Friday - May 07, 2010

Black Gold, Falklands Tea

Oil Strike! New deposits found in Falkland Islands

“Las Malvinas” my bollocks, says Gordon Brown

Rockhopper, the British oil and gas explorer, said it had discovered oil off the Falkland Islands.

Rockhopper Exploration, the North Falkland Basin oil and gas exploration company, is pleased to announce that well 14/10-2 on the Sea Lion prospect has reached a depth of 2,744 metres. Initial data collected indicate that this well is an oil discovery, which would be the first in the North Falkland Basin.

The Company has run a suite of wireline logs and logging data collected thus far indicate that the well has encountered a 150 metre gross interval of sand and shales.  The data show that the well has 53 metres of net pay distributed in multiple pay zones, the thickest of which has a net pay of 25 metres.  These pay zones have an average porosity of 19%.

Rockhopper Exploration shares jumped 120pc to 81p.  The company, which is working in the North Falkland Basin, made the find at a depth of 2,744m in its Sea Lion prospect. It is considering whether to drill an appraisal well.

Sea Lion is one of two blocs where Rockhopper has permission to explore and early reports estimate it contains 170m barrels of oil – with the maximum forecast more like 470m barrels. Later this year, the company will drill its Ernest prospect, which is about the same size.

“We are extremely excited by the results of this well,” said Samuel Moody, Rockhopper’s managing director. “While we are presently acquiring additional data, current indications are that we have made the first oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin.”

Ok, so it isn’t a big find. The whole thing is only a 8 to 23 day supply for the US at most. But it’s only the first find in the area. But look at the bigger picture; Brazil made some large finds out in their ocean last year, and production off the coast of western Africa has been chugging right along. It may be that the South Atlantic continental shelf is the next bonanza.

Meanwhile, Argentina is behaving typically, crying to the UN to “make a decision” and slapping “permit” tariffs on ships going to and from the Falklands. Gordon Brown is having none of it, thank you very much.

HMS York, a type 42-destroyer, was on a “tight leash” patrolling the seas around the islands in response to rising tensions over British firms oil explorations activities near the Falklands. Argentina has demanded a halt to “illegal” oil drilling around the Falkands and on Wednesday imposed a permit system on ships passed from its ports to the island.

Gordon Brown, the prime minister, issued an explicit warning to the Argentinian government that the South Atlantic show of force – which also included a survey vessel backed up by a 1,000-strong military detachment on land – would respond to any disruption of the Falklands links to the outside world.

...

Argentinian officials have revived the country’s claims to sovereignty over Falklands as it contests British claims on the potentially lucrative deep sea oilfields within the islands 200-mile economic zone.

Jorge Taiana, Argentina’s foreign minister, scheduled a meeting with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, next week to discuss British failure to comply with resolutions calling for a “discussion” of sovereignty.

   Friday - April 30, 2010

Aww Crap

A “mobile inland drilling unit” overturned in the Charenton navigational channel south of U.S. Highway 90 near Morgan City, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

There were no reports of injuries, the Coast Guard said. The floating shallow-water rig was not immediately identified and the importance of the channel was not clear.

The vessel has a 20,000-gallon diesel fuel capacity, but the Coast Guard, citing officials on the scene, said there was no fuel leaking.

As a precaution, 500 feet of oil spill containment boom was deployed around the rig and an additional 500 feet were being brought in, the Coast Guard said in its statement.

Oh, OK, it seems that this was a rig being moved from one place to another. Phew. No oil spills or pipe ruptures involved.

If one more oil rig “accidentally” blows up, I will start believing the tree hugger/midget Chinese submarine conspiracy theories.

   Saturday - March 27, 2010

Naval battle between UAE and Saudi Arabia raises fears for Gulf security.

Woo-Ha ... what’s going on with these folks?  This is the very first I have heard (read) about these two being at loggerheads.
Is this getting any play at home in the states?  I can’t imagine it getting too much worse cos after all, they’d be hurting themselves along with the rest of the world that uses the sticky stuff. 

