Good Move, Mr. Prez: Safeguarding The Gulf on Oil Production

Today the President took new measures to watch dog the oil and gas industry, increasing the safety of our environment.




Photo of oil and gas explosion in Gulf of Mexico on 2 Sept 2010

New order issued to oil and gas industry to clean up the Gulf

From Denny: Today the President informed the oil and gas companies it was time to get their proverbial act together. They have been ordered to plug those non-producing wells to the tune of about 3,500. The administration also told the energy companies to immediately dismantle almost 650 production platforms that are not in use in the Gulf of Mexico.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, "This should make energy production in the Gulf safer and prevent potentially catastrophic leaks at wells that, in some cases, have been abandoned for decades." (*** See: 27, 000 Aging Abandoned Leaking Oil Wells in Gulf of Mexico)

Apparently, administration officials like Michael Bromwich, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, are claiming "This initiative was under consideration long before the Deepwater Horizon explosion."

BP Deepwater Horizon blown out well to be permanently sealed this week

Retired Admiral Thad Allen, who has been dealing with the double crosses of BP and the headaches of trying to stem the oil disaster in the Gulf, said today he "expects the blown-out well to be permanently sealed and declared dead by Sunday." This sealing went five weeks past the due date, yet more broken promises and constant lying from BP.

27,000 abandoned and aging wells in Gulf of Mexico need attention

This new order enforcing federal regulations is a great start to handling the aging oil and gas well problems lying in wait to blow up in the Gulf of Mexico. There are over 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells that were only temporarily sealed, many as long as 60 years ago. They are all potential disasters waiting to happen. These wells have been ignored for decades. No federal or energy officials have been checking any of these wells for leaks. This practiced neglect has been going on for decades. There are an additional 1,200 oil rigs and platforms that are sitting idle too.

What the oil and gas industry is expected to do to comply with federal regs

The new administration order issued today requires operators basically "to fish or cut bait." They are told to plug those wells if they have been inactive for the past five years. What about those production platforms and pipelines? "Use it or lose it" is the Obama motto. If those platforms and pipelines are not being deployed for exploration or production - even if they are under an active lease - then they must be decommissioned.

Idle Iron constant problem in oil and gas industry around the world

Active lease? Well, that's how Big Business has been tying up our energy. They putter around for decades after they buy a lease, not allowing anyone else to try that area either. It's what the energy industry terms "idle iron." Idle iron are wells, platforms and pipelines that are no longer used for exploration or production and basically rendered as useless.

To energy industry: use it or lose it, says Obama

The Obama administration is enforcing federal regulations requiring those idle structures to be decommissioned within one year of the lease's expiration date. The energy companies must plug wells and dismantle - and remove - platform structures and pipelines. For decades the energy industry has behaved notoriously like slobs for leaving behind an aging mess, an iron junk yard, after they have extracted their profits. 27,000 deteriorating wells in the small Gulf of Mexico is one serious eye sore.

Energy companies howl in protest to clean up their messy rooms

Of course, the oil and gas companies howl in protest on a regular basis about dismantling those platforms. They claim those aging old technology platforms are still valuable because the company might come back "some day." They think they might be able to use those old platforms to help support active wells nearby. In a word: these guys are lazy and they are cheap. They also don't care about the environment or the health of the people in the region.

In defense of the Obama decision, Bromwich says, "As infrastructure continues to age, the risk of damage increases. That risk increases substantially during storm season." Prez Obama wants to address those hazards that could arise during the increasingly violent storm season in the Gulf.

Even a permanently sealed well requires constant monitoring for leaks

Remember: even a permanently plugged well that is depleted can repressurize and explode, spilling oil back into the Gulf of Mexico. It's time our federal officials get serious about regular monitoring of what is happening on our ocean floor, especially when it involves the energy industry. The energy industry has a poor record of safeguarding America's security and environment. The government also shares that abysmal report card. This is a good first step toward watching over our environment and the future of America's energy.


*** See also related posts both serious and humorous:

27, 000 Aging Abandoned Leaking Oil Wells in Gulf of Mexico

Doctor Says Kids Suffer More From Gulf Oil Spill

Funny Video: Colbert Cleans Up the Gulf

Dark Humor: BP Oil Spill Cartoons - 17 July 2010

Cartoons: BP Oil Spill, American Economy Opinion, Russian Spies in America - 10 July 2010

Funny Video: How BP CEO Hayward Can Improve His Image

Funny Video: Kimmel Compares BP To Al Qaeda

Funny Video: Colbert Lampoons BPs Positive Spin On Oil Spill

Dark Humor: BP Oil Spill Cartoons - 19 June 2010

Funny Quotes From Big Oil and BP Congressional Hearings - Cheeky Quote Day 16 June 2010

Funny Colbert Video: BP CEO Tony Hayward Is an Evil Box of Priggish Entitled Baking Soda

BP Screws Over Gulf Residents With New Claims Restrictions

Is The Oil Spill Really Gone in the Gulf, More Smoke And Mirrors From BP?



