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Part one of the digest of diaries is here and part two is here.
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Having laid waste to the internal security of the Pentagon and State Department*, WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, now turn their attentions and hacking skills to our corporate overlords. Now that's entertainment. In addition to a reputedly enormous amount of Bank of America data (I hope they sink them, having a deep, personal grudge), Assange has confirmed that they have also acquired a great deal of weathered oil dirt on BP.
(*And just this morning, as this AUV was being composed, comes news of a new WikiDump on Saudis funding terrorists, China hacking Google, an unholy alliance between Yemen and the US, and a dubious report (so far only by FOX) that Assange has a "poison pill" of a data cache. "Assange warns that any government that tries to curtail his activities risks triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets.")
It must be hard for Wikileaks to come to come up with an appropriate second act.[...] But Wikileaks must... if it hopes to maintain its "Big Brother" global role.
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Shares of Bank of America stock dropped on the New York Stock Exchange this week, as fears that the company could become the next target sunk in.
Another controversial Euro-American corporate giant also has reason to fear.
BP p.l.c., an English company whose largest division is in the U.S., is reportedly also to be targeting by Mr. Assange's information attacks. He claimed in the Forbes interview to have "lots" of secret BP data, and was merely trying to verify if it was all unique and unreleased.
One has to wonder, though, if the public may be somewhat apathetic to a BP leak after how much the company was lashed in the media following its notorious oil spill. Nonetheless, the threat dropped BP shares down 2.5 percent on Monday, following the announcement (share prices have since risen back to around their previous trading levels).
Apathetic? Really? Anyone here feeling apathetic?
Back in February, Switzerland's Bank Julius Baer struck back and, at least temporarily, struck down WikiLeaks:
According to a WikiLeaks report hosted on one of the site’s many mirrors, attorneys representing Bank Julius Baer held a surprise hearing to force the site’s host, Dynadot, to delete the WikiLeaks.org domain name and prevent its transfer to another registrar.
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When WikiLeaks asked the firm that sent the request for further information, discussions took a confrontational tone. "You have no legal right to demand advance knowledge of the name of our client and the documents at issue," wrote Lavely & Singer attorney Evan Spiegel, "your site promotes, encourages and facilitates the publication and distribution of stolen, illegally and/or tortiously obtained corporate records."
"You act at your own peril. Govern yourselves accordingly," wrote Spiegel.
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WikiLeaks said the injunction was written by Bank Julius Baer’s lawyers and accepted by a California district court judge without additional amendments.
[WikiLeaks’ pre-ligitation attorney, Julie] Turner said she was surprised at the unusual legal request: "It’s like saying that Time magazine published one page of sensitive material so [someone can] seize the entire magazine and put a lock on their presses," she said.
Whether BP will decide to further drain their coffers fighting whatever Assange makes public will be a close call. BP is, even in the face of their absurd insistence that they revere safety above all else, still trying to restore their sullied public image. On the other hand, the Macondo blowout is eating through their billions at a rate as titanic as their pre-spill profit margin.
It all started with an interview Assange gave to Forbes:
Speaking from an undisclosed location in London this week, Assange told Forbes that WikiLeaks’ coming disclosures will include information on BP.
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[Forbes:] You’ve alluded to coming disclosures from WikiLeaks. Will there be more on BP?
Assange: We’ve had many submissions come to us on BP. We haven’t published those yet, but they’re coming. Some of these have already begun to surface in the mainstream press.
The Zimbabwe Mail quoted the Forbes interview slightly differently:
[Forbes:] You once said to one of my colleagues that WikiLeaks has material on BP. What have you got?
[Assange:] We’ve got lots now, but we haven’t determined how much is original. There’s been a lot of press on the BP issue, and lawyers, and people are pulling out a lot of stuff. So I suspect the material we have on BP may not be that original. We’ll have to see whether our stuff is especially unique.
We'll be waiting with bated breath.
*****
The Oil Spill Commission is reportedly about to recommend a major change in how the Department of the Interior handles oversight of offshore drilling.
