Hurricane Ike destroys 49 oil platforms in Gulf (1% of Gulf capacity)

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

At least 49 offshore oil platforms, all with production of less than 1,000 barrels a day, were destroyed by Hurricane Ike as it raced across the Gulf of Mexico, and some may not be rebuilt, the Interior Department said Thursday.

It said in the latest hurricane damage assessment that the platforms altogether accounted for 13,000 barrels of oil and 84 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. There are more than 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf producing 1.3 million barrels of oil and 7 billion cubic feet of gas each day.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/18/national/w134538D78.DTL&tsp=1

[CountAllVotes]

1. gee, can we bail them out too?

:sarcasm:

NOT GOOD!

:kick:

[xyouth]

7. You might not be far off here. My tin foil is starting to vibrate.

Does anybody know who holds the insurance on these rigs?

AIG covers everything from planes to offshore oil drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to coverage against terrorist attacks. It provides warranties for TVs in Brazil and insurance that complies with Islamic law in Bahrain.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2008/09/why_aig_matters_no_1_insurer_t.html

[Pete2069]

10. This folding of U.S. corporations which have gone Global

Should start telling Americans that the monopoly game Bush ,
corporations are playing with our economy and country is a
disaster in sheep clothing.

They claim less then a year ago ,, just how great AIG Global
corporation was and how strong and durable it was....

This is what happens when Corporations say screw you to
America and go Global they screw Americans.  

Globalization of our corporations is another word for
monopolization of American corporations.
**********
This is the arrogant statement AIG just made On May 19 2008,,
just 4 months ago..  Someone was really skimming the money and
running.

*********
http://vcr.csrwire.com/node/7978

NEW YORK,NY - May 19, 2008 – Today American International
Group, Inc. (AIG) released its second report on corporate
responsibility, "Putting our Strength Behind
Sustainability", which focuses on long-term
sustainability and illustrates how AIG’s Vision and Values
guide the company’s approach to environmental, social, and
governance [ESG] issues. 

"AIG is devoting the resources necessary to manage our
risks while developing innovative solutions to help our
clients better manage their own risks," says AIG
President and CEO Martin J. Sullivan. "At the same time,
the spirit of entrepreneurship is helping us seize new markets
in critical environmental, social and governance areas,
particularly the environment."

The report covers eight focus areas and details how these
corporate responsibility initiatives are creating value for
AIG, its customers, business partners and shareholders, as
they contribute to the growth of sustainable, prosperous
communities

[xyouth]

12. Bush liked the company so much... he bought it.

With our money.

[Tikki]

2. Are these platforms way out in the Gulf...does this damage bring oil..

and residue onto the Gulf Coast beaches and wetlands?

I know many people have lost everything... I am so sorry.

I have been to Galveston before and I know they had oil and/or tar
that washed up onto their seawalls.

I worry about the environment that people returning have to face
and I, also, worry about the flora and fauna of this region.

Tikki

[fed_up_mother]

3. Probably not.

The oil floating out there is mostly oil that was in various "containers" on the coast.

The wells are shut down in advance of the hurricane hitting. There's no oil coming out of the ground when the hurricane hits.

[mmnnbb]

8. i'm sure they are worried too

If it wasn't for the fact that they have no home, job or town. They have no idea where to get water and food from and they have to crap in a bucket. I'm sure they care.

[lastliberalintexas]

15. Actually, people in SE Texas do care

There has obviously been some concern, so far unfounded, that the municipal water systems could be contaminated from the sludge of salt water, oil and other chemicals in this area. After people come home, they'd like to have potable water.

[Pete2069]

11. You Heard McSame

Hurricane did no damage to the oil rigs and the fish and birds
love to be around the oil rigs , spills or whatever.  

This was about the same answer about the Moose loving to rub
against the oil pipe line in the west..

[theblasmo]

4. Nothing to see here

Yup. Those oil platforms survived, just like the ones with Katrina. All those survived.

Has anyone thrown this in their faces yet?

[MooseGoose]

5. The cost of loss/replacement is not the issue.

That kind of thing can be (indeed, should be) built into the expected life cycle costs of the rigs and whatever risk analysis the oil/gas companies build into their business plan.

What about spillage? One big media shot of a 1,000,000 barrels of crude would pretty much kill support for the "Drill, baby, drill." approach. People can connect with abstract production numbers, but have a visceral response to images of miles of oil-drenched coastline and wetlands.

Does a lack of spillage mean the oil/gas companies have improved their techology as claimed? I'm thinking not until they can show reliable resilience against the Cat 5 storms. Katrina had (about) 124 spills, with (about) 741,000 gallons of product spilled offshore, and another 7,000,000 gallons from onshore sources (link: http://blog.skytruth.org/2007/12/hurricane-katrina-gulf-of-mexico-oil.html).

Remember, the production loss driving the short term gasoline spikes (I'm being nice and assuming this was a real supply and demand event) came from refineries being shut down, not from loss of crude production.

[MichiganVote]

6. Drill, drill, drill..........

[Pete2069]

9. Took my post of the Republican battle cry...

If Obama win the election , Bush , Cheney , the republicans
with the support of the democrats will make sure Obama has
nothing to work with..

[EFerrari]

13. That's weird. The numbers go up and down. Last I read,

12 platforms and 20%. Goofy.

[auburngrad82]

14. They weren't built to withstand category 2 storms?

Strange that they survived stronger storms in the past. I'm guessing the oil companies are taking them offline to boost prices. But I don't trust the oil companies anyway.

[hatrack]

16. A lot of these are older, smaller platforms, which may or may not be able to bear a major storm

The main thing, though, is if a platform has been there for 30 years, and is now producing only 1,000 or 2,000 barrels/day, it doesn't really make any business sense to go out and replace it today, with materials and labor as high as they are.

There was a really interesting post on The Oil Drum estimating that for every really big hurricane, we probably lose 2-3% of GOM production permanently, and these numbers seem to bear that out.