"Feds nix corroded undersea pipe in Cook Inlet" - Chevron sucks just as much as BP

[Blue_In_AK]

This is unbelievable after what just happened in the Gulf.

http://www.adn.com/2010/05/07/1268807/feds-nix-corroded-undersea-pipe.html

A major oil company's request to continue using a corroded undersea pipeline at an offshore platform in Cook Inlet has been roundly rejected by federal regulators.

As a result, the company, Chevron Corp., said it shut down oil production at its Anna Platform last week. Before the shutdown, the platform on the west side of Cook Inlet had been producing roughly 900 barrels of oil per day.

Before the shutdown, Chevron sought a waiver from federal rules that require pipelines in sensitive locations to be repaired when corrosion has eaten away more than 50 percent of their wall thickness.

In one section of pipe near the seafloor, the line had lost more than 60 percent of its wall thickness. Instead of fixing it, Chevron asked for permission a year ago to keep using the corroded pipeline indefinitely.

Chevron proposed to inspect the pipeline periodically and inspect the area weekly by air to look for an oil sheen.

<snip>

Lois Epstein, a petroleum engineer who advises environmental groups, compiled a report based on state records in 2002 showing that corrosion was the most commonly listed cause for Cook Inlet onshore and offshore pipeline spills between 1997 and 2001.

"When she did this report, it was unbelievable -- we were having a spill a month," said Bob Shavelson of Cook Inletkeeper, a conservation group.

But in the ensuing years, "we had a dramatic decrease in spills," he said.

Epstein's report says that pipeline regulators wrote a letter of concern to Union Oil in 1998 about corrosion involving a line or lines between the Bruce and Anna platforms in 1998. But the report did note any corrosion-related spills at either platforms.



Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/05/07/1268807/feds-nix-corroded-undersea-pipe.html#ixzz0nMKyFrv6

[Warpy]

1. They all suck because for many years, they could do no wrong

That was especially true during that last illegal administration run by big oil wherein they knew no restrictive laws would be enforced.

If taxpayers are expected to clean up after them, then we need to enact taxes on both the companies and their product to pay for those cleanups.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. WTF!!!!!!!!!!! And this is AFTER what happened with BP???!!!!!

Chevron sought a waiver from federal rules that require pipelines in sensitive locations to be repaired when corrosion has eaten away more than 50 percent of their wall thickness.

inspect the area weekly by air to look for an oil sheen





:mad: :puke: :crazy: :wtf: :grr: :nuke: :banghead:

[Blue_In_AK]

3. I know.

Amazing, isn't it? Coming now especially.

For people unfamiliar with Alaska, Cook Inlet is the body of water outside of Anchorage, just over the mountains from Prince William Sound. Chevron had to be begged last year to empty their fuel tanks which were at the base of erupting Redoubt Volcano.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. A VERY clear indication of the fact that PROFIT is ALL they care about..no matter how much lip servc

they may pay to anything else.

[LiberalAndProud]

4. Good. Cook Inlet is beautiful. Excellent that oil production will be shut down

rather than spoil it with more of their "spills".

[Webster Green]

5. What was their plan, to fix it once it ruptured?

Brilliant! :crazy:

[Strelnikov_]

6. 900 bbl/dy is the hook - Same story with the Alaska Pipeline

Last I saw a while back, the pipeline is running 40% or less of capacity. All kinds of problems due to age (and reduced flowrate) are cropping up.

Remaining reserves, even including the highly touted ANWR, are not enough to economically justify restoration.

This is why 'big oil' is not that interested in ANWR (until global warming opens the Artic Sea to tanker traffic, that is).

+++++

Older article consistent with what I have read about the issue over the years. From what I remember, big oils concerns about the quantity of oil in ANWR are driven by the following:

- Melting permafrost. Only one thing more costly than working on permafrost, and that is working on melting permafrost.
- The amount of time the Alaska pipeline can continue operating without major reconstruction. Seems the suspected volume of oil in ANWR may not justify rehabilitation of the pipeline.


Big Oil Steps Aside in Battle Over Arctic

New York Times
February 21, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/politics/21refuge.html

. . .

Once allied, the administration and the oil industry are now far apart on the issue. The major oil companies are largely uninterested in drilling in the refuge, skeptical about the potential there. Even the plan's most optimistic backers agree that any oil from the refuge would meet only a tiny fraction of America's needs.

. . .

A Bush adviser says the major oil companies have a dimmer view of the refuge's prospects than the administration does. "If the government gave them the leases for free they wouldn't take them," said the adviser, who would speak only anonymously because of his position. "No oil company really cares about ANWR," the adviser said, using an acronym for the refuge, pronounced "an-war." Wayne Kelley, who worked in Alaska as a petroleum engineer for Halliburton, the oil services corporation, and is now managing director of RSK, an oil consulting company, said the refuge's potential could "only be determined by drilling." "The enthusiasm of government officials about ANWR exceeds that of industry because oil companies are driven by market forces, investing resources in direct proportion to the economic potential, and the evidence so far about ANWR is not promising," Mr. Kelley said.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. They're all hot to drill offshore up north, though.

Shell was scheduled to begin exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea this July, but they've been temporarily suspended while all of this offshore drilling is reviewed. According to estimates there is as much oil under the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas as there was in Prudhoe. But you're right, the Pipeline needs major fixes. It was only supposed to be good for 30 years anyway, and I believe that 30 years is up and then some.

I think ANWR is a dead issue, personally.

http://www.adn.com/2010/05/07/1268019/feds-tell-shell-to-defend-arctic.html

WASHINGTON -- Based on safety concerns raised by last month's explosion of an oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the Interior Department has given Shell Oil until May 18 to provide more information about the company's exploratory drilling plans this summer in the Arctic Ocean.

The department also said the Dutch oil giant will fall under the temporary halt to all pending U.S. offshore drilling proposals, putting the company's summer Arctic drilling plans in limbo.

<snip>

Shell in 2008 spent $2.1 billion on the Arctic leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The Minerals Management Service estimates that the two Arctic seas hold up to 19 billion barrels of oil and up to 74 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making their resource potential comparable to the known oil and gas from the North Slope's onshore fields.

In early April, the White House announced it supports development of some oil and gas leases in Arctic waters off Alaska's coast but won't allow drilling in federal waters near Bristol Bay. Following the accident in the gulf, the Obama administration announced it would suspend any additional offshore oil lease sales while it investigates what new technology is needed to prevent another such deadly blowout. The administration also on Thursday halted a planned lease sale in Atlantic waters off the coast of Virginia.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/05/07/1268019/feds-tell-shell-to-defend-arctic.html#ixzz0nMZ1l89m

It's nice that Bristol Bay has been spared, although we're still trying to get the Pebble Mine stopped, which is a disaster waiting to happen of unimaginable proportions. http://www.renewableresourcescoalition.org/pebble_mine.htm It's always a battle up here between the "Drill, Baby, Drills" and the "Mine, Baby, Mines" versus those who want to preserve Alaska's beauty and wildlife.