Is offshore drilling more environmentally friendly...

I just it's just easier to hide spills occuring on offshore drilling opperations.

 

If anything it is HARDER to hide an offshore spill. Ever see oil on the water, very easy to spot, and over a wide area!

 

They do generally flare off a lot of NG (known as stranded because they can't economically do anything with it). Several companies are reported trying to find ways to capture the gas (LNG being the way, I think) and dramatically reduce flaring. Total is one of them I believe. So you'd have to factor that into the equation.

 

For large spills I agree. I meant the smaller leaks and such that are very common. Those are easier to dispurse quickly and will float away from the stations. On land the stuff just sits until someone covers it up or cleans it up with chemicals or bioremediation.

 

Over the years, the oil companies have gotten much better about preventing spills. The primary reason is there are a lot more laws and regulations in place, at least in the US. Good regulations achieve better results than fear of bad PR or fear of lawsuits. Regulations provide exact cost numbers and legal boundries that are easily defined and easy for a business to implement (while complaining bitterly the whole time). I can provide an excellent history paper of how steamship boiler explosions were eliminated by establishing good regulations (e.g. relief valve requirements). [http://sunnyday.mit.edu/papers/steam.ps] Prior to regulations, the steamship companies just raised the rates to cover all the legal costs of so many deaths. Same story with building electrical and fire codes.

Transportation cost is about $2-3 a barrel, whereas relative extraction costs can be much higher in offshore rigs. At today's prices, this is in the noise.

 

Regulations in place indeed work to prevent major spills. I've hauled crude oil and diesel fuel and when we unload the tankers (tractor trailers) we have to be next to the trailer where the shut off valve is at just in case we need to stop unloading.

When we load at the refinery our trucks sit in a 6" recessed concrete area so if a spill occurs it won't run off.

 

"Is offshore drilling more environmentally friendly... "

It is when it is 50 miles off the coast of Florida................that is, it is more enviromentally frieindly for China. Then spills, and accidents are a Loooooooooooooong way from their shores. What do they care if the coast of Florida is destroyed?

 

No.

 

Is offshore drilling more environmentally friendly than fighting wars in the Middle East to secure oil for our addiction?

The Bush crime family has fought two petro wars and is proposing a third.

 

God the China drilling off of Florida is getting so OLD.


Vice President Cheney criticized for saying falsely China is drilling for oil off Florida
Vice President Cheney criticized for saying falsely China is drilling for oil off Florida

By H. JOSEF HEBERT , Associated Press
June 12, 2008

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged on Thursday that he was mistaken when he asserted that China, at Cuba's behest, is drilling for oil in waters 60 miles from the Florida coast.

In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Cheney said on Wednesday that waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, long off limits to oil companies, should be opened to drilling because China is already there pumping oil.

"Oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida," the vice president said. "We're not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply."

He cited his source as columnist George Will, who last week wrote: "Drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are."

Congressional Democrats pounced on the vice president's remarks and were backed up by independent energy experts, who called the assertion hyperbole at best and a falsehood at worst.

Cheney's office said in a statement to The Associated Press that the vice president had erred.

"It is our understanding that, although Cuba has leased out exploration blocks 60 miles off the coast of southern Florida, which is closer than American firms are allowed to operate in that area, no Chinese firm is drilling there," according to the statement.

Cuba clearly is interested in developing its deep-water oil resources, estimated at more than 5 billion barrel, including areas within 60 miles of Key West, Fla., energy experts said.

Jorge Pinon, a senior energy fellow at the University of Miami specializing in Latin America, said Cuba has awarded offshore oil leases, or concessionary blocs, in its offshore waters to six oil companies — none of them Chinese — and soon may announce an agreement with Brazil's state oil company, Petrobras.



AS A SIDENOTE: If he is so passionate about opening up drilling off of Florida, why doesn't he order his puppet to rescind his daddy's Presidential Order banning drilling off of Florida.