Drumbeat: October 31, 2010
Updated: 2010-10-31 18:31:19
: The Oil Drum Discussions about Energy and Our Future BP's Deepwater Oil Spill Oil Spill Cementing Open Thread The Oil Drum Rescuing Suburbia Drumbeat : October 30, 2010 DrumBeat Drumbeat : October 31, 2010 Posted by Leanan on October 31, 2010 10:40am Topic : Miscellaneous After China’s Rare Earth Embargo , a New Calculus BAOTOU , China When Japanese mineral traders learned in late September that China was blocking shipments of a vital commodity , the word came not from a government announcement but from dock workers in Shanghai . And on Thursday , the traders began hearing that the unannounced embargo of so-called rare earth minerals was ending again , not from any Chinese government communiqué , but though back-channel word from their distributors . Throughout the five weeks of the
, Royal Dutch Shell plc com News and information on Royal Dutch Shell . Plc Skip to Content Home Contact Us Contributors Mission Shell Blog Shell Library Royal Dutch Shell trading with the enemy , Iran Oct 30th , 2010 by John Donovan Contribution from a former employee of Shell Oil USA Both the UK and the US have statutes entitled : Trading with the Enemy Act’ . The UK’s was passed in 1939 and the US’s in 1917. Royal Dutch Shell’s army of attorney’s have obviously found loop holes in these and other statutes that allow Shell to continue to trade with Iran . That trade is of far greater value to Iran than it is to Shell , for it gives Iran the means to continue with their weapons development . programs Perhaps it is time for the UK Parliament and US Congress to plug some of those loop holes
This is a fight that is going to get ugly. Just as earlier in the year, we learnt a new language about top kills, and blow out preventers, anyone who is following the fall-out from the Deepwater Horizon disaster now has to become an expert in the consistency of cement. In the wake of new...Continue reading 'Despite The Bad Cement Job, Still Blame BP'.
Royal Dutch Shell plc com News and information on Royal Dutch Shell . Plc Skip to Content Home Contact Us Contributors Mission Shell Blog Shell Library Operating Blind in Deepwater Oct 29th , 2010 by John Donovan An analysis of the sequence of events on the 20th April which led to the disaster on Deepwater Horizon By Bill Campbell , Retired HSE Group Auditor , Royal Dutch Shell . Operating Blind in Deepwater Only minutes before the blowout on Deepwater Horizon on 20th April everything was reported as being in order . The negative pressure test of the integrity of the well had been good and the displacement of seawater after this test was going . fine But just 25 minutes after this reassuring message was passed to the senior toolpusher , mud started to overflow from the well onto the drill
Royal Dutch Shell plc com News and information on Royal Dutch Shell . Plc Skip to Content Home Contact Us Contributors Mission Shell Blog Shell Library Shell profits flow faster as oil prices rise and new ventures deliver Oct 29th , 2010 by John Donovan Canadian oil sands field starts production and projects are planned in the Gulf of Mexico where BP’s Deepwater disaster has so far cost Shell 115m Tim Webb Friday 29 October 2010 Trucks carry loads of oil-laden sand in Alberta , Canada , where Shell has 13 projects scheduled to come on stream . Photograph : Jeff Mcintosh AP Shell nearly doubled earnings in the last three months thanks to higher oil prices and production as new ventures came on stream . Excluding write-offs made for accounting purposes , its earnings were 4.9bn 3.1bn for the
Royal Dutch Shell plc com News and information on Royal Dutch Shell . Plc Skip to Content Home Contact Us Contributors Mission Shell Blog Shell Library Retired Shell Global Chief Petroleum Engineer Iain Percival speaks out Oct 29th , 2010 by John Donovan Comment by Iain Percival on Bloomberg article Shell Says Repercussions of U.S . Drilling Moratorium Could Last Into 2012 Messers Pals Kennedy of Bloomberg really ought to research a topic before writing about it . Just what is meant by Shell is targeting hard-to-reach rock formations in Australia , the U.S . and China” Coal seams for CBM in Australia are not in the criteria of hard-to-reach . There are undoubtedly challenges in the optimal exploitation of CBM but the technology techniques are hardly new or hard-to-apply” . In any case the
By Jake Weber, Editor, The Casey Report
As is often the case, there is a big difference between what the government statistics are reporting and what’s going on in the real world. According to the most recent inflation reading published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer prices grew at an [...]
