Navy Vessel Used Against Deep Sea Drilling Protesters

Bloggers Down Under call it

“Gunboat Democracy”

When a government uses the military against protesters

No it wasn’t Egypt or Saudi Arabia this time, not even the tiny dictatorship of Bahrain using the military to suppress citizens freedom of speech or their right to demonstrate; it was the [allegedly] democratic government of New Zealand  sending out a task force to threaten ordinary kiwis protesting against deep sea drilling off New Zealand coast.

The united front of te Whānau ā Apanui, Greenpeace and the flotilla opposing deep sea oil drilling is holding its position in the Raukūmara Basin as the HMNZS Pūkakī arrived after eight days of surveillance by an Air force Orion. Source: Greenpeace

In an act that would make the cruelest police state dictators fume with envy,  New Zealand police and naval forces dispersed environmental activists and protesters opposed to deep sea oil drilling off New Zealand’s East Cape.

Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant,  ignoring the wishes of indigenous Maori, was attempting to carry out seismic test in the Raukumara Basin, when their work was disrupted by environmentalists.

New Zealand govt have since served notice that any protester blocking the “oil exploration off the East Cape would face fines of up to $10,000, a year in prison, or probably both,” a blog report said.

NZ ex-banker prime minister sends military against peaceful protest

High Noon in the Raukumara Basin as the naval inshore patrol vessel HMNZS Pukaki is sent to prevent environmentalists having their say.

“Tuesday 12^th April, 2011. We picked up an unexpected visitor steaming directly towards us at 20 knots – it was the Navy, with their 55m coastal patrol vessel HMNZS Pukaki.” Source:  Vanessa Atkinson

Raukumara Basin

Map: Blocks offered under the offshore Northland and Raukumara Licensing Round. Source: PetroView®

The 25,000sqkm Raukumara Basin extends about 300km north of East Cape.  Source NZ gov.

License to Pollute

Without consulting the local Maori, New Zealand government granted Petrobras a five-year permit for exploration of the Raukumara Basin, off the East Cape of New Zealand in June 2010.

Local Maori feel the pollution risk to the water and fish stocks in the regions is too great, should oil be found off the East Cape of New Zealand.

Ironically, Raukumara Basin sits between Kermadec Trench and Kermadec Ridge, and has an inherently unstable geology. FIRE-EARTH believes any oil-drilling in the exceptionally seismic area would most certainly prove disastrous for the entire region. See blog content for New Zealand earthquake forecasts.

Related Links

• You had a right to protest in Darkland?
• Oil protestors could face fines and prison
• Navy intervention in oil protest “bloody disgusting” – Maori MPs  
• Vanessa Atkinson blog

Statoil Evacuates North Sea Platform

“Unstable” North Sea Oil Well Prompts Evacuation

Norway’s Statoil said it had evacuated the Gullfaks C platform in the North Sea because well pressure fluctuation disabled a valve designed to prevent a blowout.

“There are no leaks and no injuries. The situation on the platform is stable and we are planning for further operations to normalize the situation.” Statoil spokesman said, Reuters reported.

Completed in 1990, Gullfaks C platform sits some 217 meters below the surface, with a total height of about 380 meters.

Gullfaks C (GFC). Source: Petroleum Safety Authority Norway.

Gullfaks is an oil and gas field in the Tampen area of the North Sea which produces about 80,000 barrels of oil per day (previously 250,000bpd) and 400 million cubic meters of gas annually.

Environmental group Bellona called the incident as “very critical.”

“They have a situation in which there is uncontrolled pressure from the well, one of the barriers is gone and one barrier is left,” said Frederic Hauge, head of Bellona, one of the leading environmentalist groups in Norway.

“Uncontrolled pressure is very serious and has the capability of being a large accident,” he said, adding that in the first quarter of 2010, eight incidents took place in the Norwegian oil industry that had “large scale potential.”

