latimes--2019-07-25--Touring oil spill site Newsom calls for greater oversight of California petroleum industry

Touring oil spill site, Newsom calls for greater oversight of California petroleum industry

Gov. Gavin Newsom, in the Central Valley on Wednesday for a firsthand look at one of the largest oil spills in California history, vowed to go beyond the state’s already aggressive efforts to curtail the use of fossil fuels and seek a long-term strategy to reduce oil production.  Newsom also signaled a sharp break with that past by criticizing existing oversight of the oil industry as too permissive. He promised to begin by retooling the state’s top oil regulatory agency, state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.    The Democratic governor made the comments after arriving in the Kern County town of McKittrick on a 100-plus-degree afternoon, just a few miles from the Chevron oil well field where roughly a million gallons spilled into a dry creek bed. Chevron officials blamed the spill — with was about two-thirds water and one-third oil — on an old well that the company recently recapped.  Although Newsom called for greater oversight of oil production, he was careful not to cast himself as an industry opponent. He made note of the local jobs sustained by petroleum production, and he praised both Chevron and state agencies for working to stem and contain the seeping liquid. He added that there was no indication that the spill threatened wildlife or aquifers that supply drinking water for local communities.  Still, he said, another major seepage is always possible.  Newsom, who took office in January, said the spill had refocused attention on California’s billion-dollar oil industry and its place in a state striving to end its dependence on fossil fuels and convert to 100% renewable energy.  “I want to focus not just on demand but supply, and that, I think, is a new approach in this state with this new administration,” the governor told The Times.  Environmental groups have been lobbying Newsom to ban new wells and curtail oil production. The leadership of the governor’s own political party has called for the immediate end of the controversial fracking method of oil extraction, a process that uses drilling and large volumes of high-pressure water to pump oil and gas from the ground.  Newsom has rebuffed those efforts, saying any action the state takes must be thoughtful, realistic and account for thousands of Californians who depend on the oil industry to make a living.  The governor, who began his visit Wednesday at McKittrick Elementary School, noted that historical pictures of oil derricks lined the school’s hallways — evidence of how engrained the petroleum industry is in the local economy.  “With respect, drive around. There are not a lot of alternative strategies for economic growth here,” Newsom said. “Before we turn off the tap, what’s the plan to take care of the folks here? What’s the plan to take care of the workers? If you can’t look people in the eye and say you have an answer to that, then I think you’re doing a disservice to people in the community, and I can’t do that.”  Newsom emphasized that $1.5 million has been set aside in the state budget, approved by the Legislature and signed by him in June, to study ways to reduce petroleum demand and production in the state, taking into consideration the effects on the economy, jobs and Californians.  Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity said the study is a good first step but added that California cannot afford to wait to take action. Siegel and other environmental leaders want Newsom to impose a moratorium on fracking and all new oil wells.  “When you’re in a hole, the first step is to stop digging,” Siegel said. “There should be no more expansion of oil production. There’s no way to keep California safe from this industry other than phasing it out.”  Newsom said state law prohibits him from doing that by executive fiat and that legislative action would be required.  The effort to sway Newsom follows an unsuccessful campaign by environmental activists, community groups and labor unions that tried to persuade then-Gov. Jerry Brown to freeze all new oil and gas drilling during his final year in office. While praised for helping California become a world leader in combating climate change, Brown has come under attack for not reining in the state’s oil industry.  “There’s been a cozy relationship that the Brown administration and California have had with the oil industry, and I think those days are gone,” said state Sen. Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont).  Wieckowski wrote legislation that would charge a 10% tax on every barrel of oil pumped from the ground in California to bring in some $900 million annually, part of which can be used to increase regulatory oversight of oil production, he said.  Earlier this month, Newsom fired California’s top oil industry regulator for issuing too many permits for hydraulic fracturing, as fracking is formally known. He said he intends to reshape leadership of the agency to increase regulatory oversight of the oil industry.  California is one of the nation’s top petroleum-producing — and gasoline-consuming — states, pitting an essential ingredient of the California economy and everyday lifestyles against overwhelming public sentiment for curtailing the use of fossil fuels.  In 2018, Brown and the Legislature adopted an ambitious goal to covert California to a 100%, zero-carbon electrical supply by 2045. A 2016 poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that most likely voters in the state opposed fracking and increased oil drilling off the coast. A vast majority also favored stricter emission limits on power plants in an effort to address climate change.  Still, California is home to 26 million vehicles with internal-combustion engines, and the oil industry helps support close to 368,000 blue-collar jobs in the state, according to the Western States Petroleum Assn.  California is home to 72,000 oil-producing wells that last year produced 165.3 million barrels of oil from onshore and offshore facilities, according to the California Department of Conservation. California also consumes more gasoline than any other state — 366 million barrels in 2017, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  According to the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, known as DOGGR, more than 120,000 wells in the state have been plugged, the legacy of more than a century of oil drilling.  The Chevron-owned well where the spill occurred last drew oil in 2003 and was sealed with cement some time after, according to state data. It sits alongside more than 3,600 other plugged wells in the Cymric oil field in Kern County, most of which are Chevron’s.  An additional 400 wells in the field sit inactive, not producing oil and waiting to be sealed. Nearly all of the wells in the Cymric field are operated by some of the state’s biggest producers: Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Sentinel Peak.  Wade Crowfoot, California secretary for natural resources, said the state is still trying to determine the cause of the spill and whether the oil company’s use of steam injection in the area was a contributing factor. State officials already have demanded all the data collected by Chevron about the spill to help with the state’s independent review of the incident.


latimes--2019-07-28--Californias biggest oil spill in decades brings more defiance than anger from locals

California's biggest oil spill in decades brings more defiance than anger from locals

Near the jagged western edge of Kern County, where the Temblor Range gives way to a landscape of steam pipes, fuel lines and bobbing pumpjacks, there’s a definite mood in this dusty little oil town: Defiance.  Hardly a day goes by without reports of the growing oil leak in nearby Cymric oil field. So far, more than 900,000 gallons of oil and brine have oozed from a Chevron Corp. well, and filled a dry creek, creating a hazardous black lagoon.  The residents of McKittrick, population 145, understand why people are upset by the images. Also, there’s no avoiding the worry that prolonged exposure to crude oil might one day trigger health issues.  But judging from the rowdy talk over cold beers and a blaring jukebox at Mike and Annie’s Penny Bar — a watering hole for thirsty oil field hands that has over a million pennies glued to the bar, floors, walls, television and entrance — the locals see a different story playing out.  “Environmentalists have it all wrong,” argued Troy Smith, 46, an oil field worker who grew up in the area. “Compared with the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and BP’s deep-sea spill in the Gulf of Mexico, our little outbreak is nothing. Yet, they’re using it as an excuse to shut down California’s oil industry and wipe us out.”  “What more do they want?” he asked no one in particular. “We already work under the strictest standards imaginable, and adhere to them tooth and nail.”  Smith, like many others in McKittrick, was more worried about how the largest California spill in nearly three decades would affect election campaigns and new oil industry legislation in Congress and the state Legislature.  When Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has taken a more anti-oil stance than his predecessor, former Gov. Jerry Brown, ventured to the spill site for a firsthand look on Wednesday, the sarcastic response heard across town was, “There goes the neighborhood.”  But the future of California’s billion-dollar oil industry was already being shaped by shifting political winds, building concerns about toxic emissions from oil and natural production, development of alternative energy facilities and a recent overhaul of the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, or DOGGR, the state’s primary oil regulatory agency.  “California can put a stop to the inevitability of oil spills by intentionally transitioning away from oil extraction,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. “The state must prioritize our public health and our environment over corporate polluters’ profits.”  That kind of talk raises the hackles in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, where oil is an economic and cultural force crucial to the lives of thousands of people.  When retiree Raul Rubio, 67, wants to relax, he leans back in a folding chair in his backyard facing an oil field that is miles long and miles wide. The scenery is perfect for sifting through memories of the 40 years he worked as an oil field operator.  An odd sort of duality permeates his feelings about the ongoing oil spill roughly 3½ miles from his modest wood-framed home.  On one hand, he can recall many industrial accidents over the years that could have had potentially devastating consequence. But he also appreciates the simpler, old-fashioned, slower pace of life.  About 12 years ago, a Cymric well blasted a mixture of oil and water so high that it traveled for miles in the wind. Gooey spots covered the town straddling a lonely stretch of State Highway 33 like leopard spots.  “Chevron immediately took responsibility and fixed that well,” he recalled with a smile. “They also paid to clean our cars and property.”  Around the same time, while making the rounds of another local oil field, he said, “I discovered an oil spill that spilled into a ravine and then flowed for miles. That problem also got fixed right away.”  So, he wasn’t all that worried about the ongoing leak at Cymric field. “I know that Chevron is out there cleaning things up,” he said. “They know what they’re doing. If it was a danger to the people living here, they would have notified us.”  Skepticism runs deep here when it comes to environmentalists’ warnings about the dangers posed by oil production and an array of unconventional oil and natural gas extraction techniques and their hazardous byproducts on wildlife, air quality, drinking water in underground aquifers and global climate change.  Don’t believe it. Not a chance. Life is as safe and peaceful as it always has been, locals like to say.  But anti-oil forces aren’t waiting before some of the potential long-lasting impacts from oil wells become evident.  In a state where 5.5 million people live within a mile of an oil well, the Legislature is currently weighing the merits of Assembly Bill 345, which would create 2,500-foot health and safety buffer zones between new oil and gas wells and sensitive land uses including schools, homes and hospitals.  The bill, written by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Rolling Hills Estates ), was inspired, in part, by a Kern County Superior Court ruling in May that the city of Arvin had illegally approved four new wells adjacent to homes and farms already coping with 10 active gas and oil wells, some of them in agricultural fields.  “This case sends a really strong signal that the oil industry cannot just do whatever it wants — it must follow California’s environmental laws,” said Chelsea Tu, senior attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.  Separately, Newsom in June signed a state budget that earmarked $1.5 million for an unprecedented study to find ways to reduce California’s petroleum production and demand.  A few days later, he fired DOGGR Supervisor Ken Harris for issuing too many permits for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and allegations that several of his regulators own stock in major oil companies.  On his first day on the job, Jason Marshall, who was appointed acting supervisor at DOGGR, ordered Chevron to “take all measures” to stop the seepage at Cymric field that has continued intermittently for more than two months.  He’s been frustrated by an inability to get clear answers to some basic questions: Why hasn’t the leak been stopped? Why did Chevron and state regulators wait two months to formally alert the public about the problem that began on May 10?  In an interview, Richard Hinkley, general manager in Chevron’s asset development business, said he believes that the seepage started after crews used cement to fortify a dormant well that in 2004 had been taken out of commission and permanently sealed.  Built-up pressure from an oil reservoir under the well, he said, forced liquid — which was about two-thirds water and one-third oil — to the surface through “paths of least resistance,” including cracks and fissures in the concrete and steel well bore during the cement job.  So far, he said, crews have vacuumed up about 90% of the fluid that had pooled in the dry creek bed that cuts across the 485-acre oil field.  Chevron initially said the seepage stopped several hours after it was discovered on May 10. However, it reactivated on June 8 after crews conducted tests to determine its cause — and then continued intermittently in the vicinity of the well head.  Two new seepages emerged on July 21, officials said, shortly after Chevron crews completed the cementing operation.  Adjacent wells have been shut down and idled wells activated to ease pressure beneath the ground and reduce surface flows. Air cannons were installed to keep wildlife away. Oil work has been halted within 1,200 feet of the site.  So far, there are no reported injuries or threats to drinking water aquifers in the region, officials said.  As for Chevron’s decision not to formally alert the public, Sean Comey, a spokesman for the giant oil corporation, said, “If there had been any risk to human health we would have responded differently.”  As crews work day and night to plug the leaks, Dave Noerr, mayor of the nearby city of Taft, has been reminding outsiders about the benefits of oil and gas production for jobs and their personal lives.  California is home to 72,000 oil-producing wells that last year produced 165 million barrels of oil from onshore and offshore facilities, according to the California Department of Conservation. California also consumed 366 million barrels of gas in 2017 — more than any other state, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  “There was a time when Kern County was the largest oil and gas producing county in the United States outside of Alaska,” said Noerr. “But oil production has been in decline for some time now, which is too bad because of the employment and sales taxes it generates to support essentials like hospitals and schools.”  Noerr has a personal oil connection: In 1981, he worked as a roustabout in the Kern oil fields. “Man, that was a hot and nasty job in mid-July,” he said.  Linda L. Hillan, 63, a heavy equipment operator who shares a wood-framed house in McKittrick with a huge cat named “Big Mama,” wouldn’t argue with any of that.  Staring at the darkening clouds of an approaching monsoon that would wash layers of smog and the smell of crankcase oil from the skies on a recent 100-plus-degree afternoon, she grumbled, “Outsiders need to worry about their own backyards — and leave us alone.”  Like most towns, after all, McKittrick is imbued with its own peculiarities.  “There’ve been a million oil spills out here over the years,” she said. “Hell, man, I’ve seen wells catch fire and burn for weeks on end. I’ve seen leaking oil pouring over a hill behind my house like a waterfall.”


