Leaked US embassy cables published by WikiLeaks have revealed that the government has “weakened” the compulsory pilotage regime for large vessels, including oil tankers, chemical tankers and liquefied gas carriers, sailing through the sensitive maritime environment of the Torres Strait. Owners and masters of vessels that fail to use a pilot to navigate the narrow and hazardous channel will not face any penalty if they do not subsequently call at an Australian port.

On learning the Torres Strait pilotage regime was quietly amended 17 months ago, the chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Don Henry, said it was “absolutely essential” that all shipping [through the strait] has pilotage. The cables reveal that the US and Singaporean governments reacted strongly against the Howard government’s October 2006 announcement of a compulsory pilotage regime in the Torres Strait designed to reduce the risk of oil and chemical spills in the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef.  Singapore’s Foreign Minister, George Yeo, wrote directly to his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, “to complain about the decision and its negative impact on larger strategic interests”.

The leaked cables show the US shared Singapore’s concerns and served as Singapore’s “closest ally on the Torres Strait issue”. American diplomats lobbied other countries with large registered merchant fleets such as Panama and Cyprus to protest to Australia as well. The Howard government was unmoved. In early 2008 the new Labor government under Kevin Rudd would not change its position either. However, in July 2008, the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s international law branch, assistant secretary Adam McCarthy, told the US embassy in Canberra that “Australia recognises that it has not handled the Torres Strait pilotage issue particularly well” and indicated Canberra was prepared “to explore ways to address US concerns”.

After detailed talks between US and Australian officials in Washington in August 2008, the department sought American agreement to a compromise formula that would allow Australia to save face while meeting US demands. This would involve leaving the “compulsory” framework in place while in practice reverting to a voluntary scheme for many vessels by not enforcing penalties against ships that passed through the Torres Strait without a pilot, but which did not call at an Australian port. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority formalised the change on April 17, 2009.

So there you have it, a piss-ant under secretary selling out Australia’s interests for what ? A night out with ladies of the night or was it laddies …

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show BP officials openly discussing how to influence the work of scientists supported by the fund, which was created by the oil company in May last year.

Russell Putt, a BP environmental expert, wrote in an email to colleagues on 24 June 2010: “Can we ‘direct’ GRI [Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative] funding to a specific study (as we now see the governor’s offices trying to do)? What influence do we have over the vessels/equipment driving the studies vs the questions?”.

The email was obtained by Greenpeace and shared with the Guardian.

The documents are expected to reinforce fears voiced by scientists that BP has too much leverage over studies into the impact of last year’s oil disaster.

Those concerns go far beyond academic interest into the impact of the spill. BP faces billions in fines and penalties, and possible criminal charges arising from the disaster. Its total liability will depend in part on a final account produced by scientists on how much oil entered the gulf from its blown-out well, and the damage done to marine life and coastal areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The oil company disputes the government estimate that 4.1m barrels of oil entered the gulf.

There is no evidence in the emails that BP officials were successful in directing research. The fund has since established procedures to protect its independence.
Other documents obtained by Greenpeace suggest that the politics of oil spill science was not confined to BP. The White House clashed with officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last summer when drafting the administration’s account of what has happened to the spilled oil.

On 4 August, Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator, demanded that the White House issue a correction after it claimed that the “vast majority” of BP oil was gone from the Gulf.
A few days earlier, Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, and her deputy, Bob Perciasepe, had also objected to the White House estimates of the amount of oil dispersed in the gulf. “These calculations are extremely rough estimates yet when they are put into the press, which we want to happen, they will take on a life of their own,” Perciasepe wrote.
Commenting on BP’s email discussions about directing research, a spokeswoman for the oil company said: “BP appointed an independent research board to construct the long-term research programme.”

But Kert Davies, Greenpeace US research director, said the oil company had crossed a line. “It’s outrageous to see these BP executives discussing how they might manipulate the science programme,” Davies said. “Their motivation last summer is abundantly clear. They wanted control of the science.”

The $500m fund, which is to be awarded over the next decade, is by far the biggest potential source of support to scientists hoping to establish what happened to the oil.

A number of scientists had earlier expressed concerns that BP would attempt to point scientists to convenient areas of study – or try to suppress research that did not suit its business.
The first round of funds were awarded last May to a consortium of gulf coast researchers. “The rest we are all waiting with bated breath,” said Ajit Subramaniam, a marine scientist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. “A lot of the funds might be for understanding future spills. It is also unclear what kind of strings will be attached with that money.”