A naval clash in the Gulf has reignited fears over the security of the world’s most important shipping lanes and disputed oilfields.

By Richard Spencer in Dubai

The United Arab Emirates navy is thought to have opened fire on a small patrol vessel from Saudi Arabia after a dispute over water boundaries.

According to one report, two Saudi sailors were injured in the alleged bombardment.

The Saudi vessel was forced to surrender, and its sailors were delivered into custody in Abu Dhabi for several days, before being released and handed over to the Saudi embassy earlier this week.

The incident has shocked diplomats who hope the countries, both key American allies, will help implement the West’s strategy to constrain Iran’s nuclear and military ambitions.

The clash happened in disputed waters between the coasts of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and the peninsula on which the gas-rich state of Qatar sits.

The seabed is rich with oil deposits, while the Dolphin pipeline project to carry natural gas direct from Qatar to Abu Dhabi has provoked irritation in the Saudi authorities. Nevertheless, direct conflict between the two countries’ armed forces is highly unusual.

The Gulf is one of the most heavily armed regions in the world. The Saudi government has been building up its army and air force for years in response to what it sees as a regional threat from Iran.

The UAE was slower to join the arms race, despite a long-running row with Iran over three Gulf islands previously under Abu Dhabi control which were seized by the late Shah in 1971 on the night the Emirates celebrated their independence.

But now the UAE, despite its small size, is the fourth largest purchaser of weaponry on the international market in the world.

THE REST OF IT IS HERE

   Wednesday - March 03, 2010

Pirates Go For Coal

Somali pirates set to gain from Asia coal boom

Booming Asian demand for South African coal will put more ships at risk from Somali pirates operating in the Indian Ocean and raise insurance and freight costs already hiked due to seaborne attacks.

Emboldened by rising ransom payments, Somali pirates have stepped up attacks in recent months, making tens of millions of dollars by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

While pirates have hijacked oil tankers, passenger ships and yachts, they have started to target slow moving coal bulk carriers, which are easier to overcome than a large tanker.

Asia, led by India and China, could take 75 percent of South Africa’s 65 million tonnes of thermal coal exports in 2010 as demand shifts from glutted Europe, putting many more ships in the gun sights of Somali pirates, analysts said.

That’s right folks, there’s a boom market going on in coal. Sure makes me proud we have a super-genius president who has promised to bankrupt the coal industry! China and India can’t get enough of it, and they will burn it any damn way they want. Kind of makes me wonder if all this green movement stuff, this “clean coal” is all just NIMBYism. Not In My BackYard. Please, do you have the slightest, smallest belief that any factory in India or China is going to have the scrubbers and the purifiers in the smokestacks like powerplants and factories in the USA do? And you know where that coal dust lands that gets burned in China? In Oregon and California.

So, I wonder if the US is getting a nice big piece of the sales for that asian coal boom. WTH, we could dig it up, send it by train over to the west coast, then ship it across the Pacific, and come nowhere near any of those Somali pirates. Think of the money that would save! Think of the jobs saved or created! Think of the profits to be made: right now, thermal coal is selling for $90/mt in China. $69.40/mt in South Africa. But only $63.75/mt for high energy low sulfur Appalachian ( 1mt = 1.1st). There is REAL MONEY to be made in this kind of carbon trading!

A senior shipper said piracy risk cover on a voyage from South Africa to India added $30,000 on top of the basic insurance cost. A further $40,000 to $50,000 had to be added for longer diversions aimed at avoiding pirates.

So the pirates are adding nearly $80 grand in costs per shipment. Thanks. And businessmen are starting to get fed up:

“It is a massive area and there are just not the warships to patrol it,” said Peter Hinchliffe, marine director with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents 75 percent of the global shipping industry.

Hinchliffe said it was vital to ensure the “free and unhindered passage of world trade by sea”, urging the targeting of mother ships.

“We are seeing governments effectively not doing much more than putting a sticking plaster over the problem,” he said.

