Comment: With the devastation unfolding on the Gulf Coast because of the gusher BP has unleashed on the human and marine residents of the area, it is worth contemplating the corporate elements whose actions have precipitated the disaster. The dubious cement installation at the failed rig was installed by Halliburton–formerly headed by Dick Cheney and the beneficiary of numerous lucrative contracts bestowed by the Bush administration in Iraq and Afghanistan (among other places).
Excerpt: “Investigators delving into the causes of the massive gulf oil spill are examining the role of Houston-based Halliburton Co., the giant energy services company that was responsible for cementing the deepwater drill hole, as well as the possible failure of equipment leased to British Petroleum. . . .
. . . A 2007 study by the U.S. Minerals Management Service found that cementing was the single most-important factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period.
Halliburton has been accused of performing a poor cement job in the case of a major blowout in the Timor Sea off Australia last August. An investigation is underway. . .”
In addition, British Petroleum, Tony Blair and George W. Bush are inextricably linked. A powerful Scottish family–the Gammells–have been cozy with the Bushes for decades. W has long been close to scion Bill Gammell. The land mark text Family of Secrets by Russ Baker details this milieu. (Read a mini-review of the book.)
. . . . George W. and Bill [Gammell] remained close, and the two talked the day Bush was elected governor of Texas in 1994. The following year, Bill Gammell, whose company vice chairman was a former Labour energy minister, renewed his relationship with British Labour leader and soon-to-be prime minister Tony Blair.
Bill Gammell’s ties to Blair date back to prep school in Edinburgh, where the two had been friends and basketball teammates. Gammell arranged the initial meeting between the two world leaders, and Bush’s first words to the British prime minister were: “I believe you know my old friend, Bill Gammell.”
W. would mention his family’s connections to the Gammells in a 2005 Oval Office interview with the Times of London. . . . He [Bush] discussed past business deals with Billy Gammell, an “oil and gas guy” who used to visit Midland, Texas, and became “a very successful entrepreneur.” . . .
Blair’s decision to back Bush enthusiastically on Iraq appears to have paid dividends. In 2008, when Iraq’s oil ministry began handing out no-bid development contracts to a select group, one of the lucky parties was BP–a company that had as much influence in the Blair government as American oil companies had in the Bush-Cheney White House. Blair surrounded himself with at least a dozen executives from BP. . . the prime minister maintained such a close relationship with BP’s CEO Lord Browne that newspapers dubbed the giant oil company “Blair Petroleum” (although some wondered if it wouldn’t be more fitting to call the British government the British Petroleum government.) . . .
(Family of Secrets by Russ Baker; pp. 434–436.)
[...] trouble-on-oiled-waters-halliburton-bp-bush-cheney-and-blair [...]
There’s something absurd about the idea of drilling the seabed to mine for water. But here we are:
Note that the North East coast of Florida was one of the locations where researchers found a large coastal undersea freshwater deposit reserves. Perhaps we should be relieved that it wasn’t off of Florida’s West coast. There’s a lot less room for drilling errors on that side.
This is kind neat: While the acidification of the oceans from all the CO2 we’re spewing into the atmosphere might increase certain types of deadly algae blooms, new algae-to-oil technology can turn algae into oil after ~30 minutes of pressure cooking. So not only is algae potentially an amazing carbon sink that could be used for CO2 capture to lower atmospheric CO2 levels, it’s increasingly a potent source of CO2 emitting biofuels. Yay?
In other oil-related news, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a recent report on the blowout preventer technology that failed during BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Their findings? Uh oh:
“The board said the same device design is being used on at least 30 rigs worldwide and some general problems with operations and testing could affect other types of preventers.” Well, it looks like another preemptive mass apology to the future may be in order.
We’re sorry!We’re Sorry!