Another email, written by Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim, a BP environmental officer based in Trinidad, contains minutes of a meeting in Houma, Louisiana, in which officials discussed what kind of studies might best serve the oil company’s interests.

Under agenda item two, she writes: “Discussions around GRI and whether or not BP can influence this long-term research programme ($500m) to undertake the studies we believe will be useful in terms of understanding the fate and effects of the oil on the environment, eg can we steer the research in support of restoration ecology?”

Ragoonanan-Jalim acknowledges that BP may not have that degree of control. “It may be possible for us to suggest the direction of the studies but without guarantee that they will be done.”

The email goes on: “How do we determine what biological/ecological studies we (BP) will need to do in order to satisfy specific requirements (legislative/litigation, informing the response and remediation/restoration strategies).”

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 April 2011 11.46 BST

At least one man has drowned in crude during the clean-up operation, which has expanded as the area of the slick has doubled in size despite earlier government assurances that it was being contained and posed no risk to ecologically sensitive areas.

Five days after a pipeline explosion at the north-east port of Dalian, oil had reportedly spread over an area of 430 square kilometres, prompting a dispersal mission along the coast.

Hundreds of local volunteers are spreading absorbent matting along the Yellow Sea shoreline in an attempt to stop the slick from damaging beaches.

Out at sea, authorities have started to use oil-consuming bacteria to try to disperse the slick, along with chemical agents and lengthy floating barrages.

Even though maritime officials have mobilised 800 fishing boats to assist the 40 specialist vessels in the operation, the winds and tides are spreading the slick wider and thinner.

The difficult conditions have proved fatal for at least one man. A 25-year-old firefighter, Zhang Liang, drowned on Tuesday when a wave threw him from a vessel, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

In some areas, volunteers equipped only with rubber gloves, rubber boots and rudimentary tools have struggled to cope with the waves washing up on the beaches.

“I’ve been to a few bays today and discovered they were almost entirely covered with dark oil,” Zhong Yu of the environmental group Greenpeace China, told the Associated Press. “The oil is half-solid and half-liquid and is as sticky as asphalt.”

Fishing in the waters around Dalian has been banned until the end of August.

“The oil spill will pose a severe threat to marine animals and water quality, and sea birds,” Huang Yong, deputy bureau chief for the city’s Maritime Safety Administration, told a regional TV station.

The authorities say the leak was staunched within 24 hours of last Friday’s accident, but they have yet to reveal how much oil was discharged before then. The state-run China Central television channel estimates the spill at 1,500 tons, less than 0.5% of the amount released into the ocean by the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Local officials have been upbeat about the prospects of a quick clean-up and a resumption of normal services at the port, which has had to redirect 420 vessels from the area of the slick.

“Our priority is to collect the spilled oil within five days to reduce the possibility of contaminating international waters,” Dalian’s vice mayor, Dai Yulin, told reporters earlier this week. Other officials expect the operation to last twice as long and even then it is far from clear that the ecological damage will end.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/21/china-oil-spill-disaster-wildlife

The Greens released the policy at the launch of their Tasmanian federal election campaign in Hobart and have said that businesses willing to develop large-scale renewable energy projects would be eligible to apply for 100 % loan guarantees, similar to a scheme in the United States.

Greens Senator Christine Milne says ‘the scheme would create jobs and give banks the confidence to lend money to renewable ventures in the future; of course it is some risk for government to take on with loan guarantees but the benefits are so much greater because it means we will see the rollout of renewables as quickly as possible across Australia; people trying to seek finance for large-scale renewable energy investments are having difficulties and this is for solar thermal with storage, for geothermal, for wave power; in the United States – having recognised that – they moved to loan guarantees and that has been the basis on which they have managed to get the investment and the shift to renewables’.

DB: Whilst I have no problems with this policy, geothermal is a waste of time and money and the EROEI (energy return on energy invested) of wave energy will most likely remain in the negative.

The following story is but another jigsaw piece in the collapse of the American Empire. When I was in Cuba several years ago, I saw what the once great USA – and its largely undeserving people – will have to endure. Given the excesses of the average American, many will struggle to survive; by 2020 it will all but over for the upper middle, middle and lower socio-economic population.