“That is very serious,” Hauge said. “Regulatory work in Norway may look nice from outside, but we have a lot of security issues in the Norwegian industry,” he said. More…

Related Links:

• Oil Disasters

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The Frustrated Polar Bear

Image of the day:

“Darn, Just When I Was Getting Ready to Move to The Gulf Coast …”

Related Links:

• Things aren’t as bad as they look …
• Disasters Caused by Oil and gas Drilling, Oil Spills, Leaks, Land, Water and Air Pollution
• Shell Immunized against Drilling-Transmitted Diseases

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Offshore Oil Rig Explodes

Oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana’s coast explodes many injured, missing

Seventeen crew workers seriously injured, 3 of them critically, 15 others missing

The explosion occurred on Deepwater Horizon, an offshore oil-drilling platform 66km (41 miles) southeast of Venice, Louisiana, at about 10 p.m. (ET) Tuesday, the US Coast Guard said.

‘State of the art,’ semisubmersible Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig on Fire, April 20, 2010 at approximately 10:00 p.m. central time. Photo: Scott Lloyd/United States Coast Guard.

The fire was “large and intense,” and the rig was still burning Wednesday morning, according to various reports. “It’s burning pretty good and there’s no estimate on when the fire will be put out,” a coast Guard officer said.

The rig owners, Transocean, said the rig has been on lease to BP Exploration & Production since September 2007.

No news concerning the extent of oil pollution that would most probably have occurred as a result of fire was available as of posting.

Deepwater Horizon Location Map. No information was made available concerning the extent of probable oil pollution, which may have been caused by the massive fire on the oil platform, as of posting. Base Map: Google Earth. Click image to enlarge.

The Deepwater Horizon before the explosion

News Release: Transocean Ltd. Reports Fire on Semisubmersible Drilling Rig Deepwater Horizon

ZUG, SWITZERLAND, Apr 21, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) (SIX: RIGN) today reported a fire onboard its semisubmersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The incident occurred April 20, 2010 at approximately 10:00 p.m. central time in the United States Gulf of Mexico. The rig was located approximately 41 miles offshore Louisiana on Mississippi Canyon block 252.

Transocean’s Emergency and Family Response Teams are working with the U.S. Coast Guard and lease operator BP Exploration & Production, Inc. to care for all rig personnel and search for missing rig personnel. A substantial majority of the 126 member crew is safe but some crew members remain unaccounted for at this time. Injured personnel are receiving medical treatment as necessary. The names and hometowns of injured persons are being withheld until family members can be notified.

Transocean is the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and the leading provider of drilling management services worldwide. With a fleet of 140 mobile offshore drilling units plus three ultra-deepwater units under construction, the company’s fleet is considered one of the most modern and versatile in the world due to its emphasis on technically demanding segments of the offshore drilling business. Its worldwide fleet is more than twice the size of the next-largest competitor. The company owns or operates a contract drilling fleet of 46 High-Specification Floaters (Ultra-Deepwater, Deepwater and Harsh-Environment semisubmersibles and drillships), 26 Midwater Floaters, 10 High-Specification Jackups, 55 Standard Jackups and other assets utilized in the support of offshore drilling activities worldwide.  SOURCE: Transocean Ltd.

Related Links:

• Disasters Caused by Oil and gas Drilling, Oil Spills, Leaks, Land, Water and Air Pollution
• Want a Mandate to Kill Life on the Planet?
• Chevron-BP Pipeline leaks Oil into Louisiana Wildlife Refuge
• Oil Refinery Explodes in Washington State
• Obama: A Serious Self-Hater

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Big Oil Hires Top Environmental Assassins

John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman Hired by Drillers

Oil companies and industry groups have summoned the three Senators to instruct them on how to re-write the long-awaited climate and energy bill.

ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell Oil Co are demanding that states, rather than federal government, regulate shale gas drilling methods because they know it’s cheaper to buy state officials. States are known to be more lenient on allowing hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” which pollutes the water.

The big oil want a bill their way and they want it now.

“Within a couple weeks after the Easter break we hope to unveil a bill,” said the ever-complying Graham.

