Gulf Oil Spill Exceeds Exxon Valdez

[9anda1f]

http://blog.skytruth.org/


Since we're now in Day 11 of the spill, which began with a blowout and explosion on April 20, we estimate that by the end of the today 12.2 million gallons of oil, at a minimum, have been spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

The oft-quoted official estimate for the Exxon Valdez spill is 11 million gallons, although some think that is the lower limit of the likely range. It appears that we've just set a very sad new record.

Although crews are struggling to somehow cap the flow of crude oil from the well head some 5000 ft below the surface, the actual flow rate may in fact be increasing.

This is not good.

[eco4560]

Words fail...

[purplepear]

Bugger....

[Grahame]

Buffoons.

[9anda1f]

Buffoons.
Totally agree, and your sig line Grahame describes the situation perfectly.

Here's a recent satellite image of the "spill":
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t133/9anda1f/spillnasamay8-1.jpg

Attempts to cap the gushing oil failed today:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/05/bp-on-containment-dome-it-has-failed.html

All along the "estimates" of the spill rate have been increasing ... latest numbers exceed 25,000 barrels per day!!! The first oil is washing ashore in some of the very sensitive estuary islands along the low coastline east of the Mississippi River delta. Truly a growing disaster for the gulf region and the Earth in general.

[ecodharmamark]

Human folly. Are we always destined to repeat our mistakes?

[eco4560]

There's an interesting video on the PRI home page that's very enlightening. http://permaculture.org.au/2010/05/28/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-same-shit-different-day/

What I haven't heard in the media is any talk about the inevitable. If the USA stops pulling oil out of their backyard, is the demand going to fall? NO
So when demand is not met by supply, prices rise. The oil economy being what it is, and the USA being the dominant financial force that it is - means that the oil price all around the world will rise. AND - as the GFC resolves the anti-inflationary forces that have been keeping oil prices low will disappear.

And there we are - suddenly SO much closer to Peak Oil than we were a few weeks ago.

I keep feeling guilty every time I get in my car. I too am responsible for the voracious appetite that will see BP drill for oil at ridiculous depths and without adequate disaster management plans in place.

[9anda1f]

Thanks for the link eco. The whole Gulf "leak" (more appropriately a spew) has been riddled with misinformation, and as it continues the public outcry gets louder. BP has made available (by direction from Obama) video feeds from the remotely operated vehicles at work a mile beneath the surface. These feeds have gone viral and there are hundreds of forum and blog websites dedicated to publishing and commenting on the ongoing BP drama. All of BP's efforts to date have failed ... the next attempt will be to cut off the damaged top portion of the well head and install a sort of vacuum to collect a major portion of the spewing oil. There are many doubts as to the viability of this approach and by cutting off the crimped piping, they will open up the Gulf waters to the full extent of the oil well output.

BP has also been injecting chemical dispersant into the oil flow, which keeps a significant portion of the oil from rising to the surface (where it could be skimmed and reclaimed). These dispersants are highly toxic themselves and they break the oil up into tiny globules that remain suspended in the depths. Many scientists have discovered immense plumes of this dispersed oil moving away from the well head with great concern (no way to reclaim this dispersed oil). BP however, denies that such plumes exist. Workers on surface ships that install floating booms to keep oil off the shore and skim floating oil are being sickened by the fumes of the floating oil slicks. There are concerns for those people living near the shores where the oil has made landfall.

All-in-all an unfolding nightmare of epic proportions.

[frosty]

http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=386a5f060b&e=b27f59eaf2

Deepwater Horizon: This Is What the End of the Oil Age Looks Like
Posted May 25, 2010 by Richard Heinberg

Lately I've been reading the excellent coverage of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill at www.TheOilDrum.com, a site frequented by veteran oil geologists and engineers. A couple of adages from the old-timers are worth quoting: "Cut corners all you want, but never downhole," and, "There's fast, there's cheap, and there's right, and you get to pick two."