Sometimes the best laid plans go awry. Oil giant Chevron’s multi-million ad campaign, entitled “We agree” has back-fired badly. What’s worse it has given its critics a real opportunity to spoof the company’s highly misleading adverts.. And boy are they having fun and games. The the spoof campaign is beginning to go viral. Ten days...Continue reading 'Chevron Must Think We Are Stupid'.
The Yes Men, Rainforest Action Network, and Amazon Watch caught Chevron by surprise last week by one-upping the planned release of Chevron’s “We Agree” ad campaign. The groups sent a fake press release to media outlets hours ahead of the Chevron release and put up a spoof website on the company’s behalf. The release spoke...Continue reading 'Change Chevron'.
California’s Proposition 26 would increase the legislative vote requirement from a majority to two-thirds for new and increased state and local fees and charges. Many of California’s environmental protection programs are funded with such fees. Opponents of Prop 26 say that it would make it even more difficult to hold polluters accountable, and to raise...Continue reading 'California Propositions 23 and 26 Web Tools'.
Out with the old. In with the new. When BP ceremoniously dumped bumbling gaffe-prone Tony Hayward after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and ushered in smooth-talking Bob Dudley, it was meant to herald a new era in the troubled giant’s history. But the disaster still wrangles BP badly. And it is no surprise therefore that...Continue reading 'BP: Stilling Passing Blame'.
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“I believe we’re nearing the end of the free market, not necessarily here at home, but globally.” [See my earlier post on the same topic, here.]
That startling statement kicked off the FPA’s final keynote speaker on Monday afternoon. Author and geopolitical strategist Ian Bremmer, ...
We know that the Koch brothers fund climate change deniers. But now a great new report by Climate Action Network Europe (CAN-E) has analysed new data to track where dirty money is going in American politics. They have found nearly 80% of campaign donations – some $240,000 – from some of Europe’s biggest polluters is...'BP and Others Accused of “Climate Sabotage”'.
It’s a region that has seen its fair share of disasters in recent years. Hurricane Katrina. The BP oil spill to name the big two. But the Gulf Coast cumulative losses of $350 billion by 2030 if it fails to address climate change, according to a new $4 million study. And the warning comes not...Continue reading 'Gulf Coast Faces $350 Billion Threat'.
The folks over at the New York Times must have read my recent blog post: Global Currency Wars Reveal Shifting Power, because this article I found in today's paper validates many of the stronger points I made, and that some of my readers objected to. Just a reminder folks, my ...
Only a couple of weeks ago Iran’s OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi was saying the crude oil market is oversupplied and prices of $70 and $80 are more nominal than real. “If we compare the current prices with the real prices of a few years ago, [today's real] prices will stand at USD 50 per...Continue reading 'If We Reach $100 a Barrel: Blame the Bankers'.
One of the more unsavoury trends in politics over the last couple of decades has been the sprouting of corporate front groups that pervert the political process. Often the give-away is in the title: so if something says it is an Alliance or made up of Citizens, you actually know it is nothing of the...Continue reading <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2010/10/20/what-a-faarce/"'What a FAArce'.
[caption id="attachment_2658" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Income inequality at whose expense..?? Yours."][/caption]
I came across this peice in the New York Times and thought it raised some rather interesting points I wanted to share with you, my readers: ‘During the three decades after World War II, for example, incomes in the United States ...
By Miriam B. Weiner
Sent by Ross Moster - VPOE and Village Vancouver
Posted on Yahoo! Travel
Many of us take for granted the notion that all of our beloved cities will be around for centuries to come. However, cities around the world seem to be vying for the title of “The Next Atlantis.” Shaky foundations and encroaching [...]
“It wasn’t fair, but it was necessary.” That comment about the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Federal bank bailout program, from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner last April seemed about the best that anyone would ever say of it. But with the program officially coming to an end on today ...