Chiefly, the commission staff is recommending that the inspection of drilling operations, and oversight of the safety and environmental soundness of those operations, be placed in the hands of the an independent safety and environment authority, run by a non-political administrator with a fixed five-year term who could either report directly to the Secretary of the Interior or operate outside his jurisdiction.
Shirley Neff, the senior analyst for the commission who presented the staff recommendation on the proposed reorganization, said it was necessary to create "a safety regulator not subject to being revoked or overruled" and that would have "one mandate, and that is the safety and technical integrity of these facilities, and this is crucial to avoiding spills."
[...]Neff said the real cross-pressure on effective safety regulation was not cohabiting in the same bureau with the revenue-collectors, which she described as a pretty straightforward operation, but co-existing in the same bureau with those responsible for issuing the leases and permits.
[...] Terry Garcia, a member of the commission who is executive vice president for mission programs for the National Geographic Society, said, to work, the new office would have to be led by "someone who can't be removed at the will of the Secretary of the Interior," and there would also have to be "some way of protecting its budget."
"If that budget is subject to department control[...] and if you want to stop the agency, just dial down its budget," said Garcia, who also expressed concern that rig workers be provided with the kind of protections that would enable them to "hold up their hands and stay 'stop,'" when they see safety being compromised, without fear of reprisals.
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Neff said that the problem with the old Minerals Management Service wasn't so much that that employees didn't want to properly regulate the oil and gas industry, but rather that the industry pushed Congress into assuming the "industry could police itself." That had a "chilling effect" on regulators, Neff said.
Bob Graham, the former Florida Democratic senator who co-chairs the panel, again criticized the Senate for not passing legislation giving the panel subpoena power. But he credited the commission's dogged staff with uncovering previously unknown documents, despite the lack of authority subpoena power would have provided.
*****
Like sands through the hourglass, so BP finds more and better ways to kill the planet. Specifically in Canada's oil sands -- containing the largest untapped quantities of oil outside Saudi Arabia.
Fortune, ever the proponent of finance over environment, says:
BP needs low-hanging fossil fuel fruit. After the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, the company has tarnished its offshore exploration reputation... So it's time for BP to get unconventional.
And tar sands oil is definitely an unconventional petroleum deposit. The oil there is bitumen. "Bitumenis a thick, sticky form of crude oil, so heavy and viscous (thick) that it will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons. At room temperature, it is much like cold molasses."
Extracting bitumen may be the most ecologically disastrous process in the oil and gas industry. Not that Fortunemuch cares:
Traditionally, BP has steered clear of gleaning petroleum products from the oil sands in North America's frozen north. Part of that, [Fadel] Gheit [a senior analyst with Oppenheimer & Co.] says, is because BP has considered itself an exploration company above all else. "Exploration is always the sexy part of the business -- it's high risk."
Yeah. I'm positively breathless.
But now, Canadian tar sands are starting to look much more attractive to the oil giant. Unlike wells designed to pump crude, oil sands don't have the same production decline rate. Oil sand deposits are easier to access than crude from offshore wells. Deposits sit on top of the earth, and they're composed of clay, sand and a dense form of petroleum that clumps like sod and crumbles.
The heavy petroleum in deposits is expensive to process, and companies need several years to fully develop profitable drilling and production facilities. "It's just a very boring operation, it's like watching grass grow," Gheit says. "But once you get it developed, it's a piggy bank."
Oil companies can produce Canadian tar sands for under $30 per barrel. That's plenty profitable if the market price of oil stays at $60-$70 per barrel. Oil sand deposits can consistently produce petroleum products for around 50 years.
BP, yielding to shareholders with a more environmentally conscientious bent, hadn't ventured into oil sands until now.
"Before the oil spill, BP was cultivating an image of a very environmentally progressive, socially responsible, civic-minded oil company," [Pavel] Molchanov [research analyst with Raymond James & Associates] says."Of course, that got pretty much destroyed." The company, if not embracing its darker image, at least seems to be finding ways to capitalize on it.