There will be plenty of blame to go around, as events leading up to the fatal rig explosion are sorted out. Even if efforts to plug the gushing leak succeed sooner rather than later, the damage to the Gulf environment and to the economy of the region will be incalculable and will linger for years if not decades. The deadly stench from oil-oaked marshes—as spring turns to hot, fetid summer—will by itself ruin tens or hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods. Then there's the loss of the seafood industry: we're talking about more than the crippling of the economic backbone of the region; anyone who's spent time in New Orleans (my wife's family all live there) knows that the people and culture of southern Louisiana are literally as well as figuratively composed of digested crawfish, shrimp, and speckled trout. Given the historic political support from this part of the country for offshore drilling, and for the petroleum industry in general, this really amounts to sacrificing the faithful on the altar of oil.

But the following should be an even clearer conclusion from all that has happened, and that is still unfolding: This is what the end of the oil age looks like. The cheap, easy petroleum is gone; from now on, we will pay steadily more and more for what we put in our gas tanks—more not just in dollars, but in lives and health, in a failed foreign policy that spawns foreign wars and military occupations, and in the lost integrity of the biological systems that sustain life on this planet.

The only solution is to do proactively, and sooner, what we will end up doing anyway as a result of resource depletion and economic, environmental, and military ruin: end our dependence on the stuff. Everybody knows we must do this. Even a recent American president (an oil man, it should be noted) admitted that "America is addicted to oil." Will we let this addiction destroy us, or will we overcome it? Good intentions are not enough. Now is the moment for the President, other elected officials at all levels of government, and ordinary citizens to make this our central priority as a nation. We have hard choices to make, and an enormous amount of work to do.

[eco4560]

You know - I'm starting to wonder if nuclear energy isn't safer....? Chernobyl was no picnic, but when you add up all the oil disasters over the years and the loss of life and environmental damage, it starts to make oil look pretty bad and nuclear look pretty tame.

[ecodharmamark]

You know - I'm starting to wonder if nuclear energy isn't safer....? Chernobyl was no picnic, but when you add up all the oil disasters over the years and the loss of life and environmental damage, it starts to make oil look pretty bad and nuclear look pretty tame.

G'day eco

Much has been written about the 'nuclear solution' of late. So-called 'environmentalists' - such as James Lovelock (http://www.jameslovelock.org/page12.html) and Barry Brook (http://bravenewclimate.com/about/) - have been vocal on the subject.

Two questions I would always ask of any advocate for nuclear energy (if I had the time and patience): 1) Do you have a financial interest in the nuclear industry, and 2) Would you be prepared to literally store the waste from the nuclear industry in your own back yard?

Murray Bookchin (1921-2006), long time anti-nuclear campaigner, had this to say (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bookchin/raddemocracy.html) on the subject back in 1985:

What we find today is a totally immoral economy and society which has managed to unearth the secrets of matter and the secrets of life at the most fundamental level. This is a society that, in no sense, is capable of utilizing this knowledge in any way that will produce a social good. Obviously there are leavings from a banquet that fall from the table but my knowledge and my whole experience with capitalism and with hierarchical society generally is that almost every advance is as best a promise and at worst utterly devastating for the world.

So when one speaks of this combination which has occurred. only within my own lifetime, of plumbing the deepest secrets of matter, notably nuclear energy, and transforming matter into energy and bioengineering, I feel that we are confronted with a revolution of monumental importance and while this revolution is in the hands of capital and the state, its impacts upon society could very well be devastating. I cannot foresee that it will benefit human society or the ecology of our planet as much as is will be utilized for domination and hierarchy, which is what all technological innovation, to one extent or another, has always been utilized for.

My own thoughts mirror those of Bookchin's on the subject. Perhaps we need to revive the 'clamshell alliance (http://www.clamshell-tvs.org/)', and take the issue to a world-wide 'village square'?

Cheerio (forever the optimist), Markus.

[eco4560]

I'm reading Lovelock at the moment - which is very timely given the oil spill. He is happy to have all of Britain's waste stored at his place. He says that it amounts to a volume equivalent to one sedan car.

