic Document Control…and process safety regulations.”
...
The House passed the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act of 2010 (H.R. 5851) in June, which would extend protection from retaliation to workers blowing the whistle on health and safety violations on offshore rigs. A companion bill has not been introduced in the Senate.
Records Show Concerns About Another BP Rig Many in Congress were very concerned that BP's Atlantis was being operated without having as-built documents available. h/t Google Doc News Doc
Months before the BP disaster, some Congressional officials were pressing federal regulators behind the scenes about numerous safety concerns related to offshore drilling, potential oil spills and BP itself, but they complained that they were rebuffed, previously undisclosed documents show.
...
When officials at the agency told members of Congress in 2009 that they could not specifically respond to concerns about the potential for a “catastrophic” accident on a second BP rig off New Orleans, known as the Atlantis, some staff members were livid at what they viewed as stonewalling.
“Just so I have this straight,” an aide to Representative Sander M. Levin, a Michigan Democrat, wrote in an e-mail to a mineral agency official, “I am to tell my boss that M.M.S. has nothing to say about this Atlantis business” beyond the general comments it had already made?
The e-mail and other recent correspondence between federal regulators and Congressional officials were among more than 5,400 pages of documents that the Interior Department turned over to The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
http://www.businesswire.com/... ACE wants to deny coverage on the basis of the Deepwater Horizon being a watercraft. It's been surprising that there haven't been more stories on the effect the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe has had on the insurance industries current views on insuring deepwater drilling. h/t Google Doc News Doc
ACE Insurance Litigation Watch, the online repository for lawsuits against the ACE Insurance Group, today reported that ACE American Insurance Company (NYSE: ACE) has sued its policyholder, M-I LLC., to deny coverage related to the BP Oil Spill. M-I is a global offshore oil drilling professional services provider that was working under contract to BP on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform. ACE sold general commercial liability and Workers’ Compensation policies to M-I that were in effect when the oil rig caught fire with M-I personnel onboard. M-I has been named in numerous lawsuits in the oil spill’s aftermath.
...
For its part, M-I contends that since such a primary component of its business involves professional services relating to offshore oil rigs, if ACE American’s policy interpretations are correct, “ACE took substantial premiums from M-I for years in return for illusory coverage.”
The Mobile Press-Register editorial board thinks that a recipe contest is just the ticket to enthuse Alabamians about promoting Gulf seafood. I wonder why it never occurs to the Gulf seafood industry cheerleaders that totally transparent testing approved by a panel of world-class scientists might be a better idea. It sure makes one wonder if they believe the seafood would have trouble passing such a test.
WITH GOV. Bob Riley committed to creating the Alabama Fisheries Marketing Board, it’s time to start thinking about making it as effective as possible.
One excellent place to start is with the website of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board: www.louisianaseafood.com. The site is tourist-friendly and offers many ideas that can be adapted for Alabama when the new board comes together.
...
Beyond crisis management, the site includes simple, common-sense promotional guides. They include a "Seafood Finder" to help buyers locate local suppliers in retail, dockside and wholesaler categories. There’s a section for recipes and a "Seafood Handbook" addressing everything from what to look for when buying seafood to how to eat crawfish and crabs.
One way to get Alabamians involved in the new board could be a recipe contest, with the winners featured in promotional material and a website.
The Corporation on Public Broadcasting has awarded Alabama State University's radio station, WVAS, a $25,000 grant to cover the aftermath of BP's oil spill. The story indicates that the grant will allow WVAS to be a part of a consortium of public radio and television statements who will be doing the same thing.
The Corporation on Public Broadcasting (CPB) awarded the grant to the university's radio station to help inform the public about the permanent consequences to the BP oil rig explosion that gushed more that 200 million gallons into the Gulf Coast, impacting the region's coastal areas in since May.
...
Known as "The Voice of Alabama State University," station reporters will look at the economic, social and political ramifications of the oil spill.
BP is planning to sell Canadian natural gas liquids business to help offset spill costs.
British oil company BP is planning to sell its natural gas liquids business in Canada to manage various financial impacts of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The assets include pipelines and processing facilities that strip out crude-like liquids from gas.
The asset sale is part of the company's move to raise up to $30bn by the end of 2011 to pay for the compensation and clean-up costs of the oil spill.
Analysts are speculating about a BP takeover by Exxon or Shell. A pox on all their houses but it's hard to imagine that even Exxon or Shell could manage a more atrocious safety track record than BP. h/t Google Doc News Doc
BP shares have fallen back following news that the US government had issued a lawsuit relating to the Gulf of Mexico disaster, prompting talk of a fine of up to $20bn and total costs relating to the spillage of $40bn.
But American legal action could ultimately lead to an American takeover of the company, analysts suggested. BP shares climbed earlier this week on speculation of Middle Eastern stakebuilding or alternatively a bid from Royal Dutch Shell, but yesterday Exxon Mobil was put back into the frame as a possible predator. JP Morgan Cazenove said:
BP trades on a proven reserve multiple that is equal to Exxon Mobil's 10-year average finding and development cost and is 30% cheaper than its peers...buy or build?
PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!
Previous Gulf Watcher diaries:
The last Mothership has links to reference material.
Previous motherships and ROV's from this extensive live blog effort may be found here.
Again, to keep bandwidth down, please do not post images or videos.