naturalnews--2019-02-07--Deepwater Horizon oil spills effects are still being seen Atlantic stingrays found to have signifi

Deepwater Horizon oil spill's effects are still being seen: Atlantic stingrays found to have significantly impaired olfactory functions

(Natural News) The Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster continues to cast a long shadow across the Atlantic Ocean. Close to a decade after the ecological disaster, a Florida-based study found that crude oil from the spill has crippled the sense of smell of Atlantic stingrays.  Marine animals use their senses to find food and mates, as well as to avoid predators. An animal will become much more vulnerable to harm if one of its senses are not working properly. This goes double for the sense of smell, which fish use a lot.  A research team from the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) studied the physiological effects of crude oil on the olfactory sense of the Atlantic stingray (Hypanus sabinus). They simulated the levels of oil pollution found in coastal waters during the Deepwater Horizon crisis and exposed animals to the toxic pollutant for different lengths of time.  Based on the results of their experiment, it only took 48 hours of exposure to the oil before the stingray’s sense of smell suffered severe degradation. The researchers concluded that crude oil harmed the health of stingrays, which would in turn affect the marine ecosystem that it is a part of. (Related: Sunlight triggers chemical reactions that make the Deepwater Horizon oil spill unlikely to degrade.)  FAU researcher Dr. Stephen M. Kajiura oversaw the study on the sense of smell of stingrays. He and his research team tested the olfactory reactions of the animals to both clean water and crude oil-tainted water.  Get CLEAN FOOD and help support our mission to keep you informed: The Health Ranger Store lab verifies everything we sell with accredited testing for heavy metals, microbiology and food safety. Certified organic facility, ISO-accredited on-site laboratory, no GMOs or synthetic ingredients. The world's #1 source of lab-verified clean foods and superfoods for nutritional healing. 600+ products available. Explore now.  Electro-physiological assays showed that stingrays exposed to oil reacted much more weakly to important scents like food and predators. The affected animals took much longer to detect a smell, recognize it, and take the appropriate response.  “Unlike other sensory systems in which the receptor cells are not in immediate contact with the environment such as the eye, inner ear, lateral line, and electroreceptors, the chemo-sensory cells of the olfactory organ are directly exposed, through the mucus, to the seawater,” explained Kajiura.  Th exposed receptor cells of the olfactory system can be directly injured by crude oil and other water pollutants that come into contact with it. This could lead to stingrays suffering earlier deaths and reduced population levels.  H. sabinus lives in the shallow waters of coastal areas. However, its deep-water cousins are potentially more vulnerable to crude oil due to several factors.  Benthic or deep-sea fish have much slower metabolic rates due to the cold temperature of their home waters. Their slower-working bodies could take much longer to purge crude oil from their tissues. That gives the toxic chemical much more time to accumulate in the body and harm important cells and organs.  Furthermore, skates and other oviparous species of elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, etc.) reproduce by laying fertilized egg cases on the seafloor. The embryos in these eggs take a long time to grow before hatching.  The immature embryos are highly sensitive to environmental conditions. So if the sediment around them contains a lot of crude oil, the toxic chemical will affect their growth and development.  Of the numerous chemical compounds in crude oil, the heavy metals are perhaps the most dangerous. Aluminum, cobalt, copper, manganese, mercury, and zinc can disrupt the ion channels that link together the parts of the olfactory system.  There are also fractions of crude oil that can dissolve in water. These water-soluble compounds are known to injure olfactory epithelium cells.  FAU researcher Kajiura warned that crude oil exposure does not have to kill an animal outright to be considered dangerous. Its crippling effects on the sense of smell of marine animals should be considered a long-term threat to the ecosystem.


npr--2019-01-28--How Californias Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green

