Oilfield Daily News

So this weekend, BP successfully inserted a catheter into the leak at the Deepwater Horizon, marking the first time there’s been any progress in stemming the disaster.

So how much of a success is this?

Well, according to a BP exec quoted by Platts, the tube is collecting mover then 1,000 b/d, which probably means somewhere in the range of 1001-1002 b/d.

Basically, this is a drop in the bucket.

At the low end of estimates, that’s 20% fo the daily flow (which some have estimated at 5,000 b/d). At the other end, it’s just a tiny fraction of the 70,000 b/d that could be flowing into the gulf.

We’re not sure if this is a baseline and if this could collect more, but for now, this situation is nowhere near solved.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ok-so-now-we-know-the-new-gulf-oil-fix-isnt-doing-jack-2010-5#ixzz0oKZZ5X94

Cnooc Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed unit of China National Offshore Oil Corp. has partnered with the state-run Turkish Petroleum Corp. (TPAO) to win a contract with Iraq to develop the lucrative Missan oil-field in southern Iraq, marking Cnooc’s first upstream access to Iraqi oil following its two major rivals, CNPC and Sinopec.

The deal is still pending Iraqi government approval.

Marketwatch

Above all else, Pettigrew said technology will play a significant role in the world’s ability to meet expanding food needs. In the past 30 years, agriculture has managed to double food production, and it is important to recognize that it did not just magically happen. Agriculture made it happen, and we have a responsibility to make sure that continues to happen into the future, he said.

By 2050, the world will need twice as much crop production as there is now. This will be the result of the population increase ahead, said Pettigrew, as well improved living standards that will lead to greater protein consumption. Given the future constraints of limited land and water, he said technology — and its continued adoption — is the only solution.

feedstuffs

The oil trade deficit for any country counts a lot of entry items and output items, in the US case including a rising amount of refined product exports. Invisibles include drilling and seismic services, equipment, financing and other revenue or value items, cutting the “big number” of the apparent deficit, based only on volume – not value – data for total gross imports of crude and products multiplied by the prevailing oil price.

The volume number counts two components: gross imports of crude and products, and net imports after re-exports. Where crude is imported, and products exported, the value gain (and refinery gains) help pay a part of the crude imports, reducing the net deficit on oil trade.

This “big number” for the OECD group is about 44.5 Mbd (million barrels a day), of which the US takes around 12.5 Mbd in May 2010. If we used an average year barrel price of US$ 100, this would generate a total “big number” of approximately 1625 billion US dollars a year for the OECD group.

Net imports after re-exports are running about 20 Mbd less than the gross import volume figure, at around 24.75 Mbd for the OECD group in May 2010. This net import volume number multiplied by the prevailing oil price gives the apparent net deficit on oil trade – excluding value items (oil services, equipment, financing etc).

At a year average barrel price of US$ 100, current net oil import volumes of the OECD group’s 27 importer countries would generate an apparent oil trade deficit of about US$ 900 billion a year.

Market Oracle

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials say ocean models show a west to southwest current flow in the vicinity of the source of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Under those currents, and with light winds expected to be variable over the next few days, the oil plume from the source of the leak at the Deepwater Horizon site may tend westward towards the Delta, with some of the oil moving to the west of the Delta, the NOAA officials said.

Also under the light winds, sheens generally are more evident.

Any oil in the near offshore near Southwest Pass may come ashore during periods of onshore winds, while Breton Sound and the Chandeleur Islands continue to have a potential for shoreline contacts.

There continues to be no prediction of landfall in Mississippi, Alabama or Florida — with the exception of tar balls — within the forecast period, which extends until Thursday evening.

As the winds weaken, forecaster said, ocean models indicate that any tarballs leading the southern edge of the plume could begin moving more to the southwest and potentially into the loop current, the powerful rotating current that has the potential to push oil toward the Florida Keys.

As with past forecasts, this one was based on the latest National Weather Service forecast data, together with various current models, overflight and satellite imagery and analysis, and other factors.

al.com

On my trip to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska I got to see the very beginning of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. It’s an impressive project that carries crude oil from the North Slope of Alaska all the way through the state to Valdez, Alaska. For 31 years oil has been coursing through that massive pipe and then shipped to feed California’s unquenchable thirst for gasoline. But the North Slope is slumping. Each year, production drops by 10-percent due to dwindling oil fields.

The Arctic Ocean is supposed to keep that pipeline filled for generations to come, but the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may have derailed the dream. Shell Oil has paid $3.5 billion on leases, equipment and studies with the payoff coming this July when they drill five exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The plans were approved by the Minerals Management Service and Shell was just awaiting the final drill permit from the Interior Department.

The Gulf spill triggered a 30-day moratorium on new permits. Also, environmental groups have sued to permanently block the project. They are joined in opposition by the Alaska Natives who live primarily off what they catch in the waters just offshore. Most of the Eskimo’s diet consists of bowhead whale, seal and fish from the Chukchi sea.

The villagers of Point Hope Alaska say their entire way of life would be threatened by a spill. Shell says it can drill safely. It plans on putting a spill response vessel on site for the duration of all drilling. And while the company admits the harsh conditions add some uncertainty, it points out that drilling would be in shallow water, just 150 feet, making a spill response easier and faster than in the Gulf.

Shell is attempting to be the first company to tap into what is projected to be a 27-billion barrel oil reserve in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. That’s 11 billion barrels more than what has been produced on Alaska’s North Slope over the last 30 years.

Fox News

A chart of exponential growth/depletion may be the “chart of the century.” The chart displays two lines: the blue line traces out exponential growth (for example, in demand for oil, deficit spending, etc.) while the lower lines traces out exponential depletion (for example, of oil reserves). The consequences of a “modest” 3% growth/depletion rate are striking and sobering.

Full article at: http://oilprice.com/Finance/Economy/Oil-Greece-China-%E2%80%93-On-a-Collision-Course-with-Reality.html

Islamabad – Pakistan is considering aggressive measures to ease its energy crisis as growing public anger over prolonged power cuts threatens wider unrest, officials said Wednesday.
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"A high-level meeting is taking place today to finalize the measures to overcome the power crisis, and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will announce the decisions on Thursday," the premier’s spokesman Zafaryab Khan said.

As opposed to Boomer narcissism and inability to make an even minor sacrifice for the public good, my generation will vote against its own self interest if it truly will benefit future generations. We will be results oriented. We will support ideas that work and thrash those that put forth ideological claptrap fallacies. As long as the Boomers are made to pay a high price, we’ll be ready to pay more than our fair share to save the country from fiscal catastrophe. Undeliverable promises made by prior generations will be swept aside by Nomad politicians who aren’t worried about hurting feelings. Examples of current Nomad leaders are New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who will not let past promises deter them from solving problems. It will be our job to stop the Boomer Prophets from potentially destroying the world.

The trouble is that the incredible mobility to which we, or rather to which a privileged slice of we, have grown accustomed might prove unsustainable. Within the next decade, dozens of major airlines will go bankrupt. The biggest names in the business, like American Airlines, United, Delta and British Airways, could easily go the way of TWA, leaving JetBlue and Southwest and perhaps Continental to pick up the pieces.
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Governments will keep working to keep the biggest, most politically connected airlines afloat, larding new subsidies on top of the old ones. At some point, however, the subsidies will run out and the high price of aviation fuel will prove too much to bear. Cheap air travel, a force that has knit together families scattered across continents, could very well be remembered as a happy but brief respite from the historical norm of a world divided by distance. And the world will be poorer for it.