Personally I think we need to reduce our dependance on energy dramatically rather than just keep finding new ways to fulfil our greed - but as I type this I'm very aware that I'm sitting under fluoro lights at work with the aircon running..... Redesigning lives to cope with it is going to be a challenge. I have made major steps towards it at home, but at work (where I am at present) it is so much harder.

[Michaelangelica]

keep up the good fight eco. Changing oneself, rather than proselyting, I always find most difficult.

The oil spill is a catastrophe.

Is the GBR still a major shipping route?
What are our disaster plans for it?

The brother of a Canadian friend of mine has invented an oil spill sponge, no one seems interested.
http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?s=12466464&clienttype=printable

[Don Hansford]

... Is the GBR still a major shipping route?
What are our disaster plans for it?

Yes it is, and Anna Bligh & Co's disaster plan is ...... lets sell more coal, and CSG, and every other thing we can rip out of the ground, and ship it all out via Gladstone. Definitely a "disaster" of a plan

[Grahame]

Um, forgive my ignorance, but can you mine uranium and build nuclear power plants without oil and it's derivatives?

[eco4560]

Not yet... But you also need a lot of oil to build a wind farm, or a solar installation in the desert.

[Don Hansford]

Um, forgive my ignorance, but can you mine uranium and build nuclear power plants without oil and it's derivatives?

Any form of mining is exremely resource hungry. As a small example, if they go ahead with the Olympic mine expansion as planned, it will require every Caterpillar plant in the world, to work 24/7 for three years, to supply the dozers, etc to strip the overburden, before they actually get to the ore body. They will need to build a dual pipeline from the Spencer Gulf to carry in the diesel fuel and the water - trucks won't be able to maintain the quantities needed.
Nuclear is really a short term option ("short" being a relative term here - it'll take at least ten years to build a Nuke power plant from scratch). Renewable is longer term, and definitely more sustainable than any fossil fuelled ideas. Continued "growth" in economic, population, and infrastructure terms, will, however, make a mockery of any attempts to maintain our energy wasteful lifestyles as they are.
The only true solution to the energy crisis is to reduce consumption of energy, in ALL its' forms. Transition to a low energy life is coming. Whether you cose to embrace it, or fight it, doesn't really matter (except to your mental state), because it will happen!

[Flying Binghy]

.

Natural Oil Spills; November 1998; Scientific American Magazine; by MacDonald; 6 Page(s)

"Beneath the Gulf of Mexico, to the south of Texas and Louisiana, tiny bubbles of oil and natural gas trickle upward through faulted marine sediments. Close to the seafloor, these hydrocarbons ooze past a final layer teeming with exotic deep-sea life before they seep into the ocean above. Buoyant, they rise through the water in tight, curving plumes, eventually reaching the surface. There the gas merges with the atmosphere, and the oil drifts downwind, evaporating, mixing with water and finally dispersing.

The best time to witness such a natural "oil spill" is in summer, when the Gulf stays flat calm for days at a time. In the middle of the afternoon, with the full heat of the tropical sun blazing off the sea, one can stand on the deck of a ship and watch broad ribbons of oil stretch toward the horizon. Cruising upwind along one of these slicks, one will notice that the sea takes on an unusual smoothness. The clarity of the water seems to increase, and the glare of the sun off the surface intensifies. Flying fish break from the bow waves and plunge into the water again almost without making a splash. Presently, the scent of fresh petroleum becomes evident--an odor that is quite distinct from the diesel fumes wafting from the ship--and one sees waxy patches floating on the water or clinging to the hull."

http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssuePreview&ARTICLEID_CHAR=EE1FB5A2-FE98-459E-9488-7AC9F54E37E






.