How California's Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green

A duck covered in a thick coating of crude oil, picked up when it lighted on waters off Carpinteria State Beach in Santa Barbara County, Calif., after the oil spill in January 1969. **Bettmann/Getty Images** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Bettmann/Getty Images  A duck covered in a thick coating of crude oil, picked up when it lighted on waters off Carpinteria State Beach in Santa Barbara County, Calif., after the oil spill in January 1969.  Bettmann/Getty Images  On January 28, 1969, an oil well off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., experienced a blowout. The result was an oil spill that at the time ranked as the largest in U.S. waters.  The disaster, which made headlines across the nation, helped create the modern environmental movement. It also led to restrictions on offshore drilling — restrictions the Trump Administration is trying to loosen.  The events that led to the spill began one morning on Platform A, a rig located about six miles from the coast and operated at the time by Union Oil.  Workers had already drilled four wells from the platform and were drilling a fifth when they ran into a problem.  "You punch into some of these oil reservoirs and you get a lot of back pressure," says [Douglas McCauley](https://www.eemb.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/mccauley), a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  McCauley has brought me out to Platform A on a boat, which circles the rig as he talks.  He tells me that in this case, the back pressure overwhelmed the well's safety systems. This allowed crude oil and natural gas trapped thousands of feet down to rocket toward the surface.  "So they're taking these big drilling pipes and shoving them back down the hole and these gigantic steel blocks on top of that to seal off this blowout," McCauley says. It worked, but only for a few minutes.  "They had capped off the blowout successfully," McCauley says. "But they created so much pressure at the bottom of this well that it actually broke open the seabed."  "They had capped off the blowout successfully," says Douglas McCauley, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "But they created so much pressure at the bottom of this well that it actually broke open the seabed." **Jon Hamilton/NPR** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Jon Hamilton/NPR  "They had capped off the blowout successfully," says Douglas McCauley, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "But they created so much pressure at the bottom of this well that it actually broke open the seabed."  Jon Hamilton/NPR  Better reinforcement of the well might have prevented the spill. But Union Oil had received a waiver from the government that allowed the company to drill without installing steel casing pipe to the depth usually required by federal regulations.  Unimpeded, oil and gas under tremendous pressure opened five separate gashes in the soft sandstone seabed. So much gas bubbled to the surface near Platform A that the water appeared to boiling. And oil from the underwater fissures began to form a slick that would eventually cover an area nearly the size of Chicago.  The effect on marine life was profound.  "Right where we're sitting right now you transformed from this ecosystem of amazing richness, amazing biodiversity, amazing biological activity into a sort of Armageddon of blackness," McCauley says.  It took a few days for the oil to reach Santa Barbara's famous beaches.  "I smelled it long before I saw it; it really stank around here," says [Marc McGinnes](http://www.es.ucsb.edu/people/j-marc-mcginnes), a lawyer who came down from San Francisco. "And when I looked at the oil on the beach, I cried."  McGinnes left his job at a big law firm to help launch a legal response to the spill. He would go on to become a key figure in the environmental efforts that grew out the event as well as a faculty member at UCSB.  President Richard Nixon talked with workers cleaning up the oily beach at Santa Barbara in March 1969. **AP** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  AP  President Richard Nixon talked with workers cleaning up the oily beach at Santa Barbara in March 1969.  AP  The spill received enough media attention that President Richard Nixon made a trip to survey the damage in a helicopter. He also visited an oil-soaked beach near Santa Barbara Harbor.  Nixon spent his time on the beach "walking around gingerly" to avoid stepping on the sticky blobs of oil, McGinnes says.  The oil killed thousands of birds and an unknown number of sea mammals. Hundreds of oiled birds that were still alive were taken to the Santa Barbara Zoo, which is just a few steps from the beach.  "At the time there was really no place or process to care for the oiled wildlife that was showing up on the beaches," says Nancy McToldridge, the zoo's director. "So the zoo closed its doors and concentrated its time and energy into taking in these oiled birds, treating them and then rehabbing them back out into the wild."  The suffering and deaths of so many animals helped get the public's attention and spur lawmakers to action. And 1969 marked a turning point for environmental activism.  Cleanup workers rake oil-soaked hay along a Santa Barbara beach in 1969, after an oil spill that was then the largest in U.S. history. **Bettmann/Getty Images** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  Bettmann/Getty Images  Cleanup workers rake oil-soaked hay along a Santa Barbara beach in 1969, after an oil spill that was then the largest in U.S. history.  Bettmann/Getty Images  "The Santa Barbara oil spill really helped to take an issue that was growing and really convert it into legislative action and a whole body of environmental law at the federal level and also at the state level that we still have with us today," says [Peter Alagona](http://www.es.ucsb.edu/people /peter-alagona), a historian at UCSB.  The first [Earth Day](https://www.earthday.org/) took place just over a year later in April of 1970. The Environmental Protection Agency was created in December of that year. Environmental laws passed or strengthened during this period included the Clean Air, [Clean Water](https://www.epa.gov/laws- regulations/history-clean-water-act) and Endangered Species Acts.  One reason the 1969 oil spill had such an impact was that Santa Barbara was home to a lot of wealthy Republicans who had helped elect Nixon, Alagona says.  Nixon himself was no environmentalist, Alagona says, "but he realized during a time when there were many other extremely controversial, divisive issues like the Vietnam War for instance, that as American public concern grew about damage to the environment that this could potentially be a winning issue for him."  So Nixon signed the environmental legislation, even though many in his own party opposed it.  The oil slick visible around Platform A in the Santa Barbara Channel emanated from fissures in the seabed. **USGS** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  USGS  The oil slick visible around Platform A in the Santa Barbara Channel emanated from fissures in the seabed.  USGS  Today, Santa Barbara is much better prepared for an oil spill than it was in 1969. There's a 46-foot fast-response vessel in the harbor. And animals exposed to oil are cared for by a statewide group called the [Oiled Wildlife Care Network](https://owcn.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/).  The response system got a test in 2015, when an oil pipeline burst a few miles up the coast. Workers deployed thousands of feet of floating boom to help contain the spill and skimmer boats began removing the oil from the water's surface.  Meanwhile, members of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network sprang into action, rescuing and caring for oiled animals. And those animals were more likely to survive than the ones oiled in 1969.  "Many more animals survive now than they would have back in the '60s or '70s or even the '80s," says Julie Barnes, a veterinarian and vice president for animal health and care at the Santa Barbara Zoo.  That's partly because of what animal care experts learned from the Santa Barbara spill, Barnes says. But they've learned even more from the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989 and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  "It's got to the point that there's so many spills that for animals there's a highly organized system in place," Barnes says.  These days, the greatest environmental danger from oil probably isn't another spill, McCauley says. It's the climate change caused by burning all that oil.  Santa Barbara got a preview of what that might mean a year ago, he says. It came in the form of a mudslide that careened through the community of Montecito.  "There were boulders and trees traveling at like 22 miles per hour down the street," McCauley says. "It destroyed 100 houses and killed 21 people.  It's difficult to peg any one incident to climate change. But the mudslide followed the sort of extreme weather thought to accompany global warming.  "I think of that as being the most insidious, the worst thing the oil industry has done to our community," McCauley says.  An end to offshore drilling would help reduce the effects of climate change by reducing the supply of oil, he says.  But the Trump Administration seems headed in the other direction. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is [preparing a five-year plan](https://www.boem.gov/National-OCS-Program/) expected to greatly increase offshore drilling in federally controlled waters, including those off the coast of Santa Barbara.


sottnet--2019-07-03--Chinese scientists develop new material for cleaning up oil spills

The search for ever-better materials to soak up oil from water has recently added a new member to this highly specialized and highly sough-after family: Chinese scientists have invented a honeycomb-style polypropylene material that can soak up oil from water more cheaply and efficiently than some popular established methods, and do it in an environmentally friendly way.The material according to a press release , is essentially foam with a rough surface and a tubular structure modeled on honeycombs. This structure allows water to flow freely through the tubes while oil gets caught and absorbed in seconds, the researchers from Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology said.While we don't see many oil spills of Deepwater Horizon proportions on a regular basis, luckily, the problem of oil-contaminated water is a serious one simply because, as the Chinese scientists note in their research, oil and oil derivatives are used in so many industrial activities that also involve water at some point. The result is oily water that cannot be cleaned by setting it on fire (a common method for waterborne oil cleanup if not very environmentally friendly) or filtering it in another way.The news from the Chinese institute come soon after another invention in this field: a sorbent material that can absorb oil without also absorbing a lot of water. Called a plasma-polymerized carbonaceous nanosponge and developed by Argentine scientists, the material is a powder that "can be used to selectively and efficiently adsorb hydrocarbons from water, with negligible water uptake." The material can work on its own or be used as coating for textiles or metal meshes as a barrier between oil and water.Oil water separation research certainly looks like an exciting field. Some more news in it came from Texas earlier this month. Two young entrepreneurs there developed what they've called Towelie: a cheap fabric that can hold up to 15 times its weight in oil. The towel-like unwoven material is cheap and it floats without leaving any microplastic residue in the water. What's more, it's made from natural cotton fibers. Things don't get any eco-friendlier than this.Of course, for all their benefits, these different materials certainly have drawbacks since they were made in an imperfect world.The Chinese invention, for example, is made from polypropylene, which is an oil — or gas — derivative. This probably contributes significantly to its affordability but does not, strictly speaking, make it completely environmentally friendly in terms of production. Also, plastic-based sorbents leave microplastic residue in the water.The nanosponge invented by the Argentine scientists can absorb oil for half an hour under UV radiation but then it begins to soak up water as well, which compromises its effectiveness.The cotton-based Towelie is already used in the Permian for minor leaks at wellheads and as a replacement for synthetic towels widely used in the oil production industry. Yet it doesn't seem like the best idea for a major offshore spill: a major spill would require thousands of Towelies that would then have to be collected and the oil disposed of.All in all, however, it's good to know there is an ongoing effort to make potential oil spills and leaks less devastating and clean them up more quickly with less water getting wasted in the process.


sputnik--2019-02-17--Train Derailment Causes Crude Oil Spill in Central Canada Reports

Train Derailment Causes Crude Oil Spill in Central Canada – Reports

CN Rail spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said that the exact volume of spilt crude oil remained unknown, but the spill had not contaminated the nearby Assiniboine River.  "There is no risk of contamination to the Assiniboine River … A number of provincial agencies are involved in the response to this incident, but CN Rail is leading the cleanup", a spokesperson for Manitoba’s Sustainable Development department said.  There are no reports about any people killed or injured in the incident. Causes of the derailment remain unknown.


sputnik--2019-04-22--Brazils Petrobras Reports Oil Spill From Albacora Field Offshore Pipeline

Brazil's Petrobras Reports Oil Spill From Albacora Field Offshore Pipeline

According to the company's statement, the leak has been identified around dawn Monday. Oil production at platform P-25, located some in the Campos Basin some 110 km away from the coast, has been halted shortly after the discovery of the leak, the company's statement says.  "The company has promptly sent ships to the location, tasked with removal of the oil spill," Petrobras said in the statement, adding that the regulatory bodies have been notified of the incident.


sputnik--2019-09-08--Video Hurricane Dorian Causes Large Oil Spill in Bahamas

Video: Hurricane Dorian Causes Large Oil Spill in Bahamas

Hurricane Dorian that struck the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm last Sunday damaged the Equinor South Riding Point oil storage facility in High Rock, causing a large spill.  The Norwegian energy company that owns the facility issued a press release on 5 September, saying there were no observations of any oil spill at sea. However, photos and videos have since emerged online, proving that the spillage did in fact take place. Coral Vita, a coral conservation group, were among the first people to assess the scale of the damage at the site.  As the information about the oil spill has been spreading online, some users have suggested that the issue deserves wider media coverage.  The hurricane struck the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm last Sunday and remained over Abaco and Grand Bahama for the following two days bringing 185mph winds and torrential rains. The death toll from the storm has grown to 43, and the figure is expected to rise. Up to 70,000 people in the Bahamas are said to be in need of 'life-saving assistance.'  Earlier this week, the US National Hurricane Center said that Dorian had weakened to a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 90 mph.


sputnik--2019-12-04--Scientists Come Up With Eco-Sorbent That Will Save the Environment from Oil Spills