Michigan Oil Spill Prompts Evacuations, Finger-Pointing

By MATTHEW DOLAN
JULY 29, 2010

An oil spill this week from an underground pipeline connecting the U.S. to Canada has prompted local health officials to call for the evacuation of as many as 50 homes and recommend residents living close to the river to stop using well water for drinking and cooking.

The spill contaminated more than 20 miles of the Kalamazoo River in south-central Michigan and led to finger-pointing between those leading the clean up and state and local officials who have described the response as inadequate and slow-footed.

The pipe’s Canadian owner, Enbridge Inc. of Calgary, maintains that its response has been ramping up and that the oil hasn’t leached into a nearby lake, which response officials have called a place they hope to protect from the spill’s reaches.

Company and federal officials said that even though the river’s western reach ends at Lake Michigan, they don’t believe that the oil spill will reach the great lake.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that more than one million gallons have escaped. That would make it one of the largest ever in the history of the Midwest. But company officials are sticking with their earlier estimation of 819,000 gallons.

Unlike the BP PLC oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, this gushing pipe near Battle Creek, Mich., was capped relatively quickly after its owners were able to shut down the line almost immediately after its discovery. The pipe rupture has already forced the evacuation of several dozen residents who live near the Kalamazoo River, forced the river’s closure to the public and raised questions about whether the pipeline’s owner reported the spill in a timely way.

The line owned by Enbridge Energy Partners LP is a 30-inch pipe that moves light synthetic, heavy and medium crude oil northeast about 1,900 miles. The affected section of the line stretches from Griffith, Ind., through Michigan and just over the border to Sarnia, Ontario.

The Calhoun County Public Health Department on Thursday recommended the immediate evacuation of residents living closest to the site of the spill in Marshall because of elevated levels of Benzene in the air. Between 30 and 50 homes were affected in the recommendation but it wasn’t clear whether the figure included the number of residents who have already fled the area.

People who breathe in high levels of benzene in the short term may develop dizziness, irregular heartbeat, headaches, tremors and unconsciousness with long term affects harming the blood and immune systems.

The department said evacuated residents would be reimbursed by Enbridge, but couldn’t say how long they would be out of their homes.

In a precautionary move, the health department also warned those with private wells living within 200 feet from the edge of the river bank between Tallmadge Creek—site of oil spill—west along the Kalamazoo River to the Kalamazoo County line to stop using the water for drinking and cooking despite the fact that no test has yet reveal groundwater contamination.

After the leak was discovered on Monday morning on a creek near the company’s pump station in Marshall, Mich., the pipeline was shut down when its isolation valves were closed off, according to officials at Enbridge Inc.

Federal officials said Wednesday that the timeline involved in the spill remains under investigation by several agencies.

Officials said it would be weeks before an official cause of the pipe break is determined. Feedback from the initial portions of the investigation is expected in the next few days to provide telling clues about the origins of the leak, company officials said.

Regulators Sent Warning Letter to Enbridge

U.S. government regulators sent a warning letter to Enbridge seven months ago about possible problems with the pipeline that ruptured earlier this week.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration wrote to Enbridge Energy Partners Chairman Terry McGill in January that his company’s corrosion monitoring in its oil pipeline connecting the U.S. to Canada did not comply with federal regulations.

Company officials said Thursday that Enbridge Inc., the parent company, had been compiling with regulators’ request since the letter and at the time the spill was reported on July 26. Its remediation for corrosion of the oil transport line from Indiana to Ontario has been ongoing, according to company executives.

Stephen Wuori, executive vice president for Enbridge’s liquid pipelines, said during a conference call with reporters that the point of the line that ruptured on Tallmadge Creek in Marshall, Mich., was not seen as problematic before the spill. A spokeswoman for agency at the Transportation Department declined to comment about the issue.

Since 2002, Enbridge has received more than a dozen warnings or citations for violating safety and other standards and fined tens of thousands of dollars as a result, according to a review of correspondence maintained by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The area of ocean 65 miles south of New Orleans would normally be occupied by fishermen, shrimpers and oystermen, but it has been deserted since the BP spill began. The abandoned wellhead burst in the early hours of Tuesday morning after being hit by a tug boat that was pushing a dredge barge.

The wellhead is discharging a mist of orange and brown oil about 100 feet in air but the Coast Guard does not have a specific flow rate for the well determined yet, although there have been early reports that there is natural gas and mud mixed in with oil coming from the well. The well, which was once owned by Cedyco Corporation, was abandoned in November 2008.

