Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
tailing pond reclamation
Dew,
the tar sands are 'washed' with hot water to separate the oil from the sand. Most of the oil is separated from the water and sent off to the refinery. However, the water is loaded with suspended and dissolved stuff (clays, salts, organics etc.) and since some of the stuff is not conducive to keeping plants, fish or people healthy the production companies like to separate the unpleasant dissolved or suspended stuff from the water. It's primitive: dump the stuff in man-made pond and let gravity and evaporation work their magic. Eventually, the oil companies do what gets done with municipal garbage dumps: throw some dirt on top, do a little sculpting and try to grow some stuff that won't send roots too deep.
They do attempt to recycle some water but i don't know what's involved.
not very detailed descriptions at:
http://www.syncrude.ca/users/folder.asp?FolderID=5913
http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/tarsands/index.cfm
i'm kind of looking forward to the day these things are allowed freely on the street 'cause that will be the day i get to use such things in my lab without all kinds of onerous safety protocols and infrastructure.
Kadaicher,
isn't oil based mud necessary for drilling thru salt?
thx,
Charlie
glad i wasn't more specific 'cause that's on the opposite side of the country from the mine i was thinking it was (near Newcastle). I guess one mine on a beach looks like a another mine on a beach. ;^)
australia. looks like one of the mines a friend works at.
GOM oil job losses
Dew,
if the NYT article you referred to is:
Job Losses Over Drilling Ban Fail to Materialize
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/us/25drill.html?ref=todayspaper
the article is pure propaganda. Liberals like to wail about Fox news but that NYT article is disgusting.
exerpt
Unemployment claims related to the oil industry along the Gulf Coast have been in the hundreds, not the thousands...
zero citations for that information. welpy, in my company alone the officially announced number related to the moratorium is 145 and that was as of about 1 month ago. Since that time dozens more have lost their jobs and there is rampant fear that a larger round of layoffs is coming. Several planned hires in my facility have been cancelled. A guy in my group who closed on a house about 1 month ago is probably going to be transferred. At least one of our larger Texas facilities is forcing all employees to take every Friday in November as a vacation even if it puts employees at a deficit in vacation days. So Mr.s Broder & Krauss can stuff their unsubstantiated conjecture up their collective nether regions.
pemex
International oil companies are reluctant to partner with Pemex because they still aren’t allowed to own the oil or book the reserves, according to Baker. [I find it a bid odd that oil companies care a lot about the project accounting per se as opposed to how much money they will actually make from a project.]
i suspect the 'reluctance' has to do with the accounting requirements in the home country and for credit/bond issuing advantages. just a guess.
well blow presentation
for anybody in the Boston area who has an interest in:
Blowouts and Offshore Oil and Gas Industry
Jim LaGrone, Well Control Engineering Manager
Boots & Coots (recent HAL acquisition)
Sept 23, 2010
Hyatt Regency, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
non SPE members: $35
student non-members: $18
job-seekers: $15 (i'm guessing nobody will reg. as a non-member student)
social starts at 6:00 PM
dinner: 6:30 PM
talk: 7:30 PM
reservations must be made by Sept 21; 800-467-1057
www.asmboston.org\Calendar
gasland debunking
for those who might be inclined to believe anything in Gasland
http://www.energyindepth.org/2010/06/debunking-gasland/
demand for oil
author: Dian L. Chu M.B.A., C.P.M. and Chartered Economist. Market analyst regularly contributing to leading financial sites
Her knowledge of the oil industry is pathetically superficial and logic and English grammar obviously aren't her forte. I would expect better writing and analysis from a highschool student. Her previous jobs were in the cable TV biz. I'm sure her alma mater is not proud.
MON
i agree with thomas. more likely to be due to wheat crop and problems in russia.
charlie
MNTA
at least they [amphastar] have facilities, employees and an address. Momenta is a Potemkin Village
Momenta has a nice address in a quite nice building which also houses VRTX, ALNY, and Archemix. It's a very nice village. The humorous thing is that if SNY buys GENZ, SNY will be MNTA's landlord
[Tengiz]
i'm simply amazed that the NY Times failed to recognize that Georgia is relevant to this story, i.e. i don't think Russia's invasion of Georgia had anything to do with the causes being bandied about at the time. All about pipeline pathways.
i agree that Tillerson's comments are explicit and clear; however, for once I wouldn't be critical of Markey. If it weren't for the liklihood that he delivered the comment in his usual sneering tone I'd say he and Tillerson are in agreement. I'd like to have heard Markey's comments in context because I doubt if he had any intention of agreeing with Tillerson.