According to experts, the material for collecting oil and oil products is an innovation, which is on a par with global competitors in terms of performance. Its advantage is controlled biodegradability within 1-2 months after use in the sorbate environment (a soluble substance, in this case oil).  The scientists noted that this was possible due to the material’s composition and the method of its creation. The sorbent is a non-woven fibrous material based on natural biopolymers obtained using advanced electroforming technology, which makes the material ultra-thin.  The researchers explained that the sorbent biodegrades quite quickly due to special microorganisms, which are contained in naturally-sorbed oil and can easily recover the natural biopolymer. This eliminates the sorbent extraction stage in order to separate oil. Only sorbate filtration from polymer particles and dirt is needed. As a result, oil refining becomes more technologically advanced and economically viable.  According to experts, the materials obtained can be used to collect and remove oil and oil products from water and soil surfaces. As a material, it can be used for filter loading of treatment plants while treating oily wastewater and industrial effluents, as well as in filters for oil vapours recovery.  Currently, the PRUE team, together with the Laboratory of Diffusion Phenomena in Polymer Systems at the Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is producing enough material to conduct complex semi-industrial tests in order to improve the technology and structural elements.


tass--2019-08-14--Emergency declared in Serbian municipality due to oil spill in Moravica River

BELGRADE, August 14. /TASS/. State of emergency has been declared on Wednesday in Serbia’s Ivanjica (Western Serbia) after 70 tonnes of waste oil spilled into the Moravica River, the national RTS TV channel reported.  "Waste oil spilled into the Moravica River. Ecological and communal inspectors reacted immediately. For now, I cannot name the cause or who is to blame. It is vital for us to stop the spillage of oil into the Moravica, as this river flows into the Rivers Arilje, Pozega and Chachaka, which can result in an ecological catastrophe in the whole of Western Serbia," an official said.  According to the TV channel, it was the oil stored for winter in one of the enterprises that spilled into the river. Rescue teams are at the scene, trying to collect the oil products from the water surface.


telesurtv--2019-06-27--Gulf of Mexico 2004 Oil Spill Thousand Times Worse than Stated

Gulf of Mexico 2004 Oil Spill: Thousand Times Worse than Stated

A wrecked platform has been leaking as much as 4,500 gallons per day of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico since 2004, not three or four gallons the rig proprietor has claimed in the past, according to a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study released this month.  > _**RELATED:**_  >  > [_**Kenyan Environmentalists Celebrate As Court Blocks Huge Plant**_](https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Kenyan-Environmentalists- Celebrate-As-Court-Blocks-Huge-Plant-20190626-0023.html)  The platform owned by Taylor Energy collapsed and sank in September 2004 during the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in the Caribbean and the United States (U.S.) and, 15 years later, oil keeps leaking into the sea in a major spill much bigger than anticipated.  As much as 4,500 gallons per day could be leaking out from the site according to the study that has been conducted in collaboration with researchers from Florida State University and Florida International University. Satellite imagery has shown slicks on the surface of the water, sometimes ranging up to 30 km in length.  In the meantime, Taylor Energy says that slicks on the surface of the water only indicate that two to four gallons are seeping out. "The results of this study contradict these conclusions," scientists wrote in the report.  Various studies had already come to contradict the numbers presented by the company over the past years. Last year, for instance, an independent study refuted the energy company’s figures showing that even more oil (70,000 gallons a day) could be pouring out of the site, while other reports have said it could be between 9,000 and 25,000, according to Associated Press.  The new report also recalls that the rig's structure came to rest on the ocean floor and the collector bundle containing the original 28 pipes were buried by deposited sediment after breaking off. Taylor Energy has sealed some of the leaks, but said that the buried rest couldn’t be displaced without risk of environmental harm.  The leakage was discovered by scientists in 2010 and no coastal environmental damage nor dying wildlife were witnessed from the seepage at that time, driving some scientists to call it a "hidden oil spill."  “This is an unresolved, ongoing leak 14 years later,” Daniel Jacobs, author of a book following BP's oil spill and professor at Loyola Marymount University stated, adding that “this is one more indication that we’re not able to increase offshore drilling.”  The NOAA team measured output at the Taylor platform leaks for a six-day period last September, and it said that their results should serve to measure the total amount leaked from the platform over the past 14 years. They said the numbers will be used along with further studies and that they will continue to investigate the leak.  The continuing release of oil is happening where the waters of the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico mix. These large slicks can have detrimental repercussion on rich marine resources including plankton, fish and invertebrates (especially the sensitive early life stages), sargassum, birds, mammals and turtles.  Some 330,000 gallons of oil make their way into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a state agency that monitors spills.


thedailycaller--2019-03-12--Ocasio-Cortez Blames Pipeline That Hasnt Been Built Yet For An Oil Spill

Ocasio-Cortez Blames Pipeline That Hasn’t Been Built Yet For An Oil Spill

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed the Keystone XL pipeline for leaking about 5,000 barrels of oil in rural South Dakota about two years ago.  There’s just one problem: The Keystone XL pipeline has not been built yet.  During a House hearing Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that “Keystone XL, in particular, had one leak that leaked 210,000 gallons across South Dakota” while she questioned Wells Fargo president and CEO Timothy Sloan.  Ocasio-Cortez probably confused the Keystone XL pipeline with the Keystone pipeline, which has been operating since 2010. Keystone XL is still under construction, but would also bring oil sands from Canada to Nebraska where it would connect to existing pipeline.  Environmentalists spent years opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, filing court challenges and successfully lobbying former President Barack Obama to personally reject the project in late 2015. President Donald Trump reversed that decision in early 2017, but Keystone XL’s progress has since been delayed by activist lawsuits.  The existing Keystone pipeline, however, was responsible for leaking up to 9,700 barrels in South Dakota in 2017. The initial estimate for the spill was about 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons of oil. Both Keystone and the planned XL line are operated by Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada.  TransCanada said it repaired the pipeline and cleaned-up the spill, Reuters reported in 2018, though the event has been used by environmental activists to gin up opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.  Ocasio-Cortez, who recently introduced the Green New Deal resolution, also took aim at Wells Fargo’s financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which sparked violent protests along the project’s planned route throughout 2016. (RELATED: Greenpeace Tries To Erase Inconvenient Co-Founder From History)  Like Keystone XL, the Trump administration reversed the Obama administration’s blocking of the project. Dakota Access went into service in 2017. TransCanada had plans to begin building the Keystone XL pipeline later this year, but a February federal court ruling could delay construction until 2020.  Ocasio-Cortez also grilled Wells Fargo’s Sloan over their financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, asking the bank CEO if his company should be responsible for cleaning up any oil spills. The freshman Democrat also claimed the Dakota Access pipeline has leaked five times since it began operating two years ago.  “So, hypothetically, if there was a leak from the Dakota Access Pipeline, why shouldn’t Wells Fargo pay for the cleanup of it, since it paid for the construction of the pipeline itself?” Ocasio-Cortez asked in Tuesday’s hearing.  “We don’t operate the pipeline, we provide financing to the company that’s operating the pipeline,” Sloan said, also noting Wells Fargo had an environmental oversight group.  Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.


theguardianuk--2019-07-05--Solomon Islands bay hit by oil spill suffers second contamination crisis

Solomon Islands: bay hit by oil spill suffers second contamination crisis

A second major spill has hit the pristine Solomon Islands bay where a bulk carrier ran aground on a coral reef and leaked oil earlier this year.  On Monday, an estimated 5,000 tonnes of bauxite, the ore used in aluminium smelting, slipped into the water at Kangava Bay, Rennell Island, while it was being loaded on to a barge.  “The water is red. It’s like a scene from the Exodus,” a source on the island told the Guardian.  It is the second major environmental disaster for the area this year.  MV Solomon Trader ran aground on a reef in February, spilling about 80 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. The vessel was there to load bauxite from the island’s mining operations, which lies on the doorstep of a world heritage site in the island’s east.  The Guardian understands the Solomon Islands government is expected to sign off on the four-month oil spill clean up on 17 July, following the completion of the environmental assessment.  While local villagers have been told not to eat fish, it is understood many still are, in the absence of other food sources on the remote island. Test results are yet to come back to determine whether fish stocks have been contaminated with hydrocarbons.  “The impact of the oil is not nearly as bad as you would expect. The oil isn’t likely to cause any long-term damage,” a seperate person on the ground told the Guardian.  “The bauxite is the overwhelming issue by a long shot and that is causing substantial long term changes to the marine ecosystem.”  Ongoing mismanagement of bauxite loading has resulted in the whole bottom of the bay, down to several hundred metres, being covered in the mineral, the source said.  “It’s just totally out of control,” he said.  University of Technology Sydney water and ecology expert Martina Doblin warned the bauxite powder was likely to smother and bury what is on the ocean floor and will be spread around in tidal currents.  “It could limit the amount of light, so the water is cloudy and that means less light penetration for coral and sea grasses … it would have a harmful effect,” Doblin said.  OceansWatch Solomon Islands spokesman Lawrence Nodua said the contamination would cause problems for fish breeding.  “Normally fish come to where the coral are, so if the coral dies, they won’t be there, and [will lose the reef protection],” he said.  He claimed there were reports that children swimming in the bay were experiencing skin irritation from the poor water quality.  A Bintan Mining Solomon Islands company spokesman told the Guardian on Thursday that loading operations were suspended following the incident on Monday. The company would not comment further.  Sources on the ground said the company had moved loading operations to other parts of the island.  During the height of the oil spill disaster, Bintan Mining Solomon Islands faced criticism for continuing with its bauxite loading operations.  While currents pushed slick away from the world heritage site, the Guardian has been told small amounts have washed up in the area.  “Nothing significant, literally the size of a 50c piece here or there,” another source said.  Since 2013 the site has been on a Unesco danger list because of logging and overfishing.  The bulk carrier’s insurer, KP&I, said negotiations over clean-up operation costs would kick off soon but warned compensation claims would take time.  Although matters of liability are yet to be determined, the insurer and ship owner have previously “expressed deep remorse” and characterised the situation as “totally unacceptable”.  Comment has been sought from the Solomon Islands Maritime Authority, National Disaster Management Office and mining ministry.