Others are just burning joss sticks and hoping their karma works out

Some of India’s biggest coal traders said they doubted much could be done to combat piracy.

“We haven’t been affected so far, perhaps we’ve just been lucky,” one major coal trader said.

Oh, about those US coal exports. South Africa is digging up 65 million metric tons of it, and selling 3/4 of that to the far east. I read somewhere the USA mined 1,150 million metric tons of it in 2008, and managed to export just more than 73 million metric tons.  Most of that was coking coal used for steel production, which sells for about $16/mt. Thermal coal, the stuff you’d fire the boilers with, goes for $70-100/mt usually. And to top it all off, WE IMPORT COAL. Huh???

Coal imports totaled nearly 31mt, down 2mt from 2008, but in line with expectations.

   Monday - February 01, 2010

Green Nukes

Getting a lift from LiFTeR
Liquid Floride Thorium Reactors



graphic from energyfromthorium.com


Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have neighborhood nuclear reactors, each one hardly bigger than a tractor trailer? Wouldn’t it be amazing if these reactors took in a radioactive substance at the front end, produced electricity for low cost, and what was left over couldn’t be made into bombs? That’s how the LFTR system works:

Benefits of The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor

# Burns up existing highly radioactive waste from light water reactors.
# Burns Uranium 235 or 233 fuel in the thermal spectrum allowing 98% burn-up.
# Liquid salt allows Xenon poison to be removed continuously.
# Breeds fertile Thorium into fissile Uranium 233 for insertion in the core in a closed cycle, onsite chemical separation process removes need for expensive isotope separation.
# Liquid salt high melting point allows for much smaller containment structure, no steam to contain.
# High temperature allows for use of combined cycle reheat Brayton turbine machinery improving efficiency to 50%, air cooling sufficient.
# High temperature also permits elemental breakdown of water to produce hydrogen for production of ammonia nitrate fertilizer, dimethyl ether diesel fuel, and methanol gasoline fuel.
# High negative temperature coefficient of reactivity, salt expands and contracts making reactor self regulating, no control rods needed.
# Fuel already tested and certified from HRE-2 in late 1950’s, 10 year certification process waived.
# Potential 30-50% specific cost reduction compared to existing LWR facilities.
# Proliferation resistant due to Uranium 232 contamination in Uranium 233 core, hard gamma emitter makes bomb use impossible.
# Freeze plug feature, passively safe reactor design.
# Scalable from 100MW semi trailer size to typical 1GW large plant size.
# Abundance of Thorium is 400 times greater than fissile Uranium 235, 3 times greater than Uranium 238.
# Specific high level actinide waste is 1/30 of conventional LWR and has 300 year decay time vs. 10,000 year.
# Platinum, Americium, and Strontium 90 decay chain products are highly valuable and useful to medical industry.

source

It turns out that this isn’t really new technology. The same guys who figured out how to make nukes figured this out back in the late 40’s and 50’s. But the idea got shelved, because you couldn’t make bombs out of the leftovers. They made a thorium reactor just for fun, and used to run it 5 days a week. They shut it down every weekend because nobody wanted to work the OT to watch the thing. But it worked just fine, and started up easily again each Monday morning. And then the idea was put away and forgotten about.

Thorium is very common stuff. The US has hundreds of thousands of tons of it. India has so damn much of the stuff, they have beaches made of it. Thorium is not a highly radioactive element, nor is it fissile. That means it doesn’t go boom - it can’t attain a critical mass. But put enough of it in one place, get it primed and running with some highly radioactive materials like U233, and it generates lots of heat. Enough heat to melt salt. And all that heat can generate lots of steam, and power turbines with it. And if the reaction gets too hot, it shuts itself down.

I’m not a nuclear scientist, and I don’t understand too much of the advanced chemistry. I first heard about Thorium reactors in last month’s Wired magazine, but it turns out that the rest of the world has been working on this for decades.

Here’s a little video that I found at How Stuff Works, and there are several other helpful videos at that link.