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Not that BP will turn its attention from offshore. The company is still the leading driller in the Gulf, and operates more leases there than any other company. But choosing Canadian oil sands as the first major project since the spill is a smart move, says Gheit. It will make money, Canada's government is stable and friendly and there will be no need for remote-operated underwater robots to shut down a faulty blowout preventer.
And who initially came up with this latest jaunt into planetary homicide? Why, tony Tony Hayward, that rascal. Pity he's not around to see it come to (low-hanging) fruition.
The decision to move ahead with Canadian oil sands development marks the first major investment by BP since the Gulf of Mexico spill.
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Aboriginal Canadians have expressed concern that there are major health and environmental risks associated with metals tied to oil sands in the region. Their complaints were challenged by the oil industry and the Canadian government, which said the high levels of metals in the region were linked to natural processes, not the activity of oil sands mining.
They're not alone in their concerns.
Scientists and fishermen say oil sands development in western Canada appears to be causing disease and genetic mutations in freshwater fish.
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Raymond Ladouceur, who has been fishing Lake Athabasca and the Athabasca River for more than five decades, pointed out fish with deformed heads or tails and areas of brown flesh as well as whitefish colored pink. Ladouceur said he first noticed deformation in fish about 20 years ago.
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A letter was sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking for a study on the effect of oil sands development on the Athabasca watershed. The signatories included fishermen, environmentalists, area residents and members of Indian tribes.
"Fishers have noted that the incidence and frequency of unhealthy fish within their catch has increased substantially over time," the letter said.
Dave Ealey, a spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said provincial officials believe the current monitoring program works well. He said unusual numbers of deformed fish have not been found.
Fish aren't alone in the devastation:
Provincial officials say about 230 birds landed in a tailings pond at Syncrude's facility Monday night, and Syncrude said the birds were euthanized after contact with the pond's toxic bitumen-extraction byproducts...
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A "small number of oiled birds" were euthanized on the advice of Alberta fish and wildlife authorities, Suncor officials announced, while Shell reported finding two dead birds and two other oiled birds in its tailing pond.
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[Said Scott Sullivan, Syncrude president and chief executive officer:] "This is very unfortunate, especially given the significant efforts we have taken to improve our deterrent system."
The deaths of the ducks at Syncrude's pond came just days after Syncrude agreed to pay a $3 million penalty for the deaths of 1,600 ducks in another tailings pond in April 2008, CBC News reported.
A spokesman for Greenpeace said the industry should stop using tailings ponds.
"The fact is that these toxic tailings lakes pose an ongoing threat, not just to bird populations but to animals and to downstream communities as well," Greenpeace Alberta campaigner Mike Hudema said.
Ever one to overreact on behalf of American industry, Lindsey Graham takes exception to oil sands being referred to as "dirty oil."
"That's one of the myths being perpetrated," Graham said of the "dirty oil" tag. "It's oil I feel very comfortable Americans consuming."
"Dirty oil and dangerous oil come from rogue regimes in the Mideast. The oil coming from Alberta in my view is not only acceptably clean, it is safe," Graham told CBC News.
"Dirty to me would be oil that you buy from parts of the world where the people that sell it to you hate your guts and part of the money winds up in the hands of terrorists," he said.
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"I'm seeing firsthand the place that provides America more oil than Saudi Arabia and Iran combined," Graham said. "I'm seeing reclaimed areas that used to be mined that looked pretty much like the natural landscape."
Hard to know what to say after that. But here are some chilling facts from Wikipedia:
Making liquid fuels from oil sands requires energy for steam injection and refining. This process generates two to four times the amount of greenhouse gases per barrel of final product as the production of conventional oil. If combustion of the final products is included, the so-called "Well to Wheels" approach, oil sands extraction, upgrade and use emits 10 to 45% more greenhouse gases than conventional crude.