theguardianuk--2019-07-28--Chile oil spill 40000 litres of diesel spilled into sea off Patagonia

Chile oil spill: 40,000 litres of diesel spilled into sea off Patagonia

Forty thousand litres of diesel oil has been spilled into the sea in a remote and pristine area of Patagonia, Chile’s navy confirmed on Sunday.  The spillage occurred in the Chilean section of Patagonia – a region that encompasses the southern tip of South America and spans both Chile and Argentina.  A statement from the Chilean navy said it received a call from the mining company CAP on Saturday reporting the spill at the terminal of Guarello island, about 1,740 miles (2,800km) south of Santiago, Chile’s capital.  The area is one of the planet’s most untouched with important biodiversity.  The navy said it had deployed ships to the area to control damage from the spill and an investigation had been launched.  “The marine pollution control centre was activated,” Ronald Baasch, commander of the navy’s Third Naval Zone, told local media.  CAP released a statement saying the incident had already been contained. The spill affected a bay and the company said it installed a container sleeve in the area on Saturday and began removing oil from the environment immediately.


theguardianuk--2019-11-07--Oil spill threatens vast areas of mangroves and coral reefs in Brazil

Hundreds of kilometres of mangroves and coral reefs, as well as humpback whale breeding grounds, are under threat from an oil spill that has polluted more than 2,400km of Brazil’s north-eastern coast in the last two months.  The Brazilian Navy, which has deployed 8,500 personnel, 30 ships and 17 aircraft in the cleanup operation, said this week that 4,200 tonnes of oil have been removed from beaches, amid fears by scientists that some has already entered the food chain.  “There are still many indirect impacts that have not yet been properly shown,” said Guilherme Dutra, director of Conservation International’s marine programme in Brazil. “The risk of contamination of the food chain is very high, especially in areas directly affected.”  The government of President Jair Bolsonaro initially struggled to react to the spill, leaving volunteers to clean up. On Wednesday it staged Brazil’s biggest-ever oil auction for ultra-deep-water rights, which raised $17bn (£13bn) – a disappointing shortfall on the $26bn the government had hoped for.  Mangroves and coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to damage, scientists said, and removing oil from them is a delicate, specialised and lengthy process. Detergents used to clean oil can damage coral reefs, and mangrove roots need to be cleaned manually.  Brazil’s government environment agency, Ibama, has counted 126 marine creatures affected – including 24 seabirds and 88 turtles – of which 95 had died, it said on Tuesday. Another 3,900 baby turtles had been captured by government agencies and universities and moved to safety.  The Brazilian navy says the oil has reached the Abrolhos Marine national park off the coast of Bahia state – a reserve that includes an archipelago, extensive coral reefs, humpback whale breeding grounds and the South Atlantic’s biggest concentration of marine biodiversity.  Reef fish such as Scarus trispinosus – a vivid blue parrotfish known as Budião-azul in Portuguese – as well as Mussismilia corals could be endangered, said Dutra, a biologist who has worked extensively in Abrolhos.  Flavio Lima, a professor of biology at the State University of Rio Grande do Norte in the north-east, said the oil could even prove fatal to the coral reefs.  “The coral is not an organism, it is a colony and it is very sensitive to alterations in the composition of nutrients,” he said. “Oil contamination could cause widespread death of coral colonies.”    Brazil’s coastal mangrove forests are important reproduction centres for many species of fish, Lima said.  “These mangrove areas are nurseries. We have the prolonged effects of the oil, that go from contamination of food sources like algae and invertebrates until [it reaches] the food chain … [The spill] also represents a risk for local populations who depend on crustaceans, like crabs and shrimp, and molluscs like oysters and clams, for survival.”  Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras, said the oil came from three Venezuelan fields. Last Friday Federal Police and the Brazilian navy said an oil tanker flying a Greek flag and carrying crude oil from Venezuela was the main suspect after satellite images showed it was the only ship near an oil slick spotted 700km off Brazil’s north-east coast on 28-29 July, en route to South Africa.  Delta Tankers, owners of the Bouboulina tanker since identified by Reuters as the ship concerned, has denied responsibility. The ship “sailed from Venezuela in laden condition on July 19 2019 heading directly, with no stops at other ports, for Melaka, Malaysia, where she discharged her entire cargo without any shortage”, the company said in a statement.  In a Facebook Live event last Friday alongside Bolsonaro, the fishing and agriculture secretary, Jorge Seif Júnior, said there was no risk of contamination. “The fish is an intelligent animal. When it sees a blanket of oil, it flees,” he said.  Maurício Cardim, 42, who rents boats to tourists and researchers in Bahia, said the evidence on the ground proved otherwise.  “I have seen dead fish, I have seen jellyfish… I have seen an enormous quantity of seaweed we don’t see at this time of year, coloured with oil,” said Cardim, who is part of the Coast Guardians group of volunteers who are cleaning up the coast of Bahia state. “We want a solution. For now we are cleaning our beaches, because we live from the sea.”


thehill--2019-10-31--Keystone pipeline spills more than 350,000 gallons of oil in North Dakota

The Keystone pipeline has spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into North Dakota this week, The New York Times reports.  The pipeline has leaked roughly 383,000 gallons of crude oil, impacting an estimated half-acre of wetland, according to state environmental regulators.  The leak has been contained, according to Karl Rockeman, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality's division of water quality.  "It is one of the larger spills in the state,” he told the Times.  He added that there are no homes near the site of the spill and the wetland that was impacted is not a source of drinking water. Pipeline owner TC Energy shut down the pipeline after the leak was detected.  Rockeman did not indicate whether cleanup of the spill had begun yet.  In a statement to the Times, TC Energy said it did not know the cause of the leak and that an internal investigation is underway.  “We are establishing air quality, water and wildlife monitoring and will continue monitoring throughout the response,” the statement reads.  The Hill has reached out to TC Energy for comment.  An addition to the pipeline, which carries crude oil from Canada through seven states, was at the center of prolonged environmental protests.  The incident occurred along a part of the existing Keystone pipeline system, not the 1,179-mile addition known as the Keystone XL pipeline, Rockeman noted.  President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump congratulates Washington Nationals on World Series win Trump hints that dog injured in al-Baghdadi raid will visit White House Vindman says White House lawyer moved Ukraine call to classified server: report MORE, just days into his term, opened the door for TC Energy to continue its construction of the pipeline extension after former President Obama denied it a permit in 2015.  This is not the first oil spill along the Keystone pipeline system; an incident in 2017 caused more than 407,000 gallons of crude oil to cover agricultural land in South Dakota in a rural area near the North Dakota border.


theindependent--2019-07-23--aposTicking time bombapos Threat of oil tanker explosion could cause one of historyaposs larg

'Ticking time bomb': Threat of oil tanker explosion could cause one of history's largest spills

A dilapidated tanker holding over 1 million barrels of crude oil could explode off the coast of Yemen, sparking one of the world’s largest oil spills, experts have warned.  The United Nations said this week that Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the nearby Red Sea port, have once again refused a technical team access to the decaying Safer tanker.  The Yemen-owned vessel is moored off Ras Isa and was once an offshore platform for vessels landing crude oil from a nearby pipeline to the central province of Marib.  Experts described the vessel as a ticking time bomb, saying it is at risk of exploding due to a dangerous build-up of volatile gases released from the oil it carries and a lack of maintenance of the ship.  The vessel is also disintegrating due to saltwater corrosion.  Russell Geekie, a spokesman at the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Independent on Tuesday that the UN remained “deeply concerned by the environmental threat” posed by the decaying tanker.  “The permits are still pending and discussions continue to secure them. The UN stands ready to deploy a technical team as soon as the necessary permits are issued,” he added.  Mark Lowcock, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator and under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, had said on Thursday that despite the Houthis requesting help from the UN and promising to facilitate the work, they continue to delay access.  He added that the vessel is “at risk of spilling up to 1.1 million barrels of into the Red Sea”.  “The UN assessment team had planned to deploy to the tanker next week, but the necessary permits remain pending with the (Houthi) authorities”, he told an 18 July security council meeting.  “Discussions continue to resolve this as quickly as possible,” he added.  The UN and experts say that an urgent assessment is needed on the vessel, which is supposed to be constantly tended to.  Inert gasses must be injected into the air space in the oil chambers of the ship to stop the build up of volatile gasses and prevent catastrophe.  Dr Ian Ralby, a maritime and security expert who heads up I R Consilium that researched the tanker, said that according to his sources in Yemen the last time inert gasses were inserted into the chambers of the vessel was in June 2017.  He said in April chunks of the vessel started to come off due to corrosion, meaning the vessel could be vulnerable to splitting in two.  Calling it a “massive floating incendiary” he warned that if it did explode, it would create an environmental catastrophe that would stretch past Yemen’s shores, to Saudi Arabia and as far as Eritrea, Sudan and even Egypt.  He added the tanker itself was connected to the Ras Isa-Marib pipeline which he said contained an additional 1 million barrels of crude which could also potentially spill into the sea.  “You’re talking about one of the largest oil spills in history,” he told The Independent.  “A 2 million barrel oil spill would potentially kill off all the coral in the Red Sea,” he added.  Doug Weir, of the Conflict and Environment Observatory that first raised the issue of the tanker last year, said at the heart of the issues is an estimated $80m (£64.3m) of crude oil aboard the vessel.  The cash-strapped Houthis want guarantees they will have access to the revenues of the oil, explaining their reluctance to allow access to the tanker, or for it to be towed away.  The tanker was also meant to be part of a withdrawal agreement in key Red Sea ports outlined in a peace agreement signed by both the Houthis and the Saudi-backed recognised government in Stockholm last year.  Last week the recognised Yemen government sounded the alarm in a video they posted to Twitter.  “The tanker should lie on a point of cooperation, but it is still heavily contested. If the UN can’t get the technical assessment done then it does leave much hope of resolving the crisis,” Mr Weir added.  He said the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska involved 260,000 barrels, just a fraction of what the Safer tanker is believed to contain. Ras Isa is close to one of Yemen’s few marine protected areas.  “It could destroy turtle nesting beaches, mangroves which are essential to supporting the local fisheries, coral reefs and the local fishing industry,” Mr Weir added.  Mr Ralby said even if the oil spill did not stretch across the entire Red Sea, the damage to marine biodiversity and life “would be horrendous” and Red Sea tourism would be “decimated”.  In addition, he warned that a tricky clean-up operation would see the Houthis, the Yemen authorities and the Saudis, who are locked in a war, forced to work together.  This would slow down maritime traffic coming through the Bab al-Mandeb strait to the Suez Canal, some of the world’s busiest waterways.  “It would be a tragedy for the global economy,” Mr Ralby added.  The Iran-backed Houthi rebels are locked in a ruinous war with the Gulf-backed recognised government after they swept control of the country in 2015.  Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies launched a bombing campaign a few months later to reinstate the authorities.


