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| Economy |
| First Government Effort To Put An End To Gulf Oil Production |
| 2010-09-16 |
| Oil and gas companies must permanently plug thousands of Gulf of Mexico wells idle for five years or more under a federal order issued Wednesday. The mandate could cost well owners billions of dollars. The U.S. Interior Department and its offshore-drilling oversight agency said companies must cement 3,500 wells that aren't producing oil or gas. Another 650 oil and gas platforms must be dismantled if they are no longer being used, the government said. The mandate becomes effective Oct. 15. Companies will have 120 days to submit plans to decommission production facilities and wells. Under the regulation, any well that has not been used during the past five years for exploration or production must be plugged. Production platforms and pipelines must be decommissioned if no longer in use. Owners of such wells would have to pay for the permanent sealing of the wells and abandon the opportunity of reopening them for production. This is insane. Just because Obama was humiliated by being shown to be incompetent in dealing with an oil well leak, he is going to destroy an entire industry. Next time the price of foreign oil skyrockets, this will mean we will be helpless to do anything about it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #15 Soros. Makes sense. He has bought the D party and its moles in gvernment. If the shooting starts, Soros should be the first against the wall. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-09-16 21:57 |
| #14 Armed rebellion is not something to be casually considered. Anyone that has seen war does NOT want it in his homeland except as the last resort. It has not come to force of arms... yet. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-09-16 21:53 |
| #13 we the people may end up called to take action, and possibly even to take up arms... Gee, I wonder if the Second Amendment was not about target shooting, or collecting, or hunting, or even self defense, but about .... I had better shut up now! |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-09-16 20:00 |
| #12 Who benefits? Soros. His money in the offshore drilling of Petrobras will be vastly multiplied as the US chokes itself and becomes even more dependent upon imports while discarding domestic production. Also, this kills the little operators, while living the big multi-nationals still going. The US Government has destructive of the nation, and has become a tool evil. If it is not changed, we the people may end up called to take action, and possibly even to take up arms... When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security |
| Posted by: No I am The Other Beldar 2010-09-16 14:31 |
| #11 First there was the drilling moratorium that was proved to have no legal basis. Then there was the unprecedented government strong arm on a private company for a compensation pool. Currently there is a call for legislation to raise taxes on petroleum producers for an infrastructure slush fund. And now an administrative knee jerk for oppressive regulations on idled wells. Hmmm…and all this after Cap and Trade has been temporarily scrapped. Why does the word “nudge” keep popping into my brain? |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2010-09-16 11:38 |
| #10 It actually does make environmental sense to go this far on non-producing wells since a hurricane could come through and tear out the platform....Glenmore Most falsehoods contain a thread of truth. 3,500 wells? 120 days? Sorry, I smell retribution. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-09-16 11:07 |
| #9 It all boils down to trust; I'm not certain I trust the administration that's already done so much to help Saudi profits to manage properly shutting in wells so that production could possibly be resumed in the future. (That and the whole Eugene Island thing). |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-09-16 10:28 |
| #8 We've been working for years towards a more logical status - call it 'storm-safe' suspension. We 'almost' abandon wells we may want to sidetrack later - properly and permanently cement off previous completions and set cement plugs in the casing to further isolate any potential fluid leaks, but we do not cut off the casing below mud line. It actually does make environmental sense to go this far on non-producing wells since a hurricane could come through and tear out the platform, leaving open wells with nothing but a packer and control valve to keep fluids in the ground. Despite being 'watered-out' these old wells can be capable of venting water with a small amount of oil or gas, and as KBK said, sometimes reservoirs do rebuild pressure after being shut in for a while - I have several such on production right now in the field I work. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-09-16 10:16 |
| #7 He thinks he can be a tyrant any time he wants to in America. Kick his ass. |
| Posted by: Squinty Ulusorong9887 2010-09-16 09:50 |
| #6 He feels free to do all of this SHIT because he knows the big production shortfall is going to hit in 2013 and 2014, when someone else will be president and take the blame. IF he had the risk of having to take responsibility for a massive production shortfall or shortage or price increace _on his watch_ he wouldn't be doing this. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-09-16 09:35 |
| #5 Words fail me. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-09-16 09:31 |
| #4 If the wells and formations were under pressure, ie, flowing without pumps, they would quite logically still be in production. Where is the environmental danger? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-09-16 05:37 |
| #3 Wells which are not economically feasible to be produced today, may very well be economically feasible to produce in the future. When oil was selling for $3.75 pbl in the late 1960's, a number of land based wells were not pumped. When it jumped to $17. pbl after the first oil embargo, things quickly changed. Formations do sometimes recover and technology such as waterflooding enables recovery of marginal production leases in land based formations. Behold yet another ill-conceived Obama administration action designed to permanently enslave us to muslim oil production. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-09-16 05:30 |
| #2 NATURALLY + ARTIFICIALLY [man-made] "LEAKY" GULF FIELDS + SPACE ROCK IMPACT = FIERY, ORBIT-DESTABILZ, GRANDDADDY/MOTHER-OF-ALL-PLANET-SIZED RAMJETS. Just in case LUNA[Moon] + PLANET MERCURY [FATIMA's "Riderless Winged Hoss" = Uncontrolled Inner Planet] change their minds about participating in AL-GORE's MMGW APOCALYSPE. * ION TOPIX > SUNSPOTS COULD DISAPPEAR FOR DECADES: STUDY [starting as early as 2016]. ARTIC > Pert-believed NEW MAUNDER MINIMUM = MINI-ICE AGE/NEW ICE AGE may induce not only significant, iff not destructive, years-long damage to Global Power-Informat Grids, BUT MAY ALSO LEAD TO VARIOUS KINDS OF REGIONAL.INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIES, E.G. MILITARY CONFLICTS OVER FOOD, RESOURCE SHORTAGES, ETC. * TOPIX > SCIENTISTS: MAUNDER MAXIMUM/SOLAR FLARES TO BE STRONGER [30-50%]THAN LAST SOLAR CYCLE. and * DAILY TIMES.PK > ARCTIC STORMS [frequency of "Polar Low" storms] TO DECREASE WITH GLOBAL WARMING [increase]. Earth may experience an average per annum of 17-23 short-but-intense Arctic Storms by year 2100, down from an average of 36 during the 20th century. INTEHWESTING,IIUC PERTS > are collectively saying Earth will see or experience STRONGER SOLAR FLARES THAN EVER BEFORE, YET MAY SEE NO SUNSPOTS FOR UP TO A FEW DECADES??? MECHANICS > HIGH HEAT + NO RELEASE FOR SAME =???? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-09-16 01:55 |
| #1 It's my understanding that depleted fields in the Gulf will sometimes refill from below. I can understand cementing the well - I assume that it's not a big deal to drill through the plug to access the well. But what's this about "abandoning the opportunity of reopening them for production"? What's the reason for that? If the blowout preventer is removed, and the well cemented and capped, how long before the piping corrodes to the point where re-opening is unwise? |
| Posted by: KBK 2010-09-16 00:28 |