Oil companies gird for hurricanes »
Posted by: STONERS 1 year, 3 months agoEnergy experts fear that severe hurricanes, like those that toppled U.S. oil rigs and flooded refineries in 2005, could send already record gasoline prices to a lofty $4 a gallon.
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STONERS1 year, 3 months ago
The U.S. government has issued new regulations that require mobile offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico to have more underwater mooring lines to keep the rigs in place, after 2005's hurricanes plowed more than 100 of them into the sea.
Drifting rigs can wreak havoc on the delicate network of undersea pipelines carrying oil and natural gas to shore.
New production platforms are also being built 25 feet higher, rising some 75 feet from the water, so they will be less vulnerable to big waves during storms.
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Sierra1zero1 year, 3 months ago
Check this website out to get an idea of what a Tension Leg Platform drilling rig looks like. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/...
They are fairly stable and monstorously huge and can usually take whatever is thrown at them. The pictures you may have seen of the small drilling platforms like the one that washed up on the beach after hurricane Katrina was a small "Jack-up" style rig. Most of those guys should have pulled out before the storms and should have to each time. Unfortunately, 60 hours is not a lot of time. These small rigs take a pounding because they are in more shallow water than the the rigs in, say, 8,000 feet of water. Other rigs also use mooring chains with 8 anchors and miles of 2 1/2" link chain. It's a major operation to move those beasts.
Just thought you'd like to know. :D
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capecoralM1 year, 3 months ago
Wait, the libs have been saying it was because of greed that prices of crude and the refined products from said are the cause of high gas prices. The market is what is causing prices to fluxuate? hmmm. The open market and world trading systems cause prices to change? Who would have known?
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BronxBomber1 year, 3 months ago
The worst case scenario would have severe repercushion's on the nations economy.
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ETproductions1 year, 3 months ago
I doubt that. It does boost their profits when supply drops. But it cuts their overall sales (less supplies) and opens the door to foreign competitors. And it also costs them a kings ransom to repair all the damage hurricanes like Katrina and Rita do to their infrastructure.
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TOtheMOON1 year, 3 months ago
"many more oil refineries now have backup power generation "to avoid significant disruption to fuel delivery and distribution."
When the hurricane strikes, they can raise the prices AND still reap the rewards because the backup will avoid disruption.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 3 months ago
I maintain that we should set up a federal "energy" company run at a modest profit, that would provide at least 1 more needed refinery and store a serious reserve for the U.S. ONLY.
(The last 2 times federal oil reserves were released to ease prices and supply here in the U.S., it was sold to foreign nations for ludicrous profit by the already bloated oil companies. we the taxpayers who purchased the oil in the federal reserve in the first place have nothing to show but a sore sphincter.
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Slave2Govt1 year, 3 months ago
TRANSLATION:
Be prepared Americans because under one misnomer or another we {the record profit posting oil companies} will be slipping it to you for $4 plus a gallon as soon as we believe your gullible butt will accept it - like it or not - and if you don't like it call your political representative - we own most of them too......
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Justice4All1 year, 3 months ago
25 years ago 18 of the 20 largest oil companies were American owned. Back then we could do something. Actually we were doing something until Reagan came along and eliminated the beginnings of a national energy policy that was started and carried on by Nixon, Ford and Carter.
Now most of the largest companies are foreign owned. It really doesn't matter what the US wants or thinks. Big oil doesn't even have to buy political representatives anymore. They have no influence. We are at big oil's mercy. But what do you expect when the masses think they have a god given right to an SUV and cheap oil.
We are like drug addicts. The dealers control us only because we let them. And we have no intention of changing our lifestyle.
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ABANOCLA1 year, 3 months ago
I just filled up the car and the price here went down 7 cents since monday, as for the hurricanes who knows, last year was "predicted" as going to be bad by the "experts" and nothing happened at all, so much for weather predictions..but they are saying 17 storms this year and blah blah blah...believe it when it occurs.
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david_nwpa1 year, 3 months ago
After having read enough on this subject, perhaps gasoline should go that high. It might force enough people to buy more fuel efficient cars and trade in their gas guzzling SUV's. It might nudge Detroit and other auto cities to stop producing gas guzzling vehicles and replace them with more hybrids and other energy efficient vehicles. I do not like paying more for gas, but we have to do something to lessen our dependence on foreign oil without ruining the fragile ecosystem that is the ANWR.