Lieberman, on the other hand, wants to dress the bill as even more environmental-friendly as the Big Oil have you believe.  He is aiming to have the bill introduced on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22. He gets a kick out of that sort of things!

“The longer we’ve talked about it, the more momentum we’ve gotten, but that won’t last forever, so we need to bring this thing to a conclusion,” Graham said.

Water Contamination from Shale Gas Drilling. Source. Image may be subject to copyright. “The major concern with shale gas drilling is the chemicals used in the process. Because the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, shale gas drillers don’t have to disclose what chemicals they use.”  Gas drilling companies maintain that the gas drilling technique they use, called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is safe. However, based on observation of the drinking water in numerous drilling areas, and the fate of many people who live near the drilling rigs, who are afflicted with serious health conditions, we know that fracking contaminates groundwater with dangerous chemicals.

Meanwhile, ten Senators from coastal states issued a statement Thursday saying they won’t support a climate and energy bill if it permits a large expansion of offshore oil and natural gas drilling. [How large is a little expansion?]

Senator Robert Casey, a Democrat, has vowed to defeat any move that provide  states with regulatory powers.

“If that kind of provision were in it, that would be an area where I would want to spend a good deal of time either altering it or removing it,” Casey told reporters.

“Kerry, the lead proponent of the bill, needs every vote he can get as it will likely face opposition from lawmakers in states whose economies depend heavily on fossil fuels.” Reuters said.

The oil companies are demanding that information concerning the chemical composition of fracking fluids should be kept secret and  revealed  to doctors or health officials only when necessary to save human life.

Further, the oil industry is pushing for large scale expansions in offshore drilling in the bill.

“Bruce Josten, a vice president at the Chamber of Commerce, told reporters he understood that the offshore oil part of the bill would set up two levels for states to say whether they want to participate in expanded oil drilling.” Reuters reported.

“The first would give states the opportunity to say whether they wanted to have new offshore oil drilling from their coasts up to 35 miles out.”

“A second level would let them veto drilling from 35 to 75 miles out, but Josten said this was still in discussion stages and he has not seen specific legislative language on any proposals.”

The House of Representatives passed a climate bill in June 2009, which heavily relies on the doomed carbon emissions trade system, however the bill has little support to pass in the Senate.

Related Links:

• NY sanity questioned as state plan shale gas drilling
• EPA admits water contaminated near gas-drilling sites
• ‘Diarrhea water’
• Residents of Dimock in rural Pennsylvania sue Cabot Oil & Gas Corp

• Big Oil Itching to Drill to the Last Straw
• Exxon Pays Peanuts to the Monkeys
• Magnitude 4.0 quake hits Utah near gas fields
• Oil Drilling Likely Caused Texas Earthquake
• NY Quakes Probably Gas Drilling Related

• Disasters Caused by Oil and gas Drilling, Oil Spills, Leaks, Land, Water and Air Pollution

Palin’s Polar Pests Love Their Cubs, Too!

Main Entry: It’s All About Big Oil, Stupid!

Photograph by Norbert Rosing. (Source: National geographic). Image may be subject to copyright."”]”]

IS THIS RELATIONSHIP ANY LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE ONE BELOW?

Bristol Palin , the 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is seen holding her brother Trig at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio, August 29, 2008. REUTERS/John Gress. Image may be subject to copyright.

Related Links:

• It’s All About Big Oil, Stupid!

• Arctic ice cover second-lowest on record
• 3 million acres of spruce killed in Alaska in 15 years
• Hilarious Polar Bear News!
• The Billionaires’ contribution to CO2 pollution

• How Much Carbon Dioxide Does Your Money Make?
• Look me straight in the eye & tell me you can’t …
• Arctic ice cover second-lowest on record
• The real games are in Alaska

• Death by Lethal Pollution
• Bering Sea Drilling Revisited!
• Arctic Marine Mammals on Thin Ice
• Our Oceans Are Dying

• How McCain the “war criminal” turned Psywar Stooge Against American Servicemen
• Must Israeli Politicians Bewail at Pearl Harbor Memorial to Become PM or President?

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