[Grahame]

Any form of mining is exremely resource hungry. As a small example, if they go ahead with the Olympic mine expansion as planned, it will require every Caterpillar plant in the world, to work 24/7 for three years, to supply the dozers, etc to strip the overburden, before they actually get to the ore body. They will need to build a dual pipeline from the Spencer Gulf to carry in the diesel fuel and the water - trucks won't be able to maintain the quantities needed.
Nuclear is really a short term option ("short" being a relative term here - it'll take at least ten years to build a Nuke power plant from scratch). Renewable is longer term, and definitely more sustainable than any fossil fuelled ideas. Continued "growth" in economic, population, and infrastructure terms, will, however, make a mockery of any attempts to maintain our energy wasteful lifestyles as they are.
The only true solution to the energy crisis is to reduce consumption of energy, in ALL its' forms. Transition to a low energy life is coming. Whether you cose to embrace it, or fight it, doesn't really matter (except to your mental state), because it will happen!

If we had a smiley icon with the little yellow face tapping the side of his nose with his index finger I would use it here. But I'll settle for a wink ;)

[springtide]

Gotta love those deep water oil platforms (sarcasm)... but Amerika has all the best technology for this stuff and still there are these disasters. What happens when we get more deep ocean drilling like the proposed ones off the Great Aust. Bight?. Deep drilling is the next oil rush so....?????

[eco4560]

Hmmm (to the Limbo music backing track) How Low Can We Go? How Low Can We Go?
It's eventually going to get to the point where the oil is too hard to get to. Now what is that called? Oh that's right Peak Oil!
Pity no one other than we Permies is talking about it.

[Grahame]

Actually there is a lot of talk about it on the survivalist forums too (although many of them seem to be permies too). I think there is quite a bit of discussion on it out there in the Interwebs. It just hasn't reached popular culture, probably because the idea is pretty unpopular - best to just bury your head in the sand ;)

[Flying Binghy]

Natural oil spill that has been going on for thousands of years...

"The Coal Oil Point seep field offshore from Santa Barbara, California is a petroleum seep area of about three square kilometers adjacent to the Ellwood Oil Field, and releases about 40 tons per day of methane and about 19 tons of reactive organic gas (ethane, propane, butane and higher hydrocarbons), about twice the hydrocarbon air pollution released by all the cars and trucks in the county in 1990. The liquid petroleum produces a slick that is many kilometers long and when degraded by evaporation and weathering, produces tar balls which wash up on the beaches for miles around.

This seep also releases on the order of 100 to 150 barrels of liquid petroleum per day. The field produces about 9 cubic meters of natural gas per barrel of petroleum."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Oil_Point_seep_field




.

[Don Hansford]

... but Amerika has all the best technology for this stuff and still there are these disasters.

They are using exactly the same "best technology" methods that failed to fix a smaller oil spill in 200 ft of water 30 years ago! The results are the same - all failing to stop the flow. 30 years ago, the same drilling company (!) was contracted to BP (!) and the same event occurred (!). That time it took nine months to drill another hole intersecting with the blowout 1000ft below the ocean bed, and then pump concrete into it until the hole was plugged. This has the potential to literally destroy the marine ecosystem over a large part of this planet. What effect will that have on the rest of us?
Perhaps we are going to hit "Peak Life" before "Peak Oil" ????

[ecodharmamark]

Hmmm (to the Limbo music backing track) How Low Can We Go? How Low Can We Go?
It's eventually going to get to the point where the oil is too hard to get to. Now what is that called? Oh that's right Peak Oil!
Pity no one other than we Permies is talking about it.

Don't forget we permie/planners :D

Attended this last night - not a single politician (local, state or jokingly, federal) in sight:

How will we cope beyond peak oil and in a carbon constrained society? (http://www.thinkingtransport.org.au/sites/www.thinkingtransport.org.au/files/EXT%20-%202010%20June%201%20-%20LaTrobe%20Uni%20transport%20lecture.pdf)

All we can do is just keep banging the (oil, haha) drum, and hope (or for those that are duly inclined, pray) that people will stop, think, and change.

I need a holiday, anyone know of an unpolluted beach within walking (hitckhiking) distance of me?

Marko

[Grahame]

Perhaps they are employing him to come up with some trick photography...

"What oil spill? You're looking at this from the wrong dimension!"

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/director-james-cameron-called-in-to-stop-oil-spill-20100602-wvt0.html?autostart=1

Lord help us.