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Oil sands projects affect: the land when the bitumen is initially mined and with large deposits of toxic chemicals; the water during the separation process and through the drainage of rivers; and the air due to the release of carbon dioxide and other emissions, as well as deforestation. [...] Heavy metals such as vanadium, nickel, lead, cobalt, mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, copper, manganese, iron and zinc are present in oil sands.
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A large part of oil sands mining operations involves clearing trees and brush from a site and removing the "overburden" — the topsoil, muskeg, sand, clay and gravel — that sits atop the oil sands deposit. Approximately two tons of oil sands are needed to produce one barrel of oil (roughly 1/8 of a ton). As a condition of licensing, projects are required to implement a reclamation plan. The mining industry asserts that the boreal forest will eventually colonize the reclaimed lands, but that their operations are massive and work on long-term timeframes. As of 2006/2007 (the most recent data available), about 420 km2 (160 sq mi) of land in the oil sands region have been disturbed, and 65 km2 (25 sq mi) of that land is under reclamation.
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Between 2 to 4.5 volume units of water are used to produce each volume unit of synthetic crude oil (SCO) in an ex-situ mining operation. Despite recycling, almost all of it ends up in tailings ponds, which, as of 2007, covered an area of approximately 50 km2 (19 sq mi)[...] Large amounts of water are used for oil sands operations – Greenpeace gives the number as 349 million cubic metres per year, twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary.
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The production of bitumen and synthetic crude oil emits more greenhouse gas (GHG) than the production of conventional crude oil, and has been identified as the largest contributor to GHG emissions growth in Canada, as it accounts for 40 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
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Environment Canada completed a study that shows high deformity rates in fish embryos exposed to the oil sands... Scientists, local doctors, and residents supported a letter sent to the Prime Minister in September 2010 calling for an independent study of Lake Athabasca (which is downstream of the oil sands) to be initiated due to the rise of deformities and tumors found in fish caught there.
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Oil sands extraction is generally held to be more environmentally damaging than conventional crude oil — carbon dioxide "well-to-pump" emissions, for example, are estimated to be about 1.3-1.7 times that of conventional crude.
*****
If BP is so good at this technology, why wasn't it employed on the Deepwater Horizon?
[...]BP Chemicals is using its GasFindIR cameras for the visualisation and documentation of gas leaks.
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[...I]t is largely with personnel safety in mind that BP Chemicals took a fresh look at how FLIR [Forward-Looking Infrared (Radar)] thermal imaging technology could help minimise leaks.
Effective leak detection is of course a priority at BP Chemicals and one of a number of procedures for ensuring safe operation.
Three FLIR GasFindIR cameras were employed to check plant integrity at the Saltend site. Designed for outdoor use the FLIR GasfindIR HSX camera was used to detect a range of gases including methane and methanol that are both predominant at the UK plant. In addition, a long wave (LW) version of the camera was used for detecting acetic acid, acetic anhydride and ammonia, three of the total of eight products processed at Saltend. Completing the set was a FLIR GasFindIR model specifically designed to detect carbon monoxide (CO) - a colourless, odourless but highly poisonous gas.
Although some process areas of BP Chemicals at Saltend are nearly 30 years old the site is exceptionally well maintained and this was born out by the relatively few emissions detected during the IR survey. Nevertheless all three cameras acquitted themselves well by pinpointing several gas leaks.
*****
Starting Monday, researchers will begin a 9-day search for oil on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico near the site of the BP Macondo well disaster, and the public will be able to watch daily updates of their work.
The expedition, to be conducted by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, will be documented on the institute's Dive and Discover Web site. Woods Hole is the largest private nonprofit oceanographic institution in the world, and is located on Cape Cod, Mass. The research will continue through Dec. 14.
Scientists will be investigating the effects that oil released during the massive Deepwater Horizon disaster has had on sea life, as well as the dispersants used to turn the oil into tiny droplets.
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The unmanned underwater vehicle Sentry will map and photograph areas of the Gulf floor during overnight missions, and its results will be used to plan research stops for the Alvin.