The comment by Bromwich sounds hopeful. Derb Carter is an idiot but then Oregon isn't known for oil production, its powerhouse economy, or for excellent law schools.
As for the effects of the moratorium, my fears regarding the extent of its effects are beginning to manifest in my own little domain; pisses me off to a huge degree and i was pissed off to begin with.
On a happier note, thanks for all your work on MNTA. I'm yet another grateful beneficiary of your largess.
Dew,
the charges in perforation guns are arranged in patterns - frequently spirals so the charges are like points on screw threads. If the number 8 was mentioned, then I'm guessing it refers to 8 total charges per foot (i.e. the 8 charges would be on different spirals). I know precious little about perforating but it is a big deal and lots of money gets spent on it so if they have guns that are distinctly advantageous, then it can be important. However, these sorts of things eventually tend to mysteriously re-invent themselves n competitors' tools so I wouldn't get too excited about it.
CLB is a good company but they have some deep pockets pointing guns at them. I suspect one of the things buoying their stock price is that some folks think that one of the gun slingers will eventually buy them.
Charlie
Dew,
Perforating involves ignition of a shaped explosive charge which penetrates tubing, any cement that happens to be in the way, and some part of the rock. It's done to introduce stimulation fluids into the reservoir rock and to allow flow of fluids from selected parts of a reservoir into the production tubing. The explosive charges are effectively identical to some types of anti-tank weapons and some of the rocket propelled grenades that you see certain folks walking around with in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consequently, some field engineers who deal with these things occasionally get special treatment in airports after they set off the sniffer alarms.
The charges can be arranged in different geometries and spacings and for different penetration depths, e.g. look at the picture on the upper left of the page at http://www.slb.com/services/perforating.aspx
a good animation is at (~1:20 mark):
Board field trip
I highly recommend a side trip to Lord Hobo which is conveniently located 2 blocks further up Hampshire 8^) . They have a most excellent collection of beverages that the building's exterior belies.
idenix noise
the picture in the story linked by Dew captures the corner of the nicest looking home adjacent to IDIX (corner of Market and Clark for those inclined to Google street view). The other houses on Clark Street are dilapidated. The Hampshire Street side is the only other 'residential' street adjacent to IDIX and it has very heavy traffic so street noise is far worse than the building air conditioning. As for the air conditioning: it is on the far side of the building away from Clark St and IDIX has planted many large trees along Clark and put noise deflectors on the roof.
Having walked by IDIX many times and at many different hours I have difficulty believing that the noise complaints attributed to the building have any merit. The real complaint should be about the owners of the other 2 houses next to IDIX on Clark who don't appear to understand the concept of paint and general maintenance.
Ms. van Beuzekom lives many blocks away so I'm sure she doesn't have any personal interest unless she owns one of the slums next to IDIX.
more dumb deepwater 'solutions'
from Tues WSJ:
"In the future, relief wells should be drilled simultaneously with the main well." Michio Kaku - professor of theoretical physics at City College of New York
Prof. Kaku is a regular on PBS and cable network outlets like the Discovery Channel. Either he is part of the stealth movement to kill GOM oil production or he's never applied his mathematical skills to economics. If his recommendation is adopted, it will kill oil production from deep water GOM as it will never be competitive with oil production outside the US.
moratorium expiry scepticism
from Tues WSJ
A de facto freeze on federal permits for new shallow-water oil and gas wells could be starting to thaw.
The Obama administration has approved a permit to drill a new well in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the first such clearance since new safety regulations were put in place in response to the BP PLC oil spill....
Since issuing new shallow-water drilling-safety regulations in early June, the Interior hadn't approved any new well permits.
this should serve as sufficient evidence that when Nov 30 comes and goes I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for deepwater drilling to recommence.