[ecodharmamark]

Perhaps they are employing him to come up with some trick photography...

"What oil spill? You're looking at this from the wrong dimension!"

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/director-james-cameron-called-in-to-stop-oil-spill-20100602-wvt0.html?autostart=1

Lord help us.

Similar, from the ABC:

Avatar director brainstorms on oil spill (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/02/2915894.htm?section=justin)

What is 'Avatar' about, anyway. A good friend said I should see it. Why, I have no idea. Will watching it help me to save the planet and humanity?

If a solution hinges on 'Hollywood', I'm picking up sticks and going to live in that cave I keep dreaming about...

In the meantime, I am cold. I think I will go and spread some mulch...

[Grahame]

Avatar is about 3D cinema. I saw it, those 3D glasses never fit my head but it did look pretty cool. I think that is what most people will remember about it.

The sub-plot was about the American Military blowing up stuff, killing native species and destroying ecosystems in order to get cheap energy. All set in a fantasy world where the people are at one with each other and the planet.

My suspicion is that the majority of people that see it will say, "yeah, we shouldn't do that stuff", as they drive around in there 4WD vehicles through McDonald's on the way home to their super heated homes and prey for the time that 3D TV arrives ;)

[eco4560]

I need a holiday, anyone know of an unpolluted beach within walking (hitckhiking) distance of me?

Depends on how good a walker you are.....

[mischief]

There seems to be some double standards too,
In the NZ Herald, weekend one there is an article on the oil spills that happen frequently in Niger, thats Shells area apparently.
One spill was reported to Shell which took them months to get around to fixing.
This is supposed to be light crude oil, which we are all supposed to be really needing and wanting.
According to this article, (my mum bought the paper and I should have pinched it when I came home so I could quote from it ), millions of barrels have been going down the Niger river for decades and they have been really slack in fixing the problems.
The picture that was shown in the paper shows a pipe jutting out of the river billowing with black smoke and large flames shooting into the air.
In the background you can see village huts all blackened.
The locals are aware of what is going on in the gulf and dispair that everything is being done to stop the spill on the American coastline but nothing gets done for their area and in some cases are being blamed as vandals sabotaging the pipeline.

[springtide]

Out of interest when i said "Best technology" i just ment that this is all that the world can offer to solve this problem and that we are going to have many more deep sea rigs. America is a total plutocracy and i don't really think they care. Niger is what they would like to do in the gulf - it's cheaper.

[9anda1f]

The official leakage estimates keep going up, current official "guess" is over 2,500,000 gallons per day (about 60,000 barrels). http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill_flow

Unofficial estimates by scientific communities approach 120,000 barrels per day. There are also groups closely following BP and USCG activities that have come to the conclusion that the well casing is damaged at some distance beneath the ocean floor, abrasive materials in the gushing oil are eroding the casing and cap apparatus, and that the cap apparatus/blow-out preventer (BOP) are leaning dangerously and have the potential to break off from the well itself. This would allow oil and gas to be released at nature's full force, with almost no chance of shutting off the flow.

And perhaps even worse than the oil and gas escaping are the huge amounts of toxic oil dispersants being cast about at the well head and on the surface of the gulf. Some are calling this an extinction-level event for the Gulf and concern is rising for the Atlantic Ocean as well.

I wish I had something good to report about all of this, but the continuing cover-up of the real situation coupled with the self-serving response to the released oil (BP has a stake in the company that manufactures the dispersant) frankly make me ill.

[Flying Binghy]

I dont know what to make of this report. If true, somebody musta had a good crystal ball....

“Goldman Sachs wasn’t alone either in its astute “foreknowledge” of the collapse of BP’s stock value due to the Gulf disaster as BP’s own chief executive, Tony Hayward, sold about one-third of his shares weeks before this catastrophe began unfolding too...." http://www.twawki.com/?p=6768





.

