The real losers over BP and the Gulf Oil Spill
So BP has posted a large loss, over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We can now see who the real losers are.
Those who live in the area of the spill are being fully compensated, but as BP is making a loss, they will not be paying any UK Corporation Tax. And as BP will not be paying a dividend, any pension fund or investor who holds their shares will not get any return.
In other words the British Government, pensioners and investors will be paying for the failure of an American blow-out protector made by Cameron Iron and dodgy drilling practices for which an American company, Transocean, were partly responsible. It could also be argued that American government policy, which promotes offshore drilling, rather than the much safer onshore is also to blame. Read this from Professor Mark Perry.
Hote that if you think onshore drilling is bad, search Google for Wytch Farm. This is the largest onshore oil field in Europe and it’s around Poole in Dorset in the middle of beautiful countryside. Many don’t even know it’s there!And who successfully manages the field? BP!
We are mugs in this country and total lap-dogs to the greedy Yanks, who won’t economise on fossil fuel. But should we pay for their profligacy, mistakes and arrogance?
Onshore Oil Extraction in the UK
They’ve just talked about this on the BBC. I once discussed this with one of Britain’s foremost experts on natural resources. He told me that the most promising area was actually Surrey for oil, but they would meet lots of opposition. On the BBC they were talking about Dorset being very promising.
His solution to the opposition was very simple. For each barrel of oil or tonne of mineral ore, there should be a local extraction tax paid to the local authority. At present all goes to the Treasury to waste, but just imagine how an English county could be tranformed with the revenue, spent according to the needs of the local people. They would welcome the inconvenience and jobs, but on their environmental and contractual terms.
BP’s Gulf Crisis
I’ve done a lot of interesting things in a long working life. One that might help BP is a type of reusable oil rig/platform, for which I did the calculations in about 1972. It was called a Balaena and the company was called Balaena Structures. It was based in Cambridge. I wonder what happened to the idea.
The Oil Spill
One of the fallouts of DMW was the ability to mix oil and wster easily. I’m sure it could hrlp.
BP’s Oil Find
BP seem to have struck oil. Or is it gold? But the technology to get it to market will be awesome.
Many years ago, I remember when they found the Forties Field and how they said they’d never get that oil ashore. They did then and the Project Management System that I wrote at the time, Artemis, was a great help in the planning of the whole of the North Sea. It certainly helped us go from a little company to one with global clout. The strange thing though, is that we probably made a lot of sales because our systems didn’t need the installation of the large mainframe computers everybody used at the time.
So when I see a find like BP have made in the Gulf of Mexico, I smile a bit and thank Aberdeen and its oil industry for my success.
This is what the Guardian said about the find.
BP has reopened the debate on when the “peak oil” supply will be reached by announcing a big new discovery in the Gulf of Mexico which some believe could be as large as the Forties, the biggest field ever found in the North Sea.
The strike comes days after Iran unveiled an even larger find of 8.8bn barrels of crude oil, and the moves have encouraged sceptics of theories which say that peak production has been reached, or soon will be, to hail a new golden age of exploration and supply.
BP, already the largest producer of hydrocarbons in the US, said its “giant” Tiber discovery in 4,100ft (1,250m) of water was particularly exciting because it promised to open up a whole new area.
I tend to agree that the forecast of oil running out is based on doom cults, rather than sensible science.
If you look at a large oil field, it is not actually that large in terms of area, so when you look for it, it’s very very difficult. And in BP’s latest case, even more so, as you are at depths higher than Mount Everest.
So it’s my belief and this has been confirmed by BP and Iran, that there is a lot of coal out there, but we just don’t have the technology to look for it.
As an aside to this, the Selby coalfield was one of the largest in the UK. But it was only discovered in the 1960s and that in a country which is probably the most explored in the world.
The Anonymous Widower 