You can get an actual nuclear physics lecture on thorium reactors here. It runs a full hour.

Loads and loads of links all over the internet on this topic, but here is an important one: thorium may be the only way left open to us, due to the latest dictate from Lord Obama:

Recently it was reported in Defense Daily that the White House Office of Management and Budget has moved to remove all research in fast-spectrum fission reactors from the DOE budget. This in turn prompted an outcry from the Secretary of Energy, Stephen Chu, who stated:

“Prohibiting research and development on fast reactors under the fuel cycle research and development budget line effectively selects the once-through fuel cycle as the only fuel cycle to be pursued in the United States”

With all due respect to the Secretary, there is another option. This is precisely the fork in the road that visionaries like Wigner and Fermi saw back in the late 1940s. If you pursue closed-fuel cycles based on uranium (and predominantly uranium-238) then Chu is right--the fast spectrum reactor is the only option for a closed-fuel cycle, since only in the fast spectrum can U-238 be productively consumed.

But...if you consider thorium as the basic fuel, as Wigner advocated, then you can have a closed fuel cycle WITHOUT a fast spectrum reactor, since thorium can be productively converted to energy in a “slow” neutron reactor (called a thermal-spectrum reactor) and thorium is the only option for this approach.

Be aware that the Obama administration has not said WORD ONE about this technology. They think they’ve just put the screws to the whole nuclear paradigm. But after years and years of research by other countries, this technology may be about to become mature. And it costs a whole lot less too, far less even than coal. So when this idea starts to spread, the White House can’t claim credit.

And we right wingers may have to eat a dish or three of crow on this one, because the same folks we’ve been beating on with hockey sticks are also behind LFTR:

Excitement has recently been rising about the possibility of using thorium as a low-carbon way of generating vast amounts of electricity. The use of thorium as a nuclear fuel was extensively studied by Oak Ridge National Laboratory between 1950 and 1976, but was dropped, because unlike uranium-fueled Light Water Reactors (LWRs), it could not generate weapons’ grade plutonium. Research on the possible use of thorium as a nuclear fuel has continued around the world since then. Famed Climate Scientist James Hanson, recently spoke of thorium’s great promise in material that he submitted to President Elect Obama

It may be worse than I think. It may be that the greenies have all been working on this for ages, and we just haven’t been paying attention. Many of the articles I’ve found on this subject are also soaked with Gaia-love Climate Change Carbon Offset shit that you’d think the Sierra Club wrote them.

A thorium reactor is different. And, on paper at least, this radical new technology could be the key to unlocking a new generation of clean and safe nuclear power. It could prove the circuit-breaker to the two most intractable problems of the 21st century: our insatiable thirst for energy, and the warming of the world’s climate.

BY THE END OF this century, the average surface temperature across the globe will have risen by at least 1.4˚C, and perhaps as much as 5.8˚C, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
...
The principal culprit is carbon dioxide, a gas that even in quite small quantities can have a dramatic impact on climate, and has historically been present in the Earth’s atmosphere at relatively low concentrations.

Hey, at least crow is a renewable resource. And with enough Tabasco sauce they probably taste Ok.

All sorts of links ...
http://www.energyfromthorium.com/joomla/
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15048703
http://yottawattsthorium.blogspot.com/
http://www.itheo.org/
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4971
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/003536.html
http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2009/01/21/the-liquid-fluoride-thorium-paradigm-part-i-thorium/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-kirsch/the-most-important-invest_b_402685.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-takahashi/there-is-something-about_b_410825.html
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/thoriumbased-energy-our-next-challenge-kakodkar/564880/1
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15048703

I do believe this is the very first time BMEWS has linked to HuffPo. And I think I’ll get a pass on the slice of humble pie with a side of extra crispy black bird. I’ve always been in favor of nuclear energy, but I’ve never specified what those reactors run on. And it still pisses me off that the greenies put Three Mile Island and Chernobyl in the same sentence together as if they were equivalent events. Not true. Not true even by 4 orders of magnitude. But I’ll try to put that aside. Thorium may be the way to go; it looks like some reactors can even be retrofit. Why pollute or put people at risk when you don’t need to?

