Earlier this month, thanks to the press surrounding the Gulf oil spill, newspapers and radio stations began running stories that touched on the catastrophic oil spills happening elsewhere in the world. Turns out, they’re happening all the time.
That’s not at all to say that the Gulf spill isn’t a disaster. It’s one of, if not the, worst environmental disasters ever to happen in this country. The point is that oil companies are getting away with similar disasters all over the world, but in places where there isn’t quite as much environmental regulation or public scrutiny of their operations.
In Nigeria, for example, every year since 1969, oil operations in the Niger Delta have spilled as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez. Let that sink in for a minute … an Exxon Valdez spill every year. There are 2,000 ongoing spills in the country. The AP reported earlier this month that last year Royal Dutch Shell alone spilled a record 14,000 tons of crude oil in the Niger Delta. That’s over 4 million gallons, for those of you who don’t think of oil in tons. The Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons in Alaska in 1989. The Niger Delta is the largest wetland in Africa, spanning 20,000 square miles and inhabited by some 150 species, all now endangered thanks to oil spills.
This morning the Yes Men pulled one of their classic stunts, sending around a press release from Shell declaring that it was going to stop deepwater drilling in the Niger Delta and begin remediating the wetlands there. The release was preceded by a staged press conference a few days ago in which a Yes Man posing as a Shell corporate responsibility flak apologized on behalf of the company for the havoc it has wreaked on the people and environment of Nigeria.
It was a gag, but also a good reminder that while the world is tuned into the Gulf, oil companies are getting away with ongoing spills in other countries around the world. According to Lisa Margonelli, journalist and author of Oil on the Brain: Adventures from Pump to Pipeline, it’s not just Nigeria. “We drill in places like Chad, which had no environmental laws whatsoever, and the United States and the World Bank and Exxon kinda made this deal and went in and created environmental laws on the fly,” she said on a recent radio show. ”The problem is that it’s fine to have a moratorium on drilling here, but we need to make sure we’re not going abroad to get the oil. Because we still use oil. So we’re now going to these countries that are a little dicey because the big oilfields are basically gone, so we’re going to places that are riskier geologically, riskier politically, riskier in general, financially, and they tend to be places with fewer regulations.”
Stephen Kretzman, director of nonprofit Oil Change International, regularly writes about such things on his The Price of Oil blog, and notes that the industry routinely spills large amounts, especially in countries like Nigeria. The oil companies are also in the habit of generally ripping off the locals when they come to town, which goes a long way toward explaining why some of Shell’s spills in Nigeria can be pinned on local militants and thieves who have targeted the company’s oil lines. In a recent Price of Oil post, blogger Andy Rowell points to shady oil-drilling contracts currently being made in the Congo.
The problem, as Margonelli points out, is that while the public can be outraged all it wants at the Gulf spill and the various environmental disasters created by oil companies around the world, unless the demand for oil goes down, oil companies will continue to do whatever they can to supply it.
Amy Westervelt
Amy Westervelt writes about travel and environmental issues. She writes regularly for Earth Island Journalate.com/blog/amy-westervelt" ...
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tavi@livingoceans says:
The Exxon Valdez and BP Horizon oil spills shows that accidents happen.
If Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project is approved it would carry half a million barrels of crude oil a day from the Alberta tar sands to the port of Kitimat, B.C. The oil would then be loaded into tankers that would sail through the narrow inlets of the Great Bear Rainforest before heading out to sea. At least 225 oil tankers a year would traverse this fragile coastal route, delivering tar sands oil to Asian markets.
Stop the Enbridge Pipeline. E-mail the Prime Minister and urge him to permanently ban super tankers so that B.C.’s North and Central Coast is not the site of the world’s next disastrous oil spill.
Action alert link in video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDxT6rSxq2k
Chace Smith says:
Oil Spill Eater II
Testing of OSE II by Dr. Tsao of British Petroleum
David Tsao, Ph.D
BioChem Strike Team Leader; Deepwater Horizon
Regarding the Effectiveness of OSE II Remediating Oil from Deepwater Horizon, Blow Out, Gulf of Mexico
The major oil company British Petroleum tested OSEI Corporation’s product called Oil Spill Eater II (OSE II) at Louisiana State University from November 2010 through January 2011. Relevant sections of BP’s BCST (Bio Chem Strike Team) test results and summary “interim report” are attached.
British Petroleum formed a group named the Bio Chem Strike Team (BCST). Under the direction of Dr. Tsao, BCST was established in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident by the Alternative Response Technology (ART) program. The BCST consisted of experts from BP, LSU, LDEQ (Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality), USCG (U.S. Coast Guard), OSPR (California), SCAT, and highly experienced oil spill response consultants. Furthermore, BCST operated in conjunction with advice from EPA and NOAA.
OSE II was then slated for testing and the tests were started in November of 2010, and concluded in January of 2011. The tests were very thorough and measured several pertinent aspects in regards to remediating hydrocarbons/oil. The tests were conducted with Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry EPA test procedures. Bacteria counts, as well as dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorous levels were measured, and PAH and Alkane degradation was quantified.
The results from the tests of OSE II were excellent!
OSE II showed a great ability in the closed laboratory test to be able to remediate PAH’s, as well as the Alkanes. In fact, by the conclusion of the testing time frame, OSE II had remediated 80% of both components of the oil released by BP which ended up in Bay Jimmy, Louisiana. Based on total concentration levels of the PAH’s OSE II actually remediated 200 %of the PAH’s or 162% of the total of both oil fractions since the Alkanes and PAH’s were measured on a 100% basis for each.
This test by a major oil company is the second major testing of OSE II on two of the largest spills on water in the history of planet Earth caused by Man. Exxon tested OSE II in 1989 at Florham Park, New Jersey and discovered OSE II was the most effective product in the world by a factor of better than 90% on the North Slope Alaskan Crude oil from the Valdez spill.
BP has now successfully tested OSE II on their spill in the Gulf of Mexico which is estimated, at this time, to be over 600,000,000 gallons of oil spilled.
Dr. Tsao wrote in his report “After nearly one year since the Deepwater Horizon spill, residual weathered oil remains in many locations. The need for a field trial to establish operational criteria for final bioremediation work plans should be initiated before early Spring 2011.”
The OSEI Corporation has alerted BP that, after over 16,000 spill clean ups in the past 21½ years, the logistics in regard to the successful application of OSE II were worked out some time ago.
The remediation of the PAH’s also verifies that OSE II is an extremely effective first response bioremediation product, and has among its many benefits:
) causes the oil to float which limits the negative toxic impact to the water column or ocean floor of the oil and dispersant
) the reduction of the adhesion properties so the oil cannot stick to birds, grass, rock or sand on shorelines
) the elimination of fire hazard
) proven non-toxic by the numerous formal toxicity tests, the fact that you can safely wash your hands with it, and the TV news program in which Retired Rear Admiral Lively drank some of it
) Boom deployment actually works and can help since OSE II causes oil to float
) OSE II causes the oil to float, because of the method in which it goes to work on the oil, it is still very difficult to see
) defined end point of turning the oil into water and CO2
The above clearly demonstrate that it is the best and only needed oil spill response and that it will, even at this late date, remediate both fresh and weathered oil and dispersant currently in the Gulf.
David Tsao, Ph.D
BioChem Strike Team Leader; Deepwater Horizon