[Mechandy]

Interesting how our World would be without Oil, no asphalt / bitumen for roads, no diesel for trucks / tractors / trains, no naptha, kerosene and jet aircraft fuels, no LPG or lubricating oils and greases, no light machine oils, no paraffin wax for frozen food packaging, no tar or sulphuric acid or petroleum coke, no specialty carbon products, no plastics, pharmaceuticals or agricultural fertilizers, to name but a few.

In short, a bloody big hole in life as we know it.

And yet, most people continue to hop in their cars and blow off 90-95% of the fuel they put in their fuel tanks, in nothing more than heat, utilizing only 5-10% of that fuel to get them from A to B. This totally profligate and unthinking / uncaring use of a scarce energy resource, that is so useful for so many critical products, simply continues to occur despite the fact that more than 80% of all car trips in the Western World (and that includes Australia), are less than 5 Kilometers.

Who is fooling whom in a fools paradise?

Sorry, but if you are still doing this, you are part of the problem, not the solution.

I'll leave the last word to Matt Savinar, who, on the 11th of October 2005, made this telling statement:

"So you've given up your car and pulled your money out of the bank and burned it? Otherwise you are a full participant in the (Neo, my word) Darwinian struggle. We adapted (read were indoctrinated) to both co-operate and compete. We are already ruthlessly competing. Why do you think the money in your bank account is worth anything? Because we invade / kill people who try to move away from the Dollar (US that is). You can yap all you like, but what you do with your money (or your car) says a whole lot more!"

If you truly want to change your World my friends, you must first change your own actions, completely, no buts, no ifs, no excuses. If not, get set to accede to the "Brave New World" that's coming.

Mechandy

[Flying Binghy]

.

Yer not far wrong there Mechandy. Peak fuel is on the way tho instead of further nuclear fision/fusion development we are off tilting at windmills... and sun panels.....

... the shear stupidity of it all.





.

[Mechandy]

"An action can be regarded as irrational if it is ostensibly a means towards an end, such that this means leads to an end it purports to avoid"

R. D Laing
The Obvious

[eco4560]

I know - I feel DIRTY every time I get in my car....

[Flying Binghy]

Golf anyone....

"You wouldn’t catch Obama goofing off on a yacht while the US battles the greatest oil spill in history. No, sirree":
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/golfing_obama_whacks_yachting_hayward/



.

[Flying Binghy]

EPA has a little problem ?....

Questions have begun to be raised about supposed refusal by EPA of Dutch offers to supply large skimmers to help at the Gulf (reversed only recently.)
http://climateaudit.org/2010/06/20/epa-and-dutch-skimmers/




.

[eco4560]

The media beat up around the yacht story is a bit daft really. Is he really the only person at BP who is working on the oil spill? Do we really expect people to make good decisions when they haven't had a day of leisure in months? Even God got to take one day off after 6 days.....

[Adam]

I only hope this oil spill fiasco will change people's mentalities over drilling and oil consumption. But I don't think most people are making the connection to their own oil consumption and the spill. http://solarchargeddriving.com/editors-blog/on-sun-a-fossil-fuels/372-as-oil-gushes-into-gulf-americans-snap-up-suvs.html

[Solaris]

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/890.html —Republican’s block full subpoena power for commission on gulf spill.

Forget subpoena power BP and Goldman Sacks were Obamas main campaign supporters.
Remember they had pieces of rubber gasket from the blowout preventor coming up out of the well...and they still chose to put salt water in the well and remove the mud. Basically this means that it was deliberate...no one could be that incompetent unless there was a major breakdown in communication across the board.

Considering the way the cards are stacked a Gulf spill commission will not get any further than the damn 911 commission...might as well save the bucks and give em to the fishermen!

This audio will tell you how far up the creek we are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWT1H-Ac7WM —Gulf Oil Rig Explosion 1-6 Incompetence, Terrorism, Israel, Unidentified Submarine. Mark Dankof and Victor Thorn join the discussion to discuss the question "A case of incompetence or one of "an enemy hath done this"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDzm80OTzwc Max Keiser Reveals "Put Options" Ties to BP's False Flag Oil Spill Event on Alex Jones Tv 1/5

[Michaelangelica]

While this is the most dramatic destruction of the environment by man we have seen.
It still pales compared to the steady destruction of habitat, our pollution of the air and water with chemicals; our destruction of sea life; our massive man made extinctions and our destruction of forests especially in the last 60 years.
Just one more nail in the coffin.