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joeblowe1 year, 3 months ago
No. Sorry. The oil companies know damn well that there is a certain amount of gas that people HAVE to use - to get to work, get groceries, etc. If the usage drops, the oil companies will simply RAISE the price to keep their profits the same. Supply and demand don't really enter into this much. We already know they can easily reduce the supply if necessary. And no matter how high the price goes (so far) the demand doesn't change significantly.
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HMMace1 year, 3 months ago
Bush like higher prices for oil, he makes more money..as does his veep- Cheny..
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moribullComment removed: User banned.
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hamy1 year, 3 months ago
Why wasn't all of this protection done before? They are making record profits. Why aren't the oil companies being held responsible.
If I make a product and there is a danger to the means for me to make that product, I should be responsible for making sure that the means is secure. That is economics. The government shouldn't be responsible for telling them to secure their means. Also, why is the government allowing the gouging of all Americans while not forcing the oil companies to make sure their refineries and pipelines are secure? They made record profits. Stop helping them do that at the expense of the American people.
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ontherock1 year, 3 months ago
WE are getting ripped off!!!! The daily profits oil companies make are HIDIOUS!!!!
Sure you go into business to make money but a daily profit that is six figures or higher is ROBBERY and should be stopped!!!!!!!
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simonsez1 year, 3 months ago
Off the subject, but I just got this link via email. Quite interesting! It updates every few minutes.
http://www.globalincidentmap.com/home.php
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getreal11 year, 3 months ago
They are going to use any excuse in the book to get more money out of us. What did they do with all their insurance money? They get paid on things two and three times over.
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simonsez1 year, 3 months ago
In 5 years, you will look back and wish we had $4.00 gal. gas again.
This is not greed ... this is the end of cheap oil.
Countries all over the world nationalizing their oil production keeping the price high.
$170 million in today's dollars for an offshore platform. Drilling 7 miles deep. Rapidly expanding costs of everything related to finding it and getting it to market.
It cost me $40 to fill up at $2.00 ... today around $70.
Not the end of the world. Adjust your life-style now.
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vor1 year, 3 months ago
This story makes it sound as if the oil companies will suffer. Hardly, they pulled in record profits the last time there was such a crisis. And I don't recall that pre-Katrina this was held over our head like a hammer.
Simonsez is using the old Limbaugh argument. Just deal with it. Easy for those with six/seven figure incomes. He neglects the profits that are to be used for exploration and recovery. There are simply no excuses anymore. And these maintenance shutdowns every spring are a known entity that should be accounted for in year round pricing. The reason they continue to operate nearly without restriction is the strength of their lobby. You will see tough talk on the Hill but has anyone seen any tough action?
And instead of working on solving our oil dependence, an issue that dwarfs all others, we are throwing away a trillion dollars in a desert full of oil. We are securing those fields from our economic rivals but they are hardly benefitting us at the moment.
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simonsez1 year, 3 months ago
You know I'm right VOR. Solving our oil dependance is a different problem that will contribute to higher prices in the future.
Ethanol will be one of the costliest decisions we have ever made and will not be rolled back because it benefits farmers with subsidies and guaranteed sales. It not only drives up the cost of fuel, but also food.
So ... we're left with greater expense to get the fuel to market combined with government subsidies to artificially reduce dependence. Not a formula for cheaper product.
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hrmm1 year, 3 months ago
You know, how many excuses do they need to get away with uping the prices. They might as well come out and say, "We are going to screw you over, deal with it"
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Rhialto1 year, 3 months ago
The problem is not how much oil we can get, but in our capacity to refine it. If we built half dozen or more refineries gas would plummet because of high supplies. This is the bottleneck we should be correcting, but I see no one advocating this. It is basic supply and demand, if they keep the supply low by not refining enough then prices will rise as supply is static and demand is rising. Even if we could drill enough oil domestically to suppy all our needs, it would not matter because of the bottleneck at the refineries. Even worse our current refineries seem to suffer convenient accidents to drive price up further. I'll reserve my opinion whether they are real or contrived.
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vor1 year, 3 months ago
The ironic part is that Iraqi oil is amongst the cheapest oil in the world to extract.
I am talking about preparing to transition to new sources. And yes there will be tremendous expense involved. We are not doing much in that regard. It is an issue we cannot ignore. I don't want my grandkids at war over the remaining petroleum for the next fifty years.
We have solved huge problems before but this one we tend to just throw our arms in the air and go right back to mainlining petroleum again. That must stop sometime in the near future. Have we lost our belief in American ingenuity or have we simply outsourced it to the oil companies?
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