Dew,
i can't say the number (no under/over). The only thing i can say is that a restart is anticipated and people are worried about retaining personnel in the interim. There has been some personnel whacking which was unwanted but viewed as unavoidable under the circumstances.
My own feeling is that the Obama is doing a Richard Nixon, i.e. placate the base and then run as fast as possible back toward the middle just before the election. I think the official end to the moratorium will end on or before the announced date; however, there will be some sort of fuzzy statements made about drilling will restart as soon as new regulations are issued. That won't matter a bit because the damage will have been long done. Enough time will have elapsed so that whatever excess in floating rigs exists now will be eliminated by the time new regulations and certifications are established (i.e. planning of new drilling programs outside US waters will be completed and the excess will disappear into those projects).
The far left Obama-Pelosi constituency has a complete disconnect between their automobiles and oil production. I have several friends in this camp and they blithely state that they are opposed to offshore drilling and are fully supportive of this moratorium. When I try to explain the economics and technical details of why drilling can't just be turned on whenever it is convenient for them the eyes glaze over and they go back to their utopian dreamworld which somehow involves magically produced windmills powering their cars. The highest level math most of these people have ever done is adding up their Scrabble scores.
Even some of the liberals i work with (which is in the O&G biz) think it is Obama's intent to destroy US offshore drilling. When the dems start scaring liberals in Cambridge MA, then i'd say it's a good sign that they've over-reached.
regards
Charlie
nov 30
the half that isn't joking is correct. In the Moratorium II document Salazar specifically points out that Nov 30 is the end of hurricane season and thus contributes to his justification for the timeframe on the moratorium.
the official view in at least one v. lg. O&G industry company is that the effective duration of the moratorium will be much longer. I wouldn't count on (m)any democrats winning (re)election in AL, MS, LA, or TX in Nov.
capacity to produce will have declined by 25% to 35% over that time
the largest volume fraction in a reservoir is comprised of solid (minerals such as quartz, feldspar, or in non-detrital sedimentary reservoirs, carbonate). The oil and gas resides in pores spaces and fractures. If you throw a bunch of marbles in a box, the spheres meet at points and there will be a lot of gaps filled by air. The same thing happens with sand where the sand grains are the marbles and oil takes the place of air. If the sediment is capped by an impermeable rock, e.g. shale, salt, carbonate, etc., and it overlies an oil source rock, then the pores can become filled with oil, natural gas, and water.
The pore spaces and the 'throats' connecting them can be very small (very small fractions of a millimeter). Size of pore throats and the simultaneous presences of multiple fluid phases (e.g. multiple liquids and gases) matters to the ability of the oil and gas to flow in the reservoir. The interfaces between the different fluid phases can effectively act like bridge arches, e.g. they can support a lot of force and prevent flow even when there is a substantial pressure gradient between the well and the reservoir.
When a reservoir is produced the system is disturbed and it will try to 're-equilibrate' in response. The least viscous fluids will move most freely down the pressure gradient as part of this 're-equilibration' process. Water is frequently less viscous than the oil so it will move ahead of the oil. This can effectively cause the oil to become 'locked up' behind or between water filled pores. It's also possible that 're-equilibration' process can involve precipitation of solids, e.g asphaltenes and inorganic solids, in the pore throats.
Reservoirs are dynamic systems and when they've been produced that dynamicism can be accelerated. Like an automobile engine, it can be detrimental to use it and then let it sit around un-used for a long period of time. In the case of an automobile engine, the oil and fuel evaporate between the cylinder and piston and leave a varnish which will wreck the engine. The same sort of process can take place in a reservoir.
On a cheerier note: it appears that these sorts of processes may be reducing the flow of oil from the Macondo well. When a reservoir is 'over-produced' water can also move ahead of the oil and do what i've described above.