Heck, we hardly even need to mine the stuff. A gigawatt coal fired power plant produces lots of coal ash, and that one plant’s annual heap of ash contains about 13 tons of Thorium.

For the year 1982, assuming coal contains uranium and thorium concentrations of 1.3 ppm and 3.2 ppm, respectively, each typical plant released 5.2 tons of uranium (containing 74 pounds of uranium-235) and 12.8 tons of thorium that year.

This is really starting to sound like the Golden Apple. 

   Monday - May 18, 2009

LIGHT BULBS,LIGHT BULBS.  AGAIN.

This isn’t new except for me. 
I just found it while looking for 100w bulbs (trying to re-locate a company I mentioned here some weeks ago) and there it was listed and so I watched and thought why not share.

I’m not familiar with this fellow, and maybe some of you aren’t either. ??  Thing is, he makes some good points and as I know you folks already know,
this issue is one of my hobby horses. 

So I’m posting it and hope I’m not boring anyone.

   Wednesday - May 06, 2009

Sneaky fargin bastiges

Gas Prices Sneak Right Back Up Again


Last week, NJ gas was $1.79. By the weekend it was $1.89. Monday $1.95. Wednesday $2.05. WTF people, WTF? PS - This isn’t news either. Not a peep.


And no, I’m not buying into the annual yadda-yadda about switching over from this blend to that blend, or the heating oil, or whatever. We went through this whole damn roller coaster last year. And we suffered through $4 a gallon gas last summer. And heard all about our bleeding need for alternative energy sources, how we need solar, and wind power, and let’s spend billions subsidizing corn to make ethanol and who cares if the rest of the world starves, and the big screaming need for more refineries, more nuke plants, and a bigger better power grid. And that huge uprising over the Drill Here, Drill Now thing, and ANWAR, and all the rest.

And another year has gone by. How many new nuclear reactors have been built? How many new refineries? How many new oil wells have been sunk, either up north or off the coasts? How’s that horizontal drilling going in the Bekkan oil shales?

The unhappy truth is that NOTHING has been done. Not a single shovel full of dirt has been turned, nor a foot of copper wire hung, nor a drill bit turned. As usual, as always, we get the big noise, followed by the big zero. All it took was one of these oil companies to tow a drill rig out of the harbor and the price of crude dropped like a stone. And we never heard another word about energy independence again. And we won’t, until the next time gas gets too expensive. But I haven’t forgotten.

I haven’t forgotten that somewhere back in September or October I paid $1.35 a gallon to fill my tank. And then prices started to go up again, even though the price of crude until mid-January; crude prices now are the same as they were in late November. When gas cost $1.69.

We’re being played. I swear it.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/06/2009 at 10:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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   Tuesday - March 03, 2009

Alternative Energy Progress: News From The North

Russia To build four MORE floating nuclear generators above Arctic Circle



photo credit: SMERSH sevmash.ru

Rosatom and the Republic of Yakutia signed an agreement last week for implementing investments to build four floating nuclear power plants for use in the northern coastal areas of the Siberian Republic.

The deal was signed on February 24th and is by Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation considered to be a new page in the history of Russian nuclear industry.

- It will help to preserve Russian leadership in this high-tech sector, writes Irina Tsurina, head of Rosatom’s Analytical Department of Propaganda on the web-site of the state agency.

- FNPP (floating nuclear power plant) is a new abbreviation that will soon come into general use. It is very important for us to make it associable with Russia - as sputnik and cosmonaut were in the Soviet times - as floating NPP is a unique Russian technology, Tsurina writes.

The deal between Yakutia and Rosatom outlines a series of investment projects in addition to the floating nuclear power plants, like uranium mining and a processing combine, reports Interfax.