Now – in the home of ‘free speech’ – it seems that the oil spill is not to be covered … except by government spun doco’s; the following story tells in in more detail.

First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian

Saturday, July 03, 2010 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger; Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) As CNN is now reporting, the U.S. government has issued a new rule that would make it a felony crime for any journalist, reporter, blogger or photographer to approach any oil cleanup operation, equipment or vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. Anyone caught is subject to arrest, a $40,000 fine and prosecution for a federal felony crime.

CNN reporter Anderson Cooper says, “A new law passed today, and back by the force of law and the threat of fines and felony charges, … will prevent reporters and photographers from getting anywhere close to booms and oil-soaked wildlife just about any place we need to be. By now you’re probably familiar with cleanup crews stiff-arming the media, private security blocking cameras, ordinary workers clamming up, some not even saying who they’re working for because they’re afraid of losing their jobs.” Watch the video clip yourself at NaturalNews.TV: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=203

The rule, of course, is designed to restrict the media’s access to cleanup operations in order to keep images of oil-covered seabirds off the nation’s televisions. With this, the Gulf Coast cleanup operation has now entered a weird Orwellian reality where the news is shaped, censored and controlled by the government in order to prevent the public from learning the truth about what’s really happening in the Gulf.

The war is on to control your mind

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because the U.S. government uses this same tactic during every war. The first casualty of war, as they say, is the truth. There are lots of war images the government doesn’t want you to see (like military helicopter pilots shooting up Reuters photographers while screaming “Yee-Haw!” over the comm radios), and there are other images they do want you to see (“surgical strike” explosions from “smart” bombs, which makes it seem like the military is doing something useful).

So war reporting is carefully monopolized by the government to deliver precisely the images they want you to see while censoring everything else. Now the same Big Brother approach is being used in the Gulf of Mexico: Criminalize journalists, censor the story and try to keep the American people ignorant of what’s really happening. It’s just the latest tactic from a government that no longer even recognizes the U.S. Constitution or its Bill of Rights. Because the very first right is Freedom of Speech, which absolutely includes the right to walk onto a public beach and take photographs of something happening out in the open, on public waters. It is one of the most basic rights of our citizens and our press.

But now the Obama administration has stripped away those rights, transforming journalists into criminals. Now, we might expect something like this from Chavez, or Castro or even the communist leaders of China, but here in the United States, we’ve all been promised we lived in “the land of the free.” Obama apparently does not subscribe to that philosophy anymore (if he ever did).

So how does criminalizing journalists equate to “land of the free?” It doesn’t, obviously. Forget freedom. (Your government already has.) This is about controlling your mind to make sure you don’t visually see the truth of what the oil industry has done to your oceans, your shorelines and your beaches. This is all about keeping you ignorant with a total media blackout of the real story of what’s happening in the Gulf.

The real story, you see, is just too ugly. And the government has fracked up the cleanup effort to such a ridiculous extent that instead of the “transparency” they once promised, they’re now resorting to the threat of arrest for all journalists who try to get close enough to cover the story. Yes, this is happening right now in America. This isn’t a hoax. I know, it sounds more like something you might hear about in Saudi Arabia, or Venezuela or some other nation run by dictators. But now it’s happening right here in the USA.

As Anderson Cooper reported on CNN: “Now the government is getting in on the act. Despite what Admiral Thad Allen promised about transparency just nearly a month ago. Thad Allen: “The media will have uninhibited access anywhere we’re doing operations…” Anderson Cooper: The Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers, reporters and anyone else from coming with 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches. What this means is that oil-soaked birds on an island surrounded by a boom, you can’t get close enough to take that picture. Shot of oil on beaches with booms? Stay 65 feet away. Pictures of oil-soaked booms uselessly laying in the water because they haven’t been collected like they should? You can’t get close enough to see that. Believe me, that is out there. But you only know that if you get close to it, and now you can’t without permission. Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and Class D felony charges.”

See the video yourself at: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=203

This site is part of the Natural News Network © 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Derivatives are a rort as the GFC (Global Financiaol Crisis) shows, but if they put a price on carbon, will it just make more money for the finance sector, where more derivatives are sold than exist (like shares) at assumed increased vaules or that arent even owned by the seller (who hopes to buy some in the interum and then on-sell at a profit) ?

Julia Gillard isn’t dumb and she must appreciate right now, she can weight much of the proposals put in front of her with her own touch while she has a full head of steam and seen to be leader of Australia. If she exercises this power now, it will entrench her more and weaken those who will wait for her light to burn less bright as time and lack of absence takes effect.

