Crude Oil and Snake Oil
-Dr. Thomas Sowell
http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=166913
This guy has got a lot of nerve! "The people",especially those in the gulf coastal area have been clamoring for the Pres. to "Do Something" The press keeps hollering ''Do Something, the Gov't has to do something"!. Is he kidding? This thing is being invented as it goes along.
P/B, not an American Company, will either eventually pay the bill or it won't. It has stables full of lawyers right now helping them figure out to get out of paying. Even the escape clauses have escape clauses. There is nothing the Pres. can do now that he isn't already doing. Scientists and Universities from all over are working on this thing. This has no comparable history to use...by anyone! "They" say the Pres. didn't go there soon enough or often enough. To do what? We now know we were lied to about how safe the drilling was and how many unsafe shortcuts were taken in terms of curing time and such because they were behind schedule. That only helps with the next one, doesn't do a thing for now. "He's not angry enough" "they" say. Perhaps he can shoot the CEO? How dumb are these people?
About all anybody can do right now is give some monetary aid to the relatively few people being affected and the anti Gov't group will have strokes over that. After all, why are these folks so special ? People have lost jobs before because of outside influences. Why should my tax money go to help them? What did they ever do for me? Then the author goes rambling off into the same "groan and whine" territory that he has covered so many times before. Dead horse. His brain went on vacation without him?
"P/B, not an American Company", Diane who is P/B.
Everyone seems to ignore the American Company(s) in this well.
;D ;D ;D ;D B/P in a mirror! At least I didn't call them BOC that my brother in law works for. That's what Ii get for not letting my eyes go back to normal after my eye appointment. Good catch! So what American companies are you referring to? Aren't they all pumping again after having passed their safety checks? Or don't you mean off shore?
I mean the American partners in the subject BP well. You know we have drilled lots of wells offshore in the British Sector of the North Sea, and America has used up a lot of British reserves, we seem to forget that the rest of the world has fed our wasteful energy habits. I get so aggravated at the President and news media and their comments, they know absolutely nothing about deepwater drilling. Most of all few people realize the power and problems of a 15,000PSI well a mile under the water.
I didn't know there were American partners. Is that common knowledge? Now, as for the media, you know they always have to have something to say. They have 24 hours a day to fill. I can't imagine trying to drill any thing so far down. I'm rather sorry they tried. Are there any other wells out there even close to as deep? I wish this thing would stop being so caught up in the political part. People died out there. That is being lost.
It was announced shortly after the blowout that Anadarko Petroleum had 25% , in addition it has hurt Trans-Ocean, Haliburton and Cameron International. The major problem wasn't the water depth and I am sure we will drill more wells at this depth and deeper, the problem is a combination of the really high flowing pressure and the depth of the water. Americans are the most energy wasteful Nation on Earth and we continue to be. All of the Automobile delaers in this area are advertising big V-8 trucks and SUVS and people are buying them, my neighbor recently purchased a Hummer, 6MPG in town and 7MPG on the highway.
I tend not to think of Haliburton as an American Company any more, didn't know Trans-Ocean was any more than a company that had been hired by B/P. I didn't know about Anadarko either. Thanks, I always learn things from you.
Why isn't anybody talking about natural gas any more? I thought there was a big push to convert the nation's truck fleet very soon and now I hear nothing. I also thought there were plans for new pipelines coming down from Canada.
Diane, what do you mean Haliburton is not an American Company, it is hedquarted in America, 62% of it's income is generated in America, the entire Board of Directors is American. Trans_Oceran was the Drilling Contractor, their fault and responsibility is still undetermined. Everyone is talking about Natural Gas in the Petroleum Industry, there are many projects to increase the use of Natural Gas, as an example, Tulsa, Oklahoma is buying an entire fleet of city buses that are Natural Gas powered.
The Pipeline from Canada is Trans-Canada and it is an Oil Pipeline that will come to Cushing Oklahoma. There is so much oil backed up in the new Bakken play in North Dakota and in Canadian crude that what few lines are there are being prorated and also new railcar facilities are being built to move oil to Cushing by rail. EOG Resources is moving 60,000 BOPD to Cushing by Rail now. I am very concerned over the runaway well in the Gulf, but I am more concerned that we get la large part of our energy needs from countries that are our enemies that hate us. The Muslim/Arab world will someday use oil as a weapon against us and the Christian world. Our best supply now is from Canada, and our own reserves, yes that means drilling in ANWR and offshore. Americans want 50cent gasoline but they don't want the Petroleum Industry to make any money and they don't want Drilling rigs in our backyard.
It seems that so many people feel that Science and Government, two of today's popular gods , can cure anything. The world is always going to be safe because their gods are on the alert. Every movie, every book ends on the high note with god-men solving all things and creating a brave new world.