The Sentry was used during a Woods Hole cruise in June to collect samples from a layer of water about 3,000 feet below the surface. Based on the samples, scientists characterized a plume of hydrocarbons at least 22 miles long that was determined to be a residue of the Macondo oil release, the worst in the country's history.
The scientists also will pick up samples collected by sediment trap devices placed on the Gulf bottom in June. The samples join others collected from similar instruments between September 2009 and June that researchers hope will show how contamination on the bottom has changed over time.
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The researchers will provide daily updates of the cruise, including still and video images from the Gulf bottom and aboard the Atlantis.
*****
BP and "oil spill" were the phrases most entered in search engines this year. For decades, celebrities held that often dubious honor, but the greatest environmental disaster in US history managed to elbow aside teenage singers and those who dwell in the unreality of Reality TV.
Which makes it look like an even more shrewd move that BP bought up every relevant search term in cyberspace back in June.
A simple Google search of "oil spill" turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. "Learn more about how BP is helping," the link's tagline reads.
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"We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf and make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer," BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News.
But several search engine marketing experts are questioning BP's intentions, suggesting that controlling what the public finds when they look online for oil spill information is just another way for the company to try and rebuild the company's suffering public image.
According to Kevin Ryan, the CEO of California-based Motivity Marketing, research shows that most people can't tell the difference between a [sic] paid result pages, like the ones BP have, and actual news pages.
"If you look at it from BP's perspective it's a brilliant move," Ryan said. "The other option BP had was to just not do this and let the news interpret what's going on.
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On Google, paid results are awarded to the highest bidder.
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Scott Slatin, an analyst who runs search engine marketing company Rivington in New York, estimates the company is paying upwards of $10,000 per day to maintain the various search terms.
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But for BP, who some have estimated will spend billions on cleanup from the spill, paying for these search terms is hardly significant.
"In the grand scheme of doing damage control in a negative situation like this, keyword costs are very marginal," Ryan said.
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"The search terms, everything, it's probably not a bad idea for the company to do," he said. "Is it right? Is buying these terms ethical? That's another question."
"In any crisis response situation, one of the first things you do is look at what's happening on Google -- it's a pretty cut and dry tactical move," said Kent Jarrell, a senior vice president at Washington consulting firm APCO Worldwide who handles crisis management. "I do it with all of my clients, because if we aren't buying the terms, somebody else is."
And my favorite report:
This means it's now easy to 'Learn more about how BP is helping.'
BP claim that paying to be ranked top of any searches is purely in our interest. "The reason we've been doing this is to make information on the leak more accessible, so it's easier to find key information," claims a spokesperson.
Bless.
Piss-taking Twitter feed @bpglobalPR wasted no time in slamming the petrol giant, Tweeting:
"We're paying Google a lot of money to make sure you only have access to the best possible info on the oil spill: our info."
"Proud to announce we've partnered with Google to turn the Information Superhighway into a Corporate Bus Route".
"We bought google, bing gave 100k to help. Come on yahoo! Buy $100,000 worth of free "bp cares" t-shirts!"
BP is none to [sic] happy about the mock feed, prompting US comic Jimmy Fallon to quip:
"BP wants Twitter to shut down a fake BP account that is mocking the oil company. In response, Twitter wants BP to shut down the oil leak that's ruining the ocean."
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:
12-03-10 08:04:57 Gulf Watchers Friday - Drop Back and Punt - BP Catastrophe AUV #435 - Lorinda Pike
12-01-10 09:13:29 Gulf Watchers Wednesday - 1990 Act of Congress Should Have Prevented Spill - BP Catastrophe AUV #434 - Yasuragi
11-29-10 16:56:01 Gulf Watchers Monday - Fire Feinberg says one Gulf newspaper - BP Catastrophe AUV #43 - shanesnana
11-28-10 08:04:42 Gulf Watchers Sunday - More Agencies Point Fingers at BP - BP Catastrophe AUV #432 - Yasuragi
The last Mothership has links to reference material.
Previous motherships and ROV's from this extensive live blog effort may be found here.
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