Nevertheless, I do see some progress on this matter insofar as the latest order sets 11/30/10 as the target date for ending the moratorium. Whether the target will be met remains to be seen, of course, but merely having a stated deadline is an improvement of sorts.
the Nov 30 deadline is effectively the same as that in Moratorium I (6 months from May). However, Moratorium II contains language which the administration can use as an 'out' to effectively extend and broaden the moratorium beyond 6 months, e.g. the riser language suggests that the BOEM (former MMS) may require new specifications on risers. If this were to happen the moratorium would be effectively extended even though they could claim it had ended. I don't know much about risers but i wouldn't be surprised if new riser specifications would also broaden the scope to existing production facilities (i.e. platforms).
be careful with the optimism. there is no moratorium on 'shallow' water drilling yet hundreds of rigs have been idled while the BOEM (reminds of Inspecter Clouseau pronouncing 'bomb') revises regulations and does inspections.
more on Salazar logic
this from today's WSJ
the really odd moment came when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement that he was looking to the [presidential]commission for information that could inform the administration’s position on halting deepwater drilling.
Salazar’s statement stunned the commission’s two co-chairmen, William K. Reilly and Bob Graham, who said they had been assured by Salazar’s office and the White House that giving advice on the moratorium wasn’t their job.
“We’re 10 minutes old,” Reilly told an audience in New Orleans, where the commission held its first hearing. “The idea we’d have a near-term responsibility to make recommendations on policy was not our understanding [of the panel’s mission] and is not consistent with my most recent conversation with [Interior Deputy Secretary] David Hayes, who said the Interior Department didn’t look to this commision for advice” on the matter.
the bolded part is in direct contradiction to Salazar's comments in Moratorium II.
and from elsewhere in today's WSJ
"Despite assurances from the White House and the Interior Department, about one-third of the shallow water fleet has been idled by the application of what can only be called a de facto moratorium," said Jim Noe, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Hercules Offshore, a large shallow-water driller.
Mr. Salazar's announcement came minutes after a presidential commission investigating the causes of the Gulf oil spill heard testimony in New Orleans from Larry Dickerson, president and CEO of Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. He said the moratorium has already prompted his company to send two deepwater rigs to foreign waters, and warned that "there won't be much of a U.S. industry left" if the moratorium lasts six months.
salazar gibberish
http://www.interior.gov/deepwaterhorizon/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=38375
all kinds of violence done to logic and the English language:
we simply do not know if the BP situation is unique.
Even more ludicrously, he states:
References to the track record for the deepwater drilling industry are of limited relevance, given that deepwater drilling is a relatively young and still-evolving enterprise (having only begun in earnest in the late 1990s)...
I'd like to know the distance or time scale of 'earnest'. deep- and ultra-deep water wells were drilled in the mid 1980's.
BP's inability... to contain the Macondo blowout and spill provides continuing evidence that BP - and the rest of the industry, which has been cooperating with BP in its efforts to contain the on-going spill - had not prepared to contain a blowout in the deepwater environment.
damned collaborators. next thing will be to kill all good samaritans.
those are just a few gems. it makes for some depressing reading - not just from the perspective of how somebody with such poor logic and writing skills has such an influential position but because some of the implied threats to the US off-shore oil industry (e.g. look at the part about risers).
Salazar seems to be fixated on containment and has almost completely missed the point that oil companies focus on prevention of well failures rather than containment of failures. Additional preventive measures would not take 6 months to put in place and are already being done in other places (e.g. Brazil). In addition, it hasn't taken BP 6 months to develop what appears to be an effective containment measure (not to mention that the output from the well seems to be declining on its own). Assuming the industry doesn't suffer an immediate bout of collective amnesia or alzheimer's it would be difficult to imagine that they won't develop upon BP's containment hardware more effectively than the various regulatory, congressional, and presidential Technical Workgroups.
Henry Waxman is being a jackass...
comments?
you could've omitted 1 word. ;^)
compliment to the WSJ story on failing MA healthcare plan:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/07/04/emergency_room_visits_grow_in_mass/
The number of people visiting hospital emergency rooms has climbed in Massachusetts, despite the enactment of nearly universal health insurance that some hoped would reduce expensive emergency department use....