Combating climate change is the single most important challenge of all time and people should not make money out of it. We need to tax carbon emissions heavily, so that emitters – everyone – starts to watch their emissions because they cost too much; but like taxing tobacco, alcohol and fuel, these taxes reduce consumption of goods. The cost to the environment massively outweighs any GST or conventional tax, so a big emissions tax will see everybody pay at a rate equal to their consumption.

Tobacco is taxed at about 75% of the retail price and alcohol and petrol are taxed at about 50% of retail price; and these products still seem to hold popularity. The Australian population is convinced that action on climate change is essential, so a big tax on carbon is imperative; the more energy that goes into a product, the greater the emission tax component. Its like cereals, rolled oats is about $1.20 per kilo whereas a highly processed oat flakes with honey and nuts sell for $8+ a kilo.

And lets start placing some higher tarrifs on imports to cater to the emissions generated overseas and in transport to Australia, to keep that ‘level playing field’ the politicians are so often keen to talk about.

The answer is pretty simple, what the people belief or think or want is a long second to what politicians and corporations want.

Julia Gillard (like Rudd) says she doesn’t believe polls, yet cites polls conducted by whom (it remains a secret) that suggests the Australians have lost interest in ETS (emission trading schemes). What she – and Rudd – seem vague on is what Australian’s have lost interest in, and its not the environmet, its politicians.

Although Rudd was for and then backed way from a big (read over-populated) Australia, is suddenly Julia’s policy; then she says she wants a carbon tax and is prepared to fight for it … I’m for having a new BMW M5 and prepared to fight for it (even with Tony Mundine’s son) … neither Julia or I say we need to win, we just have to fight for it …

The ‘gang of – and then there were – three is telling us the spin-doctoring is still on.

The Dwarves dug too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum… shadow and flame.- Saruman, The Lord of the Rings and there is something primordial about BP’s quest for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s an Icarus-like story of super-ambition; of reaching too far, delving too deep.

I don’t know if you’ve stopped to contemplate what BP was trying to do…

The well itself started 5,000 feet below the surface. That’s the depth of the Grand Canyon from the rim. And then the company attempted to drill more than 30,000 feet below that ’Äî Mt. Everest would give 972 feet to spare. Furthermore, the company sought oil in a dangerous area of the seabed. It was unstable and many think BP sought it out because seismic data showed huge pools of methane gas – the very gas that blew the top off Deepwater Horizon and killed 11 people.

More than a year ago, geologists criticized Transocean for putting their exploratory rig directly over a massive underground reservoir of methane. According to the New York Times, BP’s internal “documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of ‘well control.’ And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer”.

The problem is that this methane, located deep in the bowels of the earth, is under tremendous pressure… Some speculate as much as 100,000 psi – far too much for current technology to contain. The shutoff vales and safety measures were built for only 1,000 psi. It was an accident waiting to happen… And there are many that say it could get worse – much worse. Geologists are pointing to other fissures and cracks that are appearing on the ocean floor around the damaged wellhead.

According to CNN:

The University of South Florida recently discovered a second oil plume in the northeastern Gulf. The first plume was found by Mississippi universities in early May. And there have been other plumes discovered by submersibles…

Some geologists say that BP’s arrogance has set off a series of events that may be irreversible. There are some that think that BP has drilled into an deep-core oil volcano that cannot be stopped, regardless of the horizontal drills the company claims will stop the oil plume in August.

Need the mudlogs

Geologist, Chris Landau, for instance, has called for a showing of the mudlogs. A mudlog is a schematic cross sectional drawing of the lithology (rock type) of the well that has been bored. So far, no one has seen them… BP keeps them hidden.

Mr. Landau claims it is a dangerous game drilling into high pressure oil and gas zones because you risk having a blowout if your mud weight is not heavy enough. If you weight up your mud with barium sulfate to a very high level, you risk BLOWING OUT THE FORMATION.

What does that mean? It means you crack the rock deep underground; as the mudweight is now denser than the rock, it escapes into the rock in the pore spaces and the fractures. The well empties of mud. If you have not hit high pressure oil or gas at this stage, you are lucky. But if you have, the oil and gas come flying up the well and you have a blowout, because you have no mud in the well to suppress the oil and gas. You shut down the well with the blowout preventer. If you do not have a blowout preventer, you are in trouble as we have all seen and you can only hope that the oil and gas pressure will naturally fall off with time, otherwise you have to try and put a new blowout preventer in place with oil and gas coming out as you work.