The construction of Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant started at the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk in April 2007, but in August 2008 Rosatom transferred the assignment to the Baltiiskii Yard in Sankt Petersburg. Before Christmas last year BarentsObserver reported that transfering the construction from Severodvinsk to St. Petersburg did not bring progress to the project. Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported thar the Russian plans for a series of floating nuclear power plants is far from being materialized.

However, Rosatom still maintain that the world’s first nuclear electricity production on a floating barge will be ready by May 2010, writes Interfax. BarentsObserver earlier reported that the intention with this first plant is to supply the Severodvinsk region with electricity.

No information is given about where the four new floating nuclear power plants will be built, in Severodvinsk or in St. Petersburg.

If built in St. Petersburg the plants have to be towed out of the Baltic Sea and all the way along the coast of Norway before sailing into the Arctic waters to their ports in Yakutia.

When the plants need maintance and change its highly radioactive spent nuclear, normally after 4-5 years, it will be towed back to Murmansk or Arkhangelsk regions. Today, spent fuel can be transferred either at a naval yard on the Kola Peninsula or in Severodvinsk, but it could take plant at the civilian Atomflot base, outskirts Murmansk. From Atomflot, spent nuclear fuel is shipped by train to the Mayak reprocessing plant in the South-Urals.

Rosatom is planning to construct a total of seven or eight floating nuclear power plants by 2015, writes World Nuclear News.

Each floating nuclear power plant will be equipped with two water cooled reactors of the KLT-40S type. This reactor technology is a slightly modernized version of the reactors today in use onboard Russia’s fleet of civilian nuclear powered icebreakers based in Murmansk.

Floating nuclear generating stations. It’s an interesting idea. If things go wrong and the reactor starts to overheat, just shut it down and scuttle the barge. Let the sea water cool things off. These reactors are usually in the 135Mw power range (about 70Mw each, with 2 reactors per barge), and often provide heat and desalinated water as well. They have been in use for over 37 years without any major problems, helping give the Reds more than 6000 “nautical years” of reactor experience. In other words, the KLT is a good solid design.

Each two-reactor floating plant will be able to provide enough electricity for a city of 200,000 or contribute to the energy supply of larger cities. Although the units are quite small compared to land-based nuclear power stations being built today, which typically produce 1000 MW or more of electricity, RosEnergoAtom believes the floating reactors’ size will make them attractive for remote areas lacking access to centralized power systems and for seawater desalinization projects.

It looks like Russia has plans to build about 40 new reactors in the next few years. Sounds like they have an actual energy policy. 

Posted by Drew458     on 03/03/2009 at 05:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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Just Like He Said He Would

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.”


But do it slowly, so it hurts more, and maybe some people won’t even notice



Obama Reverses Bush Rule on Protection of Endangered Species

In a move that will subject an number of government projects to enhanced environmental and scientific scrutiny, President Obama is restoring a requirement that U.S. agencies consult with independent federal experts to determine whether their actions might harm threatened and endangered species.

The presidential memorandum issued yesterday, which marks yet another reversal of President Bush’s environmental legacy, will revive a decades-old practice under the Endangered Species Act that calls for agencies to consult with either the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on whether their projects could affect imperiled species.

Earthjustice lawyer Jeanette Brimmer, whose law firm had challenging the Bush rule in federal district court in California, said she expected the new administration would reexamine two pending projects: a Bureau of Land Management plan for overseeing Oregon’s forests, which was finalized on Dec. 30 and could affect protected species such as the northern spotted owl; and construction of the White Pine coal-fired power plant in Nevada.

Bill Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs, said reviving another layer of review “will result in even greater delays to projects—including stimulus-backed, job-creating projects—as agencies now grapple with the prospect of lengthy inter-agency consultations to determine, for instance, if a bridge project in Florida contributes to the melting of Arctic ice. This is such a departure from the spirit and the letter of the Endangered Species Act that we wonder if the law’s drafters would even recognize it today.”