theindependent--2019-10-09--Mysterious oil spill marks fresh environmental crisis for Brazil, affecting more than 100 beaches

A mysterious oil spill that has polluted shores along a vast area of Brazil’s northeast may have resulted from unspecified criminal activity, and a foreign country could be responsible, president Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday.  An estimated 100 tons of crude has drifted towards land since early September, polluting some of the country’s most pristine beaches and forcing Brazilian officials to grapple with yet another environmental crisis. The government has already come under close scrutiny and heavy criticism after an unusually intense season of forest fires in the Amazon.  Now, oil has been spotted on at least 132 beaches affecting 61 municipalities in nine states, the country’s Environment Ministry said.  Officials have said the state oil company, Petrobras, is not responsible for the spill and that the crude is neither produced in nor exported to Brazil.  Mr Bolsonaro told reporters Tuesday that the government had a theory of what led to the spill, adding that a country is on “the radar.” He declined to elaborate, saying: “I can’t accuse a country. If it turns out it’s not that country, I don’t want to create problems with other countries.”  Ricardo Salles, the minister of the environment, flew over part of the affected area Sunday and said the government was taking “urgent measures to address pollution.”  The spill prompted the state of Sergipe to declare an emergency last week, and officials there have warned residents to stop going to certain beaches. The crude has also set off concern about wildlife. Biologists have treated several turtles that have washed ashore covered in crude, but some have died.  The spill comes as Mr Bolsonaro’s government has come under withering criticism from abroad for weakening environmental policies and agencies while taking steps to open up protected lands in the Amazon to industries.


theindependent--2019-12-23--Galapagos Islands: Officials fight to contain spill as barge carrying 600 gallons of oil capsizes

A diesel spill off the coast of the Galapagos Islands has triggered a mass response effort to ensure the safety of the islands' delicate ecosystem.  Ecuadorean officials said more than 600 gallons of fuel were on board a barge that capsized meters off the coast of San Cristobal Island after a crane fell onto the vessel as it loaded it with cargo.  It is unclear how much of the fuel went on to spill from its container on the coast of the UNESCO world heritage site, where Charles Darwin solidified his theory of evolution thanks to the region's finches.  However, images from the scene show the normally cerulean coast of the northernmost island having turned dark as Ecuadorean officials worked to clear the spillage.  Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno declared a state of emergency for the territory, but stressed that the matter was under control.  Meanwhile, the nation’s minister for the environment, Raúl Ledesma Huert, said contingency measures were immediately implemented to limit any risk to the island’s delicate biosphere. Among the measures put in place were absorbent cloths, deployed to soak up as much oil from the waters as possible.  Of the creatures that live on the islands, roughly 80 per cent of birds, 97 per cent of reptiles more than 30 per cent of plants can be found nowhere else on the planet.  More than 20 per cent of the marine life that lives on the coast are also unique to the region, with the waters also used by the world’s only marine iguana and the only penguin species to be found in the northern hemisphere.  The islands have survived oil spills before. In 2001, a spill of 243,000 gallons of oil was described as one of the worst disasters in Galapagos’ history. The pollution led to the deaths of around 62 per cent decline of the Iguana population on Santa Fe Island.


thepoliticalinsider--2019-03-13--Ocasio-Cortez Blames Pipeline That Hasnt Been Built Yet For An Oil Spill

Michael Bastasch on March 12, 2019  Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed the Keystone XL pipeline for leaking about 5,000 barrels of oil in rural South Dakota about two years ago.  There’s just one problem: The Keystone XL pipeline has not been built yet.  ### More from The Political Insider  During a House hearing Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that “Keystone XL, in particular, had one leak that leaked 210,000 gallons across South Dakota” while she questioned Wells Fargo president and CEO Timothy Sloan.  Ocasio-Cortez probably confused the Keystone XL pipeline with the Keystone pipeline, which has been operating since 2010. Keystone XL is still under construction, but would also bring oil sands from Canada to Nebraska where it would connect to existing pipeline.  Environmentalists spent years opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, filing court challenges and successfully lobbying former President Barack Obama to [personally reject the project](https://dailycaller.com/2015/11/06/obama- rejects-keystone-xl-to-appease-the-uns-global-warming-alarmism/) in late 2015. President Donald Trump reversed that decision in early 2017, but [Keystone XL’s progress has since been delayed](https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/24 /keystone-xl-pipeline-not-built/) by activist lawsuits.  The existing Keystone pipeline, however, was responsible for leaking up to 9,700 barrels in South Dakota in 2017. The initial estimate for the spill was about 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons of oil. Both Keystone and the planned XL line are operated by Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada.  TransCanada said it repaired the pipeline and cleaned-up the spill, Reuters [reported](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-pipeline-leak /keystone-pipeline-leak-in-south-dakota-about-double-previous-estimate-paper- idUSKBN1HE0T7) in 2018, though the event has been used by environmental activists to gin up opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.  Ocasio-Cortez, who recently introduced the Green New Deal resolution, also took aim at Wells Fargo’s financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which sparked violent protests along the project’s planned route throughout 2016.  Like Keystone XL, the Trump administration [reversed the Obama administration’s blocking of the project](https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/25 /heres-the-actual-text-of-trumps-executive-orders-on-keystone-xl-dakota- pipelines/). Dakota Access went into service in 2017. TransCanada had plans to begin building the Keystone XL pipeline later this year, but a February federal court [ruling](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/16/keystone-xl-suffers- another-setback-judge-blocks-work-on-pipeline.html) could delay construction until 2020.  Ocasio-Cortez also grilled Wells Fargo’s Sloan over their financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, asking the bank CEO if his company should be responsible for cleaning up any oil spills. The freshman Democrat also claimed the Dakota Access pipeline has leaked five times since it began operating two years ago.  “So, hypothetically, if there was a leak from the Dakota Access Pipeline, why shouldn’t Wells Fargo pay for the cleanup of it, since it paid for the construction of the pipeline itself?” Ocasio-Cortez asked in Tuesday’s hearing.  “We don’t operate the pipeline, we provide financing to the company that’s operating the pipeline,” Sloan said, also noting Wells Fargo had an environmental oversight group.  _[Follow Michael on Twitter](https://twitter.com/MikeBastasch)_


thetelegraph--2019-12-23--Galapagos oil spill: 600 gallons of oil leak into ocean around islands after cargo boat capsizes

Emergency teams are fighting to protect some of the world’s most unique and fragile ecosystems after 600 gallons of oil spilled into the waters around the Galapagos Islands when a cargo vessel overturned.  The barge sank on Sunday after a crane at the La Predial dock of San Cristobal - the easternmost island of the Galapagos archipelago - fell while unloading cargo.  The crane was taking off a container holding an electricity generator when it fell into the vessel, causing it to sink. Raul Ledesma, Ecuador's environment minister, said the sunken generator was the source of the oil seen in the water. The attorney general's office said that one person was injured in the incident.  Video appears to show the crane losing control of the container and then falling on the ship. All three then tip over into the sea, forcing the crew to jump off the ship as it began to capsize.  Mr Ledesma said on Monday that the situation is under control but added that authorities are "very concerned" about recovery of the vessel, which was carrying the fuel for its own operations.


thetorontostar--2019-07-20--Work on old oil well may have caused California spill

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Chevron says an 800,000-gallon oil spill in Central California may have started when crews tried to recap an abandoned well.  KQED News says the company held a briefing Friday about the seepage that began in May in a Kern County oil field west of Bakersfield.  Chevron says it believes the spill stemmed from efforts to remove aging cement plugs from its non-producing wells and replace them.  The company says that the initial flows came from a previously damaged well that was being re-entered. Chevron says more oil spilled in June when crews did pressure tests and later tried to complete the job of replacing cement in the well.  Chevron says the oil has only fouled about an acre of land and 90 per cent of the spilled material has been recaptured.


thetorontostar--2019-07-28--Chiles navy confirms diesel oil spill in pristine Patagonia

Chile’s navy confirms diesel oil spill in pristine Patagonia

SANTIAGO, Chile - Chile’s navy on Sunday confirmed the spillage of 40,000 litres of diesel oil into the sea in a remote and pristine area of the South American country’s Patagonia and said it is working to mitigate the effects. A navy statement said it received a call from the mining company CAP on Saturday reporting the spill at the terminal of Guarello island, about 1,740 miles (2,800 kilometres) south from Santiago, Chile’s capital. The area is one of the planet’s most untouched with important biodiversity.  The navy said it had deployed ships to the area to control damage from the spill and an investigation had been launched. “The marine pollution control centre was activated,” Ronald Baasch, commander of the navy’s Third Naval Zone, told local media. CAP released a statement saying the incident had already been contained. The spill affected a bay and the company said it installed a container sleeve in the area on Saturday and began removing oil from the environment immediately.  Get more of the Star in your inbox Never miss the latest news from the Star. Sign up for our newsletters to get today's top stories, your favourite columnists and lots more in your inbox Sign Up Now


thetorontostar--2019-11-04--Brazil reckons with new oil spill mystery: When will it end?