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27, 000 Aging Abandoned Leaking Oil Wells in Gulf of Mexico

*** Disturbing facts on how America has long ignored aging oil wells in the Gulf.From Denny: Just when you thought the BP oil spill was bad, yes, there's more. Ever wonder why every time there is a beach where tar balls suddenly turn up you hear about scientists taking those tar balls to a lab to identify if they came from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill? Find that odd? I know I sure have. Certainly it was obvious where these tar balls were coming from, duh, the oil spill. To show up in that number it was a lot more than the usual occasional and smaller amounts of tar balls from diesel fueled ships in the Gulf.Well, now we are finding out there are 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells out in the Gulf of Mexico dating back to the 1940's when technology was a lot different than today. Environmentalists are calling on the government to take notice and take action to prevent these aging oil and gas wells from leaking more oil into the Gulf. Turns out that federal regulators typically do not inspect when these offshore wells are plugged or even bother to monitor for leaks after they are plugged. The public is now finding out that oil and gas wells on land, to the tune of thousands of wells, are often improperly plugged just like offshore wells. State and federal regulators are now acknowledging that abandoned offshore wells have been leaking too. While this administration's candor is refreshing, the point remains: So, what are you going to do about it?The stats are that in the past 60 years, over 50,000 wells have been drilled in the Gulf. Those that have been permanently abandoned number as much as 23,500. There are another 3,500 classified as "temporarily abandoned," say federal regulators. The problem is that far too many wells have been left in this temporary status for 50 years and do not have the full safeguards used on them if they were listed as permanent abandonment. Oh, great.So you think the permanently sealed wells are OK after all this time? Leave it to an engineer, a petroleum one, to give you the ugly news. The cement plugs used so long ago can age and fail after this many decades. The metal casing used to line the wells also ages in the salt water and rusts. And another sweet factoid? Turns out that even a well where the production was depleted can, over time, repressurize. When that happens that depleted well can spill oil if those sealings also fail.The Minerals Management Service has been renamed to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Turns out the old MMS guys routinely allowed industry reports on well closures as blindly accepted yet did not inspect the work that was claimed to be done. It is also an ugly fact that no one in the oil industry or the federal or state governments have conducted checks on those long ago abandoned wells. It's like "out of sight and out of mind." It's what you can't see that can come back to bite you on the butt. Well, one ignored federal watchdog, that investigates for Congress, was barking loudly back in 1994 yet everyone told him to shut up - the GAO (General Accountability Office). The GAO warned that those abandoned wells could easily start leaking and cause an environmental disaster such as we are facing today. "MMS does not have an overall inspection strategy for targeting its limited resources to ensuring that wells are properly plugged and abandoned," stated the report. The GAO also suggested MMS get about the business of setting up a really good inspection program. So, MMS did what they always did and did nothing whatsoever. They ignored sound advice.Again, another study, this time in 2001 under President You-Know-Who, a study actually commissioned by MMS, it reported that agency officials were "concerned that some abandoned oil wells in the Gulf may be leaking crude oil." Yet another warning went unheeded. Do we see a pattern emerging here?Get this, the current BP oil spill, the Deepwater Horizon well, was actually being prepared for temporary abandonment. Yeah, that's right. What a mess. Sounds like we were perversely lucky the well head blew up. Otherwise, BP would have been on their merry way half way around the world going, "Who me? You must mean the well failed because sea turtles use it as a day spa. We are not on the hook for any responsibility or accountability."Why are wells abandoned? Good question. It seems these days we are all learning a lot about the oil and gas industry. The Deepwater Horizon BP well was getting capped until a later production phase. Sometimes, a well is abandoned while the company evaluates the well's potential as a money maker. Other times a well is abandoned while the company develops a solution for a drilling problem. Another reason is when a hurricane damages the well or the oil rig. The really annoying reason for well abandonment is all about the well owners wanting to make more money for their oil so they wait out the stock markets to raise the price of oil.Supposedly, there are federal regulations about this abandonment issue. Oil companies are to present their plans to the federal agency of how they will reuse the well or permanently plug it. All that has to be done within a year. Clearly, these guys have violated federal regulations - again. These wells have been abandoned for years, even decades. Then there is to be an annual review by the feds. All that's happened over the decades is that the oil companies have bent these rules and regulations to create wells to remain in the temporary column and abandoned for a limitless time.The way the government has not stood up to act about these abandoned wells is "not unlike the way we dealt with hazardous waste years ago where we just buried it somewhere and didn't think about it," says Derb Carter, a director of the Southern Environmental Law Center.Yeah, it's that philosophy of The Minimum Acceptable again and "out of sight and out of mind." The time for a nation of ostriches hiding their heads in the tar balled sand needs to come to an end. *** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates! *** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:The Social Poets Dennys Global PoliticsThe Soul CalendarVisual InsightsBeautiful Illustrated QuotationsPoems From A Spiritual HeartThe Healing WatersDennys Art SanctuaryRomancing The ChocolateComfort Food From LouisianaUnusual 2 TastyDennys Blog FeedsDennys Funny QuotesOuch Outrageous Obnoxious And OddSubmit to Social Websites