Hey all you money grubbing, Gaia hating, capitalist earth-rapers! Here’s another paper cut for you, one of the first of thousands to come. Die slowly you pigs.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/03/2009 at 05:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Environment • Obama, The One • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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   Saturday - January 24, 2009

A New Twist To The Game

Israel Finds Giant Natural Gas Field Off Of Coast

NEW YORK – A huge deep-water natural gas find off the coast of Israel promises to be a boon to the Jewish state’s economy as well as a stimulus to other developers searching for offshore oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean.

Noble Energy, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, has discovered an estimated more than 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in three high-quality reservoirs drilled in the company’s Tamar No. 1 well in the Mediterranean Sea, about 56 miles off the Israeli northern port of Haifa.

Noble Energy drilled the Tamar No. 1 well to a depth of about three miles, beneath 5,500 feet of water.

The find is significant for those who believe the Bible indicates Israel is sitting on a massive oil reserve that would reshape the geopolitical structure of the Middle East.

The Tomar site is estimated to be three times as large as the Mari-B natural gas field off Israel’s southern shore that analysts estimate may reach depletion within five years, according to a report published by Israel12c.org.

“We are witnessing an historic moment in Israel’s energy market,” Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told Reuters. “If it turns out in a few weeks that the indicators received in recent days are true, then we are talking about the biggest find in Israel’s history.”

The only way they found this field was by going out and looking for it, and by drilling. I’m sure they drilled nice clean holes, but they didn’t let any possible environmental impacts to the Eastern Mediterranean Flip-Flopper fish (aka the towel headed sand shark) slow them down one iota.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/24/2009 at 12:59 AM   
Filed Under: • Israel • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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   Thursday - January 22, 2009

Let’s get the Oball Rolling!

Obama To Halt Offshore Oil Drilling
Because reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil wouldn’t be good for the GLOBAL economy?

White House may put hold on offshore drilling plan
U.S. President Barack Obama may order a hold on a proposal issued in the final days of the Bush administration to expand offshore drilling in previously banned areas, an Interior Department official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Shortly after being sworn in on Tuesday, Obama ordered all federal agencies and departments to halt pending regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff.

An Interior official said the department is waiting for clarification from the White House on whether a proposed draft of a five-year plan to lease areas in the Atlantic and Pacific waters for oil and natural gas drilling can go forward.

The preliminary plan would authorize 31 energy exploration lease sales between 2010 and 2015 for tracts along the east coast and off the coasts of Alaska and California.

Both presidential and congressional bans on drilling in most U.S. waters ended last year.

Separately, the Interior official said the department’s plan to develop oil shale fields in the western United States may also be stopped by Obama’s order.

Meanwhile, U.S. CRUDE FUTURES SETTLE AT $43.67/BBL, UP 12 CENTS That’s quite a jump since $33/bbl on Monday, seeing as it’s only Thursday.

Well, at least we won’t NOT HAVE ANY oil. Looks like we’re friggin swimming in it right now.

* U.S. crude inventories jumped 6.1 million barrels last week to 332.7 million barrels, while domestic gasoline stocks leaped 6.5 million barrels to 220.0 million barrels, far above
analysts’ forecasts in a Reuters poll, government data showed [EIA/S].

* Stocks in the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for NYMEX-traded crude rose 200,000 barrels to 33.2 million barrels, extending record storage at the site.

* U.S. distillate stocks rose 800,000 barrels to 145 million barrels, against the forecast for small decline.

so of course, the farmers are growing corn as fast as they can, for all the ethanol to add to the gasoline we aren’t using.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/22/2009 at 03:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
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   Tuesday - January 20, 2009

Follow the Bouncing Barrel

Crude Oil Prices, per barrel
02/08/07 - 65.06
08/06/07 - 68.31
12/27/07 - 90.54
03/31/08 - 97.54
07/02/08 - 145.21
09/24/08 - 104.95
12/23/08 - 38.98
01/20/09 - 32.79 (4:08am)
01/20/09 - 37.29 (1:18pm)
01/20/09 - 38.58 (1:40pm)