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian authorities said on Monday that they have no way of knowing how much more oil will wash ashore the country’s northeastern coast, despite President Jair Bolsonaro’s ominous warning during a Sunday night TV interview that “the worst is yet to come.”  In the interview, Bolsonaro also stuck to the government’s assertion that a Greek freighter caused the oil spill scattered across beaches along 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometres) of coastline even after the shipowner’s denial of any leakage from its vessel.  “All signs point to this Greek cargo ship. All of them,” he told Record TV, adding that the leak, “by all accounts looks like it was criminal.”  Brazil’s government has been striving to investigate the cause of the spill that has hit 321 beaches along the northeast coast since early September, hurting fishing and tourism. Authorities have described the spill as one of the country’s worst environmental disasters. The crude’s density renders it invisible from above, making it hard to track its origin or to have a clear picture of the amount of oil yet to reach Brazil’s coast.  Some 4,000 tons of oil has been collected from northeastern beaches thus far, according to a statement Sunday from the Navy, Brazil’s environmental regulator, and the national petroleum agency.  “To say how much oil there still is very difficult to say,” Commander Leonardo Puntel of the Brazilian Navy said at a press conference on Monday. “Since the oil is underwater, we don’t know if there’s still a lot or a little. There is effectively no correct and accurate way to monitor these oil spots,” he said, adding that they have seen a decrease in oil arriving onto beaches in recent days.  “There is no case in the world of a large-scale oil spill where the origins are totally unknown. This case has no parallel, we don’t know who polluter is,” Puntel said.  Brazil’s defence minister, Gen. Fernando Azevedo e Silva, also stressed how challenging it is to calculate the spill’s scope.  “It is not detectable by satellite. ... It is imperceptible. We do not know how much will still come,” he said.  David Zee, an oceanographer at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said that the 4,000 tons of collected oil is “just the tip of the iceberg,” both because the cleanup effort is mostly limited to sandy beaches in populated areas and also because a large portion of spilled oil is likely spread deep beneath the ocean’s surface.  Furthermore, when currents bring oil to sandy shores, it is relatively easy to collect, while is nearly impossible to remove from corals and mangrove forests, which make up part of the affected area, Zee said.  Brazilian prosecutors have named Greek shipping company Delta Tankers Ltd as a suspect of the leak’s origins. The company issued a statement earlier saying it found no evidence of leakage after reviewing the ship’s cameras and sensors.  “This material will be willingly shared with Brazilian authorities, should they contact the company regarding this investigation. So far, no such contact has been made,” the statement said.  Federal Police officer Franco Perazzoni said at Monday’s press conference that the company will be officially notified via Interpol.  Brazilian prosecutors said previously that Delta’s oil tanker, named Bouboulina, was navigating through Brazilian waters at the time and location of the spill. The ship was carrying oil from Venezuela to Malaysia.  In a search order seen Friday by The Associated Press, Brazilian prosecutors said “there is no indication of another boat” that could have discharged the Venezuelan crude into the sea.  Brazilian armed forces along with environmental protection agencies and petroleum authorities are leading an operation to clean, monitor and investigate the oil spill. Several public universities are conducting research about the spill’s origins and impact. Television footage has also shown volunteers flocking to beaches to help with the cleanup, often without government supervision.  Of particular concern at the moment is the Abrolhos national marine park, home to Brazil’s largest coral reefs. Authorities said Sunday night that they had removed the fragments of oil that had appeared in the park and so far no new traces had been found.  “A very small amount of oil arrived on November 2, on November 3 only a few fragments remained, today there’s none,” Puntel said in the Monday press conference. “Will more oil fragments come? Maybe.”

Anna Jean Kaiser And Marcelo Silva De Sousa - The Associated Press


thetorontostar--2019-11-07--Officials responding to oil spill from cargo ship in Hawaii

HONOLULU - The U.S. Coast Guard says a cargo ship has spilled oil into Honolulu Harbor.  Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class James Connor says local and federal officials are working on cleanup Thursday after a 433-foot (132-meter) container ship spilled oil a day earlier during a fueling operation.  It is not immediately clear how much oil spilled or how much fuel the vessel holds. It’s owned by the U.S. shipping company Matson Inc.  Absorbent material was placed around the ship and about 120 gallons of oil has been recovered so far.  A Coast Guard flight confirmed oil has leaked outside a containment area and is washing ashore across the harbour on Sand Island. Officials say there are no reports of wildlife being injured.  Get more of the Star in your inbox Never miss the latest news from the Star. Sign up for our newsletters to get today's top stories, your favourite columnists and lots more in your inbox Sign Up Now


truepundit--2019-03-13--Ocasio-Cortez Blames Pipeline That Hasnt Been Built Yet For An Oil Spill

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed the Keystone XL pipeline for leaking about 5,000 barrels of oil in rural South Dakota about two years ago.  There’s just one problem: The Keystone XL pipeline has not been built yet.  During a House hearing Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that “Keystone XL, in particular, had one leak that leaked 210,000 gallons across South Dakota” while she questioned Wells Fargo president and CEO Timothy Sloan.  Ocasio-Cortez probably confused the Keystone XL pipeline with the Keystone pipeline, which has been operating since 2010. Keystone XL is still under construction, but would also bring oil sands from Canada to Nebraska where it would connect to existing pipeline.  Environmentalists spent years opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, filing court challenges and successfully lobbying former President Barack Obama to personally reject the project in late 2015. President Donald Trump reversed that decision in early 2017, but Keystone XL’s progress has since been delayed by activist lawsuits.  The existing Keystone pipeline, however, was responsible for leaking up to 9,700 barrels in South Dakota in 2017. The initial estimate for the spill was about 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons of oil. Both Keystone and the planned XL line are operated by Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada.  TransCanada said it repaired the pipeline and cleaned-up the spill, Reuters reported in 2018, though the event has been used by environmental activists to gin up opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.  Ocasio-Cortez, who recently introduced the Green New Deal resolution, also took aim at Wells Fargo’s financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which sparked violent protests along the project’s planned route throughout 2016.  Like Keystone XL, the Trump administration reversed the Obama administration’s blocking of the project. Dakota Access went into service in 2017. TransCanada had plans to begin building the Keystone XL pipeline later this year, but a February federal court ruling could delay construction until 2020.  Ocasio-Cortez also grilled Wells Fargo’s Sloan over their financing of the Dakota Access Pipeline, asking the bank CEO if his company should be responsible for cleaning up any oil spills. The freshman Democrat also claimed the Dakota Access pipeline has leaked five times since it began operating two years ago.  “So, hypothetically, if there was a leak from the Dakota Access Pipeline, why shouldn’t Wells Fargo pay for the cleanup of it, since it paid for the construction of the pipeline itself?” Ocasio-Cortez asked in Tuesday’s hearing.  “We don’t operate the pipeline, we provide financing to the company that’s operating the pipeline,” Sloan said, also noting Wells Fargo had an environmental oversight group.  Follow Michael on TwitterClick here for reuse options!  Copyright 2019 Daily Caller News Foundation  Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]


wakingtimes--2019-11-23--Latest Keystone Pipeline Oil Spill is Nearly 10 Times Worse Than Initially Thought

A crude oil spill from the Keystone Pipeline in North Dakota nearly a month ago was roughly 10 times larger than first reported, officials now say.  On October 29, the Calgary, Alberta-based TC Energy—corporation previously known as TransCanada—shut down operations of the pipeline after the major multinational corporation discovered that it was leaking large amounts of oil into the surrounding wetlands.  Initial reports from the company and North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality suggested that the leak, which spilled roughly 383,000 gallons of oil into the region, impacted about 2,500 square yards of land.  However, state environmental scientist Bill Suess now says that the leak impacted 23,232 square yards of land, or 4.8 acres—nearly 10 times the original estimate, reports CNN. The new estimate takes into account both the surface and subsurface impacts of the leak. The original estimate had only been based on visual observations of the spill.  Following approval from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the pipeline was returned to service on November 9. However, the cause of the spill has yet to be determined.  At the time of the leak, Indigenous Environmental Network frontline community organizer Joye Braun told CNN:  In a statement at the time, Greenpeace USA senior research specialist Tim Donaghy also noted that the spill confirmed precisely what environmentalists had been warning authorities about.  “I wish I could say I was shocked, but a major spill from the Keystone pipeline is exactly what multiple experts predicted would happen. In fact, this is the fourth significant spill from the Keystone pipeline in less than ten years of operation. History has shown us time and again that there is no safe way to transport fossil fuels, and pipelines are no exception.”  The Department of Environmental Quality claims that an estimated 8,037 barrels of oil has been recovered from the 9,120 spilled.  The October 29 leak was the third crude oil spill from the Keystone pipeline in only three years.  The Keystone Pipeline system extends 2,600 miles from the Keystone Hardisty terminal in Alberta, Canada east into Manitoba, through the Dakotas before continuing to either the Patoka Oil Terminal Hub in Illinois (Phase 1) and or south to Texas (Phase 2 & 3).  Throughout its multiple phases of construction and extension, the pipeline has faced numerous protests and legal challenges from environmental groups and indigenous land defenders as well as delays during the time of the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  However, President Trump has energetically backed the acceleration and approval of the fourth phase of construction, known as Keystone XL.  During his first month in office, Trump signed an executive order permitting the Keystone XL project to move forward. Since then, opponents of the pipeline have accused the federal government of ignoring environmental findings and protecting the profits of oil companies rather than prioritizing clean water and wildlife.  On Monday, four top House Democrats requested in a letter that the U.S. Government Accountability Office investigate TC Energy as well as the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) which regulates it.  “The public has a legitimate expectation that the Keystone Pipeline System managed by TC Energy operate safely and without repeated incidents that damage the environment and threaten the public’s health and security. Yet we are faced with the third occurrence of a significant pipeline leak that has devastating impacts to both the environment and nearby communities. The frequency and severity of these incidents on the Keystone Pipeline System raises serious questions about both the integrity management program of TC Energy and whether adequate oversight and operating conditions have been put in place by PHMSA to ensure the safe operation of this high-pressure system. This is particularly concerning as TC Energy continues to pursue additional build-out of the Keystone Pipeline System with the Keystone XL Pipeline.”