Obviously, the oil and gas pressure hasn’t fallen off; in fact… it’s increased. The problem is that BP may not only have hit the mother of high-pressure wells, but there is also a vast amount of methane down there that could come exploding out like an underwater volcano. I recently heard a recording of Richard Hoagland who was interviewed on Coast to Coast AM.

Mr. Hoagland has suggested that there are cracks in the ocean floor, and that pressure at the base of the wellhead is approximately 100,000 psi. Furthermore, geologists believe there are another 4-5 cracks or fissions in the well. Upon using a GPS and Depth finder system, experts have discovered a large gas bubble, 15-20 miles across and tens of feet high, under the ocean floor.

These bubbles are common. Many believe they have caused the sinking of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle. That said, a bubble this large – if able to escape from under the ocean floor through a crack – would cause a gas explosion that Mr. Hoagland likens to Mt. St. Helens… only under water. The BP well is 50 miles from Louisiana. Its release would send a toxic cloud over populated areas. The explosion would also sink any ships and oil structures in the vicinity and create a tsunami which would head toward Florida at 600 mph.

Now, many people have called Hoagland a fringe thinker and a conspiracy theorist. And they may be right… But that doesn’t mean he isn’t on to something.

EPA finds high concentrations of gases in the area

The escape of other poison gases associated with an underground methane bubble (such as hydrogen sulfide, benzene, and methylene chloride) have been found. Last Thursday, the EPA measured hydrogen sulfide at 1,000 parts per billion – well above the normal 5 to 10 ppb. Some benzene levels were measured near the Gulf of Mexico in the range of 3,000 – 4,000 ppb – up from the normal 0-4 ppb.

The Oil Drum (an industry sheet), recently ran an article about the sequence of events that tried to stop the oil spill. The upshot of industry insiders was that after trying a number of ways to close off the leak, the well was compromised, creating other leaks due to the high pressure. BP then cut the well open and tried to capture the oil. In other words: BP shifted from stopping the gusher to opening it up and catching what oil it could. The only reason sane oil men would do this is if they wanted to relieve pressure at the leak hidden down below the seabed… And that sort of leak – known as a “down hole” leak – is one of the most dangerous kind.

It means that BP can’t stop if from above; it can only relieve the pressure. So, more oil is leaking out while BP hopes it can drill new wells before the current one completely erodes. BP is in a race against time… It just won’t admit this fact.

There are abrasives still present, a swirling flow will create hot spots of wear and this erosion is relentless and will always be present until eventually it wears away enough material to break it’s way out. It will slowly eat the bop away especially at the now pinched off riser head and it will flow more and more. Perhaps BP can outrun or keep up with that out flow with various suckage methods for a period of time, but eventually the well will win that race, just how long that race will be?

No one really knows…

Which leads us back to Mr. Landau’s point about the mudlogs and why BP won’t release them. I don’t know… Maybe I’m wearing my tinfoil hat too tight this morning… But this stuff seems possible – if it’s only a worst case scenario. What strikes me as odd is the way the leadership of BP and the Obama administration is acting. BP is running around apologizing to everyone they can find. Obama says give us $20 billion in escrow and $100 million for the people Obama put out of work on the oil rigs due to his six month ban – and BP says, “Sure thing mate, no problem.”

And all of this in a 20-minute meeting?

I’ve been dealing with oil companies for a long time and it just doesn’t add up…Contrast it, for instance, with the Exxon situation in Alaska or the Union Carbide disaster in India. Exxon fought tooth and nail for its shareholders; it appealed court rulings for 19 years. Union Carbide wasn’t settled for 25 years.

BP is rolling over like a simpering dog. Why?

The only reason I can think of is that the company knows – better if not as well as the Obama administration does – that it will get worse. Much worse. I’ve put together a list of oil cleanup stocks for the readers of my Crisis & Opportunity. Many are running, and one has pulled back into a solid buy range. Three more are on my buy list. All I know is that this spill isn’t even half over.Oil in the Gulf will lead the news-cycle for the foreseeable future. And the companies that make products that stop,absorb, or disperse oil have an endless supply of work. Their share prices have nowhere to go but up.

Sincerely,
Christian DeHaemer
Editor, Energy and Capital