Sure, it was a news story for a few minutes when crude dropped below $33 early this morning. But it’s up about $6 so far today. And while it’s down more than 73% since mid-July, prices at the pump have shot up 30¢ since Christmas. Because gasoline demand is down but oil production is still high. Because our refineries can’t process the stuff fast enough so it’s just sitting in tankers. (Remember how Bush was going to build more refineries? Has anyone poured even a yard of concrete or hammered a single rivet on that one yet?) Because the market is swimming in oil. And because of the need to make more heating oil instead of gasoline. (what, you mean diesel fuel? It’s the same stuff, isn’t it, minus the tax and the dye?) And all those 27 various expensive blends. Yadda yadda. The never ending song.
If crude price spikes, then the price at the pump instantly skyrockets. If crude oil plummets, then we hear about the 6 week lag time. If it’s winter, prices rise because of the need for heating oil. If it’s summer, prices rise because of high demand for all those driving vacations nobody is taking any more. It’s a con, m’kay?

At last I can say it ...

Personally, I blame Obama for this whole mess. He’s been in office for 160 minutes and the price of oil has gone up 4%. At this rate, by tomorrow evening we’ll all be dead.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/20/2009 at 02:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - December 09, 2008

Dropping Like A Rock

Gas cost $1.63.9 for regular here the weekend before last, at the end of November. Last Tuesday it dropped 7¢ to $1.57.9. This afternoon the price fell to $1.49.9. That’s 16¢ in 9 days. That’s almost a 10% drop. In under two weeks. At this rate ... gas will cost about $1.05 a gallon when Bush leaves office. We’re already at “historic” 5 or 6 year lows. $1 a gallon? I can’t remember that far back in time. Good thing Bush destroyed the economy with all of his failed policies, otherwise people would be really happy with this.

We’re already past my own “magic point” where I can fill my little Saturn’s tank for under $20. When I can do it for $15 (ie gas costs $1.36.9) I think I’ll have a party. My guess is that I’d better start inviting folks now, because the party will be in about 12 days.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/09/2008 at 03:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - November 19, 2008

100,000 citizens resist Obama

this post is dedicated to Turtler

An email from Grassfire.org:

+ + Obama Resistance Update
Grassfire.org

Christopher,

Thank you so much for taking part in Grassfire’s “Join The Resistance” campaign. I’m thrilled to report that in just one week, more than 100,000 citizens have joined the Resistance!

This is great news, especially with more and more reports about the very aggressive agenda President-elect Obama has set for the first days of his administration.

Obama’s promised executive orders alone will shut down oil and gas exploration, push radical global warming policies and force taxpayer funded abortions. And now Obama is promising more massive bailouts that will further expand government power.

+ + Our Goal: 200,000 Resisters This Week!

In order to reach our goal of 1 million Resisters by Inauguration Day, we must cross 200,000 this week.

We have already begun aggressive efforts to get the word out through conservative radio, Drudge Report and other means. But I need your help to spread the word TODAY:

Please forward this message to your conservative friends
right now and ask them to Join The Resistance. Your
friends can go here to sign:

http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?u=13283&PID=18705395

+ + Update on the Obama Booklet

Also, my staff is finalizing Grassfire’s booklet “Living In An Obama Nation” which outlines the 21 greatest threats the Obama Administration poses to your family and our nation. I expect to have this 48-page booklet to the printer tomorrow and shipping on time before the end of the month.

To request your copies or for a sneak peek inside the booklet, go here:

http://www.grassfire.net/r.asp?U=13279&CID=111&RID=18705395

Thank you so much for taking a stand with Grassfire! Together, we can mount a patriotic, resilient, conservative Resistance to Barack Obama and the socialist Left.

Steve Elliott, President
Grassfire.org

Ah yeah. Consider I’ve forwarded this message to all of BMEWS.

Posted by Christopher     on 11/19/2008 at 07:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Commies • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Economics • Obama, The One • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.