The BP Oil Spill

We have learned a great deal from the oil spill.
Fact 0: Natural Oil emissions from the sea floor keep the Oceans continually Oily. This has been the case for eons. The natural response of Nature was to develop an array of Oil eating organizms that clean the place up. When the BP spill came along those organisms had a population explosion resulting in a rapid natural clean up.
Fact 1: The environmentalists and their scientist friends have greatly exaggerated the short and long term effects of oil spills. They do this to get rich on their own energy schemes (alternatives). They are so obvious that I don't need to belabor the point.
Fact 2: The Exxon Valdez oil spill was entirely different than the BP spill and no comparisons can be made. Fishing was little affected in spite of the claims of the fishermen. They have simply fished out some species like herring.
Fact 3: Oil after a few days on the water is no longer toxic. The marshes are alive in spite of contamination and the fish are still there. On top of this, the fish do not absorb oil either directly or by eating oil soiled food. The hysteria about this has been criminal
Fact 4: Many Academics have behaved like ambulance chasing lawyers in this tragedy. They make hysterical claims to the press so that they can make research grant proposals to the naive federal Government and get rich off the tax payer while providing no useful product.
Fact 5: The public has absolutely no chance to learn the facts unless they know to go to certain blogs and bulliten boards where Oil professional have been discussion the spill in great detail. Do you know that BP is only legally liable for $75 million and yet has taken full responsibility? Do you know that the American company Anadarko is reponsible for 25% and the a Japanese company for 10% and that they are currently refusing to pay a single dollar?
Do you know that BP is made up of at least three large American companies which they merged with in the past: SOHIO (The Std Oil of Ohio), AMOCO (The Std Oil Company of Indiana), and ARKO (Atlantic Richfield). The first two were members of the original 7 sisters of Oil.

Frankly, I come away from this with a feeling of disgust for many of my fellow scientists and absolute dismay at the incompetence of much of the Press. CNN made a big deal recently of the fact that there are tiny amounts of Oil in the beach sands that can only be seen in the labratory. The lab tech measured it at around 2 ppm. CNN was elated that they had proved that the Mississippi beaches were toxic and dangerous. It didn't seem to matter that the lab tech in the back ground was saying that he didn't thing that there was any danger because the amounts were so small. It was clear that the reporters had no concept of the size of the contamination =0.0002%.

Oil Spills a NECESSARY RISK

As an oil explorer of 45 years experience, I look at the BP and Exxon oil spills as unavoidable  to an industrialized society. Oil,and Coal are absolutely essential to our economy and our personal well being.The problem is with the hysteria and naive solutions being recommend. Rachel Carson embarked on a similar path with her book “silent Spring” which succeeded in eliminating DDT from our environment. The unintended consequence was the death by starvation of perhaps millions of children in the third world as insects devoured their crops. Every major change in the world has unintended consequences. The fall- out from the BP oil spill will undoubtedly lead to less drilling and production of oil and gas in the US. The unintended consequence will be vastly greater importation of Arab oil. This will keep our balance of trade negative and we will all suffer at the gas pump and the general economy will suffer severely. Don’t think that alternative energy can quickly step in and save the day because if it could have made a difference it would have done so long ago. Most of the alternative energy either requires oil and gas for it’s manufacture (hydrogen, bio-fuels, etc.), has no infrastructure to distribute the energy to the cities (solar, wind, geothermal) or has serious environmental problems of it’s own (nuclear). In short, we are trapped by urban sprawl which requires oil to transport us to work, we don’t have a rail system thanks to President Kennedy’s political debt paying to the teamster union which spelled the end of significant rail and made us dependent upon the car and truck. In a nutshell, we have to move forward with our techno-industrial society. We need to learn and improve after a disaster but massive punitive response will always lead to serious unintended consequences

Can anyone doubt that the environmental damage of both the Santa Barbara and Exxon Valdez were monstrously over stated by hysterical environmentalists? There were no mass fish or bird kill and the numbers of cleaned up birds was tiny compared to what exists in the wild. The estimates are wildly inflated in most articles to inflame public opinion. Our legal system functioned as it should have and damages were paid for claims of loss. This will happen again. Lawyers are streaming into New Orleans in hopes of finding work on claims against BP. We do not need hysterical claims of environmental disaster until it has happened. I predict that the final effect will be 10% of what is being said now. After all, this is not the first wild well in the Gulf and natural oil seeps have always been spewing oil and gas into the water. It is time to sit back and watch unless you are one of those on the front lines. Bobby Jindal and Billy Nungesser strike me as quite competent in their efforts and the dredged sand island may become a reality thanks to their efforts.

A major impediment to domestic production is just around the corner. Oddly, this will increase chances of the next big oil spill. Imported oil comes to us by way of Supertanker. The likelihood of an accident will increase as our imports incrfease. Terrorism is also a threat to the tankers.

Fall-out from the BP oil spill

There is not much question that the radical anti-carbon groups will seize upon the tragedy to promote their alternate energy schemes and conservation ideology.. This is inevitable and probably beneficial from a global perspective. Environmentalists will seize upon this tragedy as an opportunity to further turn public sentiment against the " Big Oil" companies.What should our response be as members of the fraternuty of oil worker and investors?

Over my career, I have  continually been amazed at the lack of understanding the general public has about the oil business. We need to arm ourselves with facts about oil employment, economic share and etc.and begin to makes appearances on liberal and environmental blogs and web sites. I suggest that we take a firm but unemotional stand on the value and importance of oil and gas to our economy. I further suggest that we compare the cost of the current BP spill to the cost of drunk driving accidents annually. If rig explosions are a "fixable" wrong then so is drunk driving.

Another thing to drive home to the public is the % profit of oil versus groceries, movies, cars, and etc. Our detractors have made much of gross profits without mention of % return on investment. The radical liberal promotes the idea that companies exist to serve the public and that profits should not be a goal or requirement. We must promote the idea of free markets. The profit motive has always been the driving force behind our successful economy and the radicals would take that away from us. It is important that we not allow that to happen.

Here are some facts that I've found on the net .In 2004 there were 316,000 workers in the Oil and Gas Industry. Their pay scale was from $12 to $50 per hour. The link: Oil Company Earnings has excellent information on Oil Company earnings as compared to other industries. Oil Companies actially are less profitable than many other industries. The charge of obscene profits is definitely a Red Herring.Earnings for a large company are always huge sounding to the lay person. Percent return on investment is a much fairer statistic for comparing companies and industries. One figure that stood out for me was the spending on Carbon Mitigation. The Fed has spent next to nothing on it compared to Industry..
Another link: Oil & Gas Investment  gives fact about the investments that O & G makes in the U.S. Economy. In 2006 new investments amounted to $174 Billion. This is a very significant part of the Total U.S. economy. The current administration is constantly trying to demonize the industry and especially its profits..Armed with the facts we need to fight back, not just for our own sake but for the poor innocent citizens who do not understand the economics of energy and have been swayed by the most heinous missrepresentations of "Big Oil".
Here is the best set of figures yet: Oil Jobs and GDP share . Nine million jobs and 7.3% og GDP depend on the O&G industry. Lets all arm ourselves with the facts and go out and fight for our industry.