zerohedge--2019-11-01--Why The Latest Keystone Spill Is Disastrous For Canadian Oil

The Keystone Pipeline was shut down this week after it ruptured and spilled in North Dakota.  TC Energy – formerly known as TransCanada – said on Wednesday that it shut down the 590,000-bpd line after it detected a drop in pressure. “TC Energy immediately began the process to shut down the pipeline, activated its emergency response procedures and dispatched ground technicians to assess the situation,” the company said.  The company did not specify whether the entire pipeline was shut down or just a portion. “At this time there is no indication that it has impacted anybody’s drinking water,” said Karl Rockeman, director of the division of water quality for North Dakota's health department, according to local press reports. “It appears to (be) contained within the area.”  The repair and cleanup could take as long as two to three months, according to Reuters.  The pipeline runs from Alberta to refineries in the Midwest and is a crucial conduit for Canada’s oil industry. The prospect of an outage helped depress prices for Western Canada Select (WCS), which fell relative to WTI ever-so-slightly on Wednesday. WCS is trading below $38 per barrel, or about $17 per barrel below WTI.  This is not the first time that the Keystone Pipeline has spilled. In November 2017, the pipeline ruptured and spilled more than 200,000 gallons in South Dakota. The pipeline was offline for weeks.  The latest spill is yet another reminder that while the industry trumpets pipelines as the safest way to move oil, spills are not exactly a rarity.  “We don’t yet know the extent of the damage from this latest tar sands spill, but what we do know is that this is not the first time this pipeline has spilled toxic tar sands, and it won’t be the last,” Catherine Collentine of the Sierra Club said in a statement. “We’ve always said it’s not a question of whether a pipeline will spill, but when, and once again TC Energy has made our case for us.”  There are hundreds of significant incidents with pipelines each year, a term that encompasses injuries, fatalities, highly volatile liquid releases or monetary damages. For instance, there were 636 such incidences in the U.S. in 2018, and 647 the year before, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).  Another high-profile spill is grist for the mill for environmental groups and landowners opposing the Keystone XL. After all, the same company presiding over spills from the older Keystone pipeline is the one that has spent years trying to convince communities that the Keystone XL Pipeline won’t spill. Multiple incidents from the older pipeline does not inspire confidence.  For Canada’s oil industry, any lengthy interruptions to midstream capacity would be another blow. In 2017, the last time the Keystone Pipeline went offline due to a spill, WTI prices jumped and Canada’s WCS fell sharply. A few weeks after the outage, WCS prices descended to about $30 per barrel as some Canadian oil struggled to find an exit from the country.  The sector has been struggling with years of inadequate takeaway capacity, which have periodically depressed WCS prices to low levels. At the start of this year, Alberta implemented mandatory production cuts in order to relieve the localized glut and boost prices. The policy has largely worked, with WCS prices rising significantly.  The cuts have been lifted gradually over the course of the year. On Thursday, Alberta announced another increased allowance for oil producers who are shipping crude by rail. “The special allowance program will protect the value of our oil by ensuring that operators are only producing what they are able to move to market,” Alberta’s energy minister Sonya Savage said in a statement. “Pipeline delays ultimately have constrained market access and dampened investment in our oil sector.”  In yet another sign of trouble for the industry, Encana Corp announced on Thursday that it would rebrand itself and move to the United States, the latest example of a multi-year exodus and capital flight out of Canada.


sputnik--2019-12-23--Over 2 Tonnes of Diesel Spills in Ocean Near Galapagos Islands as Result of Barge Accident - Video

According to the Comercio newspaper, the accident occurred in a San Cristobal island port on 22 December as a crane collapsed on the barge during loading.  Local authorities have activated an emergency plan to contain the fuel spill and reduce the risks for the environment of the Galapagos archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is home to some of the most unique and scientifically significant ecosystems on Earth.  The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean 972 kilometres (600 miles) west of Ecuador with a population of some 30,000. The unique ecosystem of the Galapagos, which includes 19 islands in the Pacific, is called "a living museum and a showcase of evolution".


cnn--2019-05-02--Trump administration loosens protections created after BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster

(CNN) The Trump administration is eliminating parts of a rule meant to protect the environment and worker safety that was passed in the wake of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  That spill was one of the worst in US history, killing 11 people and dumping millions of gallons of oil into the ocean, polluting over 1,300 miles of shoreline, killing wildlife and hurting human health. In the lawsuit that followed, a federal judge said the companies involved in the spill were "grossly negligent" in the runup to the disaster.  The changes to the Well Control Rule were announced Thursday at Port Fourchon , Louisiana, in the heart of offshore oil drilling country.  "Today's final rule puts safety first, both public and environmental safety, in a common-sense way," said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt , a former oil lobbyist. "Incorporating the best available science, best practices and technological innovations of the past decade, the rule eliminates unnecessary regulatory burdens while maintaining safety and environmental protection offshore. Under President Trump's leadership, America is a leader on energy, resulting in greater security and economic prosperity."  The Department of the Interior said that the move leaves 80% of the rule unchanged but that the changes are meant to give the industry more flexibility about how it can meet safety standards spelled out in the rule.  The American Petroleum Institute , a trade association for the oil and gas industry, said in August that it liked the proposed change, calling it a "forward" step on safety that would "better protect workers and the environment."  Critics say the administration is doing the industry's bidding instead of protecting the environment.  "Gutting the far too few offshore drilling safeguards that were established in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster is reckless and wrong," said Diane Hoskins , campaign director of Oceana. The nonpartisan nonprofit released a report in April that said that even with the Obama-era rules in place, there were still "alarming unaddressed deficiencies" in US offshore oil drilling.  "Today's announcement is a major step backward in offshore drilling safety. Our government shouldn't be catering to the demands of the oil industry at the expense of our public and environmental safety," Hoskins said Thursday. "More drilling and less safety is a recipe for disaster."  "The well control rule (under the Obama administration) was one of the most important actions we took, as a nation, in response to the BP-style disaster at sea. The rule draws directly from lessons learned from that debacle," Bob Deans, the council's director of strategic engagement, said in a statement. Deans said the rollback "will put our workers, waters and wildlife at needless risk. That's irresponsible, reckless and wrong."  The United States is the world's largest exporter of refined petroleum products, but the rule changes fit with the administration's big push for more, to achieve "American energy dominance." Trump has also advocated for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge , on public lands and in waters off the East Coast, and approved the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines


fortruss--2019-10-11--Oil Leak From Iranian Tanker Under Control Despite Missile Strike

TEHRAN – An oil leak from the Iranian oil tanker SABITI that was targeted by two missiles in the Red Sea on Friday is under control, media reports said. Based on the latest reports, the oil spill has reached the least level and no fire was reported, as “all crew on board are safe and the situation is under control”.  There was no fire on the ship, as it is currently in a stable condition. The oil tanker named SABITI belonging to the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) sustained damage to the body when it was hit by two missiles 60 miles from the Saudi port city of Jeddah.  A statement by NITC said the SABITI tanker was hit by two separate explosions at 5:00 and 5:20 am Friday, probably after being struck by missiles, Iran’s Persian-language media reported. The incident took place some 60 miles from Jeddah early Friday.  The explosions have reportedly hit the vessel’s hull, causing heavy damages to the vessel’s two main tanks, which has resulted in an oil spill in the Red Sea. The spill has currently stopped, according to officials. It said the crew members are currently safe and none of them has been harmed in the explosions. The tanker is currently in a stable condition, the statement added.  The NITC later dismissed the reports that the vessel has caught fire, according to the Iranian oil ministry. The explosions came a few months after Iranian oil tanker Happiness-1 faced “engine failure” and lost its control with 26 on board off the Red Sea port of Jeddah, and was later transferred to the port city for maintenance.  According to Iranian officials, the incident had occurred on April 30 while Happiness I was on its way to the Suez Canal, and that water had leaked into the tanker’s engine room. The Saudis refused to let the vessel leave and demanded that Iran pay $200,000 a day for maintaining the vessel in the port, some $10 million in total. It was finally released on July 20 and returned home.  Also in June, two large tankers were hit by explosions in the Sea of Oman. The Marshal Islands-flagged Front Altair and the Panama-flagged Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous were hit in suspected attacks in the Gulf of Oman. At that time, Iranian rescue workers rushed to the assistance of two tankers hit by the unspecified accidents in the Sea of Oman, transferring all of their 44 crew members to its southern shores.  The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker was, according to reports, heading from Qatar to Taiwan when a fire broke out on the tanker approximately 25 miles from Iran’s Jask port city. The Panama-flagged ship was also en route from a port in Saudi Arabia towards Singapore when a fire broke out approximately 28 miles from Jask.