Force Majeure on GoM Jackup Rig
Dew,
I suspect this is do to the 'review' of all GOM drilling regulations called for by our beloved president. The rig in question is only rated to 120 ft depth so it's not affected by the deepwater moratorium. However, I think the institution formerly known as the MMS stoppped all new drilling operations in the GOM, regardless of depth, until the rigs in question were re-inspected. I suspect that since the rig is very old (1958), the MMS must've found something not up to snuff.
http://www.rigzone.com/data/rig_detail.asp?rig_id=653
Charlie
business roundtable report to US OMB
link to 54 pg report referenced by a couple of Wall Street Journal articles this morning yet strangely not hyperlinked in the articles.
http://www.businessroundtable.org/sites/default/files/2010.06.21%20Letter%20to%20OMB%20Director%20Orszag%20from%20BRT%20and%20BC%20with%20Attachments.pdf
They can’t simply flip these projects on and off like a light switch.
that's correct but it also applies to the utilization of the rigs elsewhere. Not that i'm an expert on this but what i've read indicates 0.5 to 1.5 yrs between initiation of planning a drilling program and spudding in. I don't think there are enough proposed drilling programs close enough to completing their planning stages to utilize the semi-subs made available by the moratorium. Brazil will take some but the US and Brazil were utilizing most of these rigs. The rest of the world isn't close.
I suspect this case will race thru the courts. The 5th circuit court is mostly composed of Reagan and Bush (I & II) appointees so i doubt if they will go Obama's way and likewise for the Supreme Court. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Congress tries to pre-empt any SC ruling. In anycase, I suspect the regulatory agencies can gum this up so that the moratorium becomes a de facto result regardless of what the SC says.
great. now you've resorted to posting the rantings of a former jockey. me thinks you've been smoking too much of the ganja.
re: How GoM Moratorium Affects Drillers/Service Companies
the target price changes seem to be way out of line the changes in eps estimates. looks like citi is using the moratorium as an excuse. deepwater revenue is about 5% for at least one of those companies and probably lower for others. there will be additional costs as i've pointed out previously but citi has changed the stock estimates by >15%. not that i don't think their new estimates are unreasonable; their previous estimates were v. bad.
when politicians have nothing useful to do they can always change the letterhead.
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- The federal agency responsible for overseeing the oil industry has been renamed amid a massive reform effort following the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of the Interior announced Monday.
The Minerals Management Service will be called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, according to an order signed by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar requesting the name change.
of course, this will unnecessarily cost many $millions - not just for the federal agencies but for all of the companies who deal with the former MMS. In case there are any doubters, a small federal lab i once worked in changed it's name by adding a single word. The cost for the lab was in the neighborhood of $3M.
I suspect the name change will also presage establishment of a new bureacracy or shifting of offices since the soon-to-be former MMS also oversaw collection of royalties "from onshore mineral leases on Federal and American Indian lands."
What a lovely bunch of coconuts we have running our country.
the game of blaming everything on Bush is more than tiresome.
the falsehoods in Gasland have been debunked in many forums including here. The filmmakers clearly have no knowledge of the topic since they've apparently lumped hydrofracturing and other stimulation practices together. The little map of the world in the video which purports to show areas where hydrofrac'ing is taking place is just flat out wrong. There is no slickwater hydrofrac'ing taking place in roughly 90% of the areas shown on that map. As an example, roughly 95% of the natural gas produced in Alaska is reinjected because they have no economically viable means of transporting and selling it. Never mind that the natural gas in Alaska isnt produced from shales. Only mindless drones (aka literature majors) believe such crap without questioning the validity. Apparently, college literature classes don't spend enough time examining the writings of Joseph Goebbels.
The expert on “condensed matter” is presumably on the panel to tell us about the devastating impact to the planet from tar balls
she's the only person on the panel that i think will have the mental capacity to understand the processes involved in drilling an oil well and how such an accident can occur. I suspect she has zero experience with pressurized systems and stress; however, she is a legit physicist so she can probably figure things out.
I should've included a drilling engineer in my list of people who could've been substituted for lawyers (although having 2 lawyers wouldn't necessarily be bad). If the panel had included a real oil industry executive, there's a good likelihood that person would've had some sort of well experience.
In contrast, the Rogers commission had several experts with direct experience in the matter being investigated. This commission has 0 members with direct experience in the source/cause of the problem(s) but many 'experts' (again being generous) in dealing with effects (mostly biological). Not even sure any members on this commission could claim experience in remediation (unless liability is included as being remedial).