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Snagged from a
newsletter from Jan Lundberg According to airportbusiness.com: "Airlines and oil companies are
working on plans to supply jet fuel to at least ten U.S. airports that could be
shut down due to a lack of jet fuel caused by refinery and pipeline shutdowns
from hurricane Katrina." The report from Aug. 31st makes clear these
are There is a lot of damage
to bridges and ports in the area, as well as debris blocking narrow channels, further
complicating efforts to get freight moving through this major hub. No doubt you’ve
seen photos of the chemical fire. I wonder if “shock and awe” are appropriate
for the stunned, angry and flabbergasted. Bush, who Thursday said this was “worse
than 9/11” in terms of damage, says relief “not acceptable” but help is on the
way. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9157866/ Bush is no
doubt sincere in his belated attentiveness but no doubt mindful that his father
paid the price for seeming to be indifferent/slow to Hurricane Andrew in
Florida, and that state voted Clinton in 1991. For those who
may not catch this from their news, many of the so-called stragglers who did
not leave were welfare recipients, who on Aug. 29 when Katrina hit were out of
money for gas, waiting for the Sept. 1st check. The state capital of
Baton Rouge, overnight the new largest city in Louisiana, is overwhelmed with
refugees, trying to reestablish contact with agencies. They are trying to
consolidate into a “one-stop shop” and prepare for uprooted children to attend
school next week. One terminal of an airport in NO is being used as a hospital,
but is overwhelmed. LSU is being used as a way station, taking in those bused
out for food, treatment and bathing, before being bused to Houston and San
Antonio. Some people who got out have run out of funds already and are
stranded. Houston’s hotels were
already full from those who fled Sunday, but many have run out of money now and
are seeking shelter with the church groups, etc., who besides their own
buildings, have people taking people into their own homes. MoveOn.org
launched a housing drive at www.hurricanehousing.org and
Craigslist saw postings of offers to house Katrina refugees. I am seeing
some print now about rebuilding NO on higher ground, others suggesting it’s an
opportunity to build a more sustainable and environmentally-safe city, but as
Jan Lundberg (of the Lundberg report now at Culture Change) points out, if
Katrina is the tipping point on the US economy to a recession and possible “superpeak”
or petrocollapse, the idea of rebuilding anything more than a port may be
aborted. KwC For those of you interested in
the oil production damage report from Hurricane Katrina, here are four things
of high interest. KwC 1. Coast Guard confirms 20 oil rigs gone. At least twenty offshore oil
platforms have
gone missing, sunk, or gone adrift, according to the Coast Guard [18].
One oil rig, in dock
for repairs before the storm, broke loose and hit the Cochrane/Africatown USA
road bridge over the Mobile
River in Mobile,
Alabama. Two others went adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, but were resecured [19].
One platform,
originally located 12 miles off the Louisiana coast, has washed up onshore at Dauphin Island, Alabama. The Royal Dutch Shell MARS platform, producing around 147,000
barrels a day, has been severely damaged [20]. Note the source: From Wikipedia, an impressive comprehensive
collection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#Oil_industry,
2. Reuters: Storm may shut some refineries for months (not weeks) DOE confirms 9 refineries still shut down, 11% of capacity http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01263206.htm 3. This is ominous. >From The Oil
Drum: an insider reports anonymously that: §
There are MANY production platforms missing (as in not visible from the
air). This means they have been totally lost. I am talking about 10's of
platforms, not single digit numbers. Each platform can have from 4 to 100+
wells on it. Most larger ones have 20-30 wells in this area, with numerous
caisson wells. They are on their sides, on the bottom of the gulf - they will
likely be left as reef material, provided we can get permission. MMS
regulations require us to plug each of the wells that were on these platforms -
HUGE cost now, as the platforms are gone... Hopefully, MMS will grant `abandon
in place' status for these wiped out structures. §
The jackup drilling rigs appear to be in various stages of damage, but
most rode the storm out with minimal problems. However, each of them has
shifted position. When we jack the rig up, it is carefully
positioned directly over the well slot where we are working. The derrick has
rails that allow us to slide it in 4 directions to get the derrick directly
over the well or slot. If the rig moves (right/left, or from level to uneven),
it has to be jacked back down to the waterline and repositioned with tugboats,
then jacked back up. After it is back up and level, the derrick is slid on the
2 sets of rails, and bolted into position over the well or slot again. Thus we have to reset each of the drilling
rigs, which requires getting OUT of the well, tugboats and a move, then getting
back into the well. The open hole we have drilled (what is not enclosed in cemented
casing) is likely to be lost, and if the wellhead or the casing is bent, then
the well will have to be redrilled. This is an exploration setback of at least
a month, but we don't yet know the boat situation. §
Boats are usually brought into harbor to weather storms. We do not have
a boat count yet, but from the initial reports, we may have lost or grounded
30% of the Gulf of Mexico fleet. This means everything will cost more, take
longer - repairs, repositioning, everything. In short, the Gulf area hit by the storm is
basically in about the same shape as Biloxi. The damage numbers you have gotten
from the government and analysts are, in my opinion, much too low. We are
looking at YEARS to return to the production levels we had prior to the storm.
The eastern Gulf of Mexico is primarily oil production...Loss of the MARS
platform alone cost us 95,000 barrels a day for a year or maybe more. YEARS, people. I know what this means -
hope everyone else gets it too.. http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/8/31/83553/8973 4. After some reluctance, Foreign Aid for Katrina accepted: Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, the
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Israel,
Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, other members in NATO, the OAS,
Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK, and Venezuela. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#Foreign_Response Pres. Clinton in a noon hour
interview with Pres. GHW Bush on CNN said that even Sri Lanka wanted to give
something, as they recognized most of the worst-case victims were poor. But the
most significant support the Bush administration is looking for comes from
Saudi Arabia. |
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