But that same arrogant attitude is what has placed the world in the cliff hanging situations it finds itself in now. And those attitudes of selfishness and self satisfaction blind the eye to how very bad things are today. If you add to that the fact that the world, because G-d has not intervened to stop them, seem to think there is no retribution, you can see that the problem runs deep. Do people think that they can go on as they are without answering? I believe that we are now on the brink of very bad things. Not from oil, but from mankind's refusal to acknowledge his own problems and inability to solve them without spiritual help.
Is the oil spill a beginning of a planet killer? It could very well be, though people have become so hardened, so 'know it all' that they may refuse to think about such things. What happens if these gushers cannot be shut off and despite what some bloggers might say, experts are wondering seriously if they can shut them off. As a matter of fact there is talk of using nuclear weapons to close the well with the glass that would form. However, they feel that a nuclear blast may also ignite this huge gushing well and do worse things, including to the population in the Gulf states. If the spill can't be stopped it could destroy much of the world's oceans. If oceans go the planet will go as well. This Well, they say, was deeper than most and the ocean far deeper also. The plumes of oil are rising far from the spill site now and so it is far worse than any one could have thought.
Animals are dying and next will be people from the lethal chemicals being spewed from that well. Benzene is spewing all over. It causes cancer, leukemia and destroys your immune system. Its just one of the many chemicals being unleashed on the Gulf. What if this hits the Gulf Stream. If hurricanes hit this, it will drive things further from the Gulf. "Alex" is forming right now in the Atlantic.
It is a huge problem, without prayer that is. The way this goes will depend not on scientists or government but on the one who created it all. If you are not praying about this, might be nice to get started because the world needs it in so many ways. Last Friday night, a 10 inch pipeline in Utah also burst in the mountains near the University of Utah. It is owned by Chevron. 21,000 gallons have so far gone into rivers and lakes but so far the Great Salt Lake is not effected.
Time for Prayers. ...Warph
Yes !
Frank, I'm sorry I must have the wrong company in mind. I thought Haliburton moved their headquarters, lock stock and barrel to Dubai, so I sort of wrote them off as an American company. I must be thinking of someone else. I also didn't know who Cameron International was either, should have known that one.
I'm glad gas is still alive. We have a lot and it is already ours. Now if more influential people would just get behind the idea and get the business end going to make it practical. I could refuel my car right here at the house. I too wonder about the future. Even the off shore wind farm off our coast has stalled. The one at the Marine studies Dept. of UD at Lewis Del. is the only one that got built. The one surprising thing that did happen, The Delaware City Valero refinery has been purchased and will reopen. I never thought it would.
I have to admit, having been to Alaska, I hate the idea of ANWAR being tapped, but it may be necessary. My question would be, will that oil come down to the lower 48 or would it be sold to Japan or even Russia?
(I think it's interesting that B/P or somebody bought Kevin Costner's centrifugal force oil separator thing.) I do wish the media would stop being so fickle and would help people remember to stop being so energy wasteful.They are very influential in some areas but don't stick with anything for the long haul...except beating up on the Pres. The mainstream media could do a lot, right out front, to keep the pressure on to keep the research on going and keep people's minds on actually doing something. Without a long term national effort people are going to slip back into bad habits, as you say.
The American public will believe anything, if it is put into the hands of the right sales person. T. Boone or someone has got to get on this soon and really sell it to get people on board. tax cuts? prizes? What would make energy responsibility so popular it couldn't fail?
Warph, you're too late, my prayers started the day I heard 11 people had died. They will eventually get this oil under control. It just takes running down the growing check off list of inventions and suggestions until they find the one that works. I saw one that looks interesting, if the huge pressures aren't too much for it. It's a sleeve that that has a valve inside that looks a bit like a stovepipe damper in the open position. It fits inside the existing pipe and then the damper is closed and clicked shut. I even worked on that one in my head, except mine has about 10 of those dampers spaced along the new sleeve. Each one would lock into a position slightly more closed that the previous one until the last one locks it shut entirely. Now if I can come up with an idea, imagine what real inventors can do! I guess the worst scenario is that we wait the months it takes for the relief drill to be finished. I keep thinking there is probably some totally simple thing having to do with physics that we are missing.
Quote from: frawin on June 15, 2010, 04:53:50 PM
Americans are the most energy wasteful Nation on Earth and we continue to be. All of the Automobile delaers in this area are advertising big V-8 trucks and SUVS and people are buying them, my neighbor recently purchased a Hummer, 6MPG in town and 7MPG on the highway.
It is also one of the most productive, feeds more of the worlds hungry, offers more freedom, and carries more of the worlds burden. As far as I'm concerned the rest of the world with their hybrid POS can go scratch. You ever tried hauling hay with a hybrid? Personally, I like big block V-8's and the power and safety that comes with them.