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Tropical Storm Dean heads towards Caribbean
Kelly Riddell, Bloomberg
Newly formed Tropical Storm Dean in the eastern Atlantic is forecast to become a hurricane by the end of the week. Dean, which began Monday as a depression midway between Africa and the Lesser Antilles, is about 1,140 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said on its website at 4 pm EDT Tuesday. Sustained winds are about 40 mph and the storm is moving toward the Caribbean at 21 mph.
(15 August 2007)
There’s Money in Oil, Oystermen Find
Adam Nossiter, PUB
…In an arrangement that is a Louisiana seafood specialty, though one that can’t be fried or covered in sauce, an oysterman here in the nation’s top oyster-producing state can make as much, if not more, collecting damage settlements from oil companies as from harvesting the bivalves themselves, according to a recent study by two Louisiana State University economists.
…This uneasy pay-and-let-live has its origins in an extraordinary cultural-geologic juxtaposition.
On one hand there is a hallowed Louisiana institution, the oyster lease, established early in the 20th century in homage to the fat shellfish off the state’s shores and granted in virtual perpetuity to anybody who was willing to pay $2 per acre a year for coastal bottomland. While legal disputes have led the state to place a moratorium on granting new oyster leases, existing ones are often passed down from father to son, thousands of acres staying in a family through generations, whether they produce oysters or not. In all, some 400,000 acres are now under lease.
On the other hand there is the black gold beneath the oyster beds – explored for and then piped and shipped from the murky edges of Louisiana for nearly a century now. The leases give the oystermen virtual ownership of these valuable water bottoms. So when an oil company moves a rig across the waters, or puts down a pipe, or simply lays out plans to do so, an oysterman can claim that his harvest is being damaged. Negotiations frequently result in payment, with or without the threat of a suit.
(15 August 2007)
Clash over oil sands inevitable: Lougheed
Kirk Makin, Globe and Mail
Calgary – A war is looming between Alberta and the federal government over pollution caused by oil sands development that will far surpass any previous federal-provincial battle in its political and economic stakes, former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed predicted Tuesday.
Mr. Lougheed told a Canadian Bar Association convention that a ferocious constitutional clash is all but inevitable, pitting the federal right to protect the environment against the provincial right to develop natural resources.
Mr. Lougheed – who was at the epicentre of similar, historic conflicts in the 1980s involving the National Energy Plan and the repatriation of the Canada Constitution – said that the clash will be “10 times greater” than federal-provincial conflicts of the past.
…”The government of Alberta, with its acceleration of oil sands operations, will in my judgment be seen as the major villain in all of this in the eyes of the public across Canada,” he said.
A major source of greenhouse gas and water pollution, the tar sands project is expected to double in size within the next few years.
(14 August 2007)
Drilling Activity Hits New High in Ultra-Deep Gulf of Mexico
MMS, Rigzone
A record number of drilling rigs are currently working in ultra-deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico. “For the first time, 15 rigs are drilling for oil and gas in 5,000 feet of water or greater in the Gulf,” MMS Director Randall Luthi announced today. “The continued increase in drilling activity is a show of confidence in the resource potential of the Gulf’s ultra-deepwater frontier.”
…As the industry continues its exploration in deeper waters, the availability of technology capable of operating in deeper water depths and more extreme conditions becomes an important issue.
(14 August 2007)
Disappointing 1H Douses Hope for ’07 Big Oil Output Gains
Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires via Rigzone
Halfway through the year, hopes for 2007 output growth from the major energy companies have been extinguished.
This year is forecast to be the latest in a long string of disappointments, as governments tighten their grip on hydrocarbons resources and rising costs make it increasingly difficult to shore up oil and gas production in mature, declining fields around the world.
Over the past four years, surging energy prices contributed to quarter after quarter of record profits for the large integrated energy companies, overriding investor concerns about weakening output. The worry: Big Oil is experiencing difficulties in tapping resources amid political upheaval and more stringent contract terms from key producers. Now that crude-oil and natural-gas prices have stabilized, prospects for profit growth have dimmed, and attention has refocused on production.
(14 August 2007)
