ENERGY EVERYWHERE

Think Keystone Pipeline.

UGH! NOT AGAIN

From the New York Times:

An ExxonMobil pipeline running under the Yellowstone River in south central Montana ruptured late Friday, spilling crude oil into the river and forcing evacuations.

The pipeline burst about 10 miles east of Billings, coating parts of the Yellowstone River that run past Laurel — a town of about 6,500 people downstream from the rupture — with shiny patches of oil. Precisely how much oil leaked into the river was still unclear. But throughout the day Saturday, cleanup crews in Laurel worked to lessen the impact of the spill, laying down absorbent sheets along the banks of the river to mop up some of the escaped oil, and measuring fumes to determine the health threat.

Yes, again ...and again, and again and again.

Clean up the mess, guys.

Thanks to Ann.

IT'S NOT JUST THE DEEP WELLS...

From NOLA.com:

A large sheen of oil that has confounded the Coast Guard and state officials for days has been traced to a well-capping accident about 20 miles southwest of Southwest Pass, a state official said.

A state official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a continuing Coast Guard investigation, said the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries traced the emulsified oil to West Delta Block 117. He said tests by a state-contracted lab confirmed that was the source of the oil.

Wildlife and Fisheries officials found the source of the oil Monday evening and encountered workers in a boat trying to restore a cap on the well using a remotely operated submarine.

"Well-capping went out of control," the state official said.
....

At a news conference earlier Tuesday, Coast Guard officials said only between ¼- and ½-mile of beach was directly affected by oily material within the 30-mile stretch between Grand Isle and West Timbalier Island where the sheen and emulsified oil has been seen.

Why didn't the company that owned the well report the the accident? Why must the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries people and the Coast Guard play detective to find out where the oil is coming from?

Although, "only between ¼- and ½-mile of beach was directly affected by oily material", we may not yet know the end of the story.

UPDATE: From NOLA.com:

Responding to reports of a 10-mile-long slick from a second Gulf of Mexico oil spill, federal officials said "small amounts of oil" have been leaking from wells that were connected to a production platform destroyed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

An average of less than 14 gallons per day have been leaking from the wells about 10 miles off the southeastern Louisiana coast, said Kendra Barkoff, a federal Interior Department spokeswoman.

Oh well. Just a small leak. The truth is that oil is always leaking into the Gulf, because the well caps tend to erode in the salt water. What? Me worry?

TONY HAYWARD - NOT OUR IDOL

From the Guardian:

The former boss of BP admitted last night that the oil giant had been completely unprepared for the Gulf of Mexico accident that nearly sank it financially.

When the crisis hit, BP was forced to make up its oil spill disaster response as it went along, something that made it look "fumbling" and "incompetent" in the eyes of the public, said Tony Hayward.

"Embarrassingly we found ourselves having to improvise on prime-time TV and slap bang in the middle of the glare of the global media.

"Our efforts involved amazing feats of engineering – tasks completed in days that would normally take months, numerous major innovations with lasting benefits.

"But because every move was scrutinised around the world, what the public thought they saw was fumbling and incompetence."

No! You made it up as you went along? Really?

But BP was not the only company at risk from such an event, he added. "The whole industry had been lulled into a sense of false security after 20 years of drilling in deep water without a serious accident, till now," said Hayward, in criticism which will be challenged by oil rivals who have tried to distance themselves from the behaviour of the British oil group.

The other oil companies did it, too?

"For me perhaps the most shattering reflection was just how much havoc can be wreaked by a single accident in one small part of a giant company's operations — an accident moreover that all our corporate deliberations had told us simply could not happen," he said. "For BP this was the ultimate low-probability, high-impact event – a black swan to borrow a term used in the financial crisis."

And now we all know that the impossible happens.

Our federal agencies, especially the Minerals Management Service, are not off the hook. The MMS allowed the oil companies to write the regulations for the service which was established to regulate the oil companies. And the service did not follow up with sufficient inspections to see if the companies followed the rules that they had written.

He told the BBC in a documentary screened on Tuesday night that he would have needed to study drama at RADA rather than geology at Edinburgh University if he had wanted to perform better in front of a hostile US public.

Heh, heh.

Which public would that be? Mainly the public who live on or near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. True, Tony, you are not our Gulf Coast Idol.

Thanks to Cathy for the link.