[Michaelangelica]

Hosted by http://www.google.com/hostednews/img/small-google-logo.gif Back to Google News (http://news.google.com/news?hl=en)


Indonesia demands compensation for Timor Sea spill
(AFP) – 20 hours ago
JAKARTA — Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday demanded compensation for an oil spill off northwestern Australia that campaigners say destroyed fishermen's livelihoods.
"Certainly we will carry out our responsibility to solve this problem. We'll propose a claim to the company causing the oil spill while maintaining good diplomatic relations with the governments of Australia and Thailand," he told a cabinet meeting.
"What's clear is the company must give something as accountability for the incident," he said, adding that Indonesians affected should "receive decent compensation".
The Thai-operated West Atlas rig dumped thousands of barrels of oil into the Timor Sea between the Indonesian archipelago and Australia after a leak began in August last year. The leaked has since been capped.
Yudhoyono did not specify how much compensation Indonesia would seek from the rig, which is operated by PTTEP Australasia.
Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said the compensation sought must be backed by "scientific proof" that the affected areas have yet to recover, adding that the value of "direct losses" was around 500 billion rupiah (55 million dollars).
Environmental group WWF says more than 400,000 litres (over 105,000 gallons) of oil have been spilt, generating a slick spanning 10,000-25,000 square kilometres (up to 9,650 square miles).
The West Timor Care Foundation, which supports poor fishermen in eastern Indonesia, estimates the spill as even larger and says it has affected the livelihoods of some 18,000 fishermen.
"Fish, dolphins and sea turtles were killed and the pollution posed health problems to the community. We don't know how long it will take to heal the ecosystem," said the group's head Ferdi Tanoni.
WWF earlier said the spill was "one of Australia's biggest environmental disasters".
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More » (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/copyright?hl=en)

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[Flying Binghy]

.

Some interesting comments...

" Natural seeps in the Gulf of Mexico release more oil each year than even the most recent oil spill. Somehow, nature consumes this oil with only a few tar ball showing up on beaches..."

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2010/07/not-particularly-surprising.html






.

[Flying Binghy]

Looks like the latest case of overhyped hysteria has run its course....


" Remember the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, which greens turned into the iconic indictment of the oil economy?

Ten years on, researchers from American universities, research groups and government reviewed all the studies and concluded the spill hadn’t caused real long-term damage, even on the supposedly worst-hit species...

...The report warned people to check the claims of activists against the facts, “divorced from advocacy positions”. But who listened?

...Dr Simon Boxall, a marine pollution expert of Southampton University’s National Oceanography Centre, says the Gulf spill was just the equivalent of a drop in an Olympic-size pool anyway, and “for all but a tiny bit of the Gulf , it will be back to normal within a year”.

Just in time for the next green scare.



http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_its_not_the_oil_but_the_slick_greens_who_sh ould_scare_you/






.

[permasculptor]

S
which greens turned into the iconic indictment of the oil economy?
bullshit! Exxon did that

hadn’t caused real long-term damage, even on the supposedly worst-hit species...
So dead isn't long term damage!

[Michaelangelica]

Deep sea microbe populations are evolving in response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, helping to digest the oil that continues to contaminate the Gulf of Mexico, according to a study published today (August 24) on the ScienceExpress website.

http://images.the-scientist.com/content/images/general/57631-1.jpgBacteria on an oil drop (magnified 100x)
Image: © Science/AAASThe findings provide tantalizing clues that the ocean is evolving in a way that will help it heal from the massive spill, but it's still early days, said biogeochemist John Farrington (http://www.whoi.edu/profile.do?id=jfarrington) of the School of Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, who was not involved in the research.

Read more: Microbes work to mop up oil - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences (http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57631/#ixzz0xZp05oF7) http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57631/#ixzz0xZp05oF7