快樂牛郎

Interesting analysis on the situation guys. Let's see if the oil price will really be contained desp ...
BiscottiGelato 發表於 2010/6/2 12:39

Natural Gas could see a turn-around with oil being so unpopular right now

Lik

Yes, there is a risk to everything, and given the extreme difficulty of repair/containment the BP disaster has shown, I'd say the risk is not worthwhile.

A complete ban on all off shore drilling is a knee jerk political decision more than a scientific and rational one. But as long as the ban is only temporary on the low risk / low disaster impact operations (eg. closer, shallower drills, maybe?), then it can be said that the extra caution was well worth it.

-Lik

快樂牛郎

But as long as the ban is only temporary on the low risk / low disaster impact operations (eg. closer, shallower drills, maybe?), then it can be said that the extra caution was well worth it.

Nobody says shallow drilling is any safer or more environmental friendlier than deep sea drilling.  The oil spill near Mexico in 1980 that dragged on for 10 months was a shallow well.

Lik

I won't pretend that I know anything about the 1980 oil spill in Mexico, but with the BP disaster that we're having now, a lot of the measure failed precisely because the operations had to be done at 5000 ft below sea level. At those levels, water pressure is simply too great, and it both interferes and limits what can be done.

With shallower drills, at least if accidents were to occur, the ease (and therefore success) of repair is much greater. The environment risks at stake is thus much smaller, and the risk-benefit analysis becomes a lot more favourable.

-Lik

快樂牛郎

Just as the current oil spill, most shallow spills in history could only be stopped by drilling a relief well.  The only relative benefit is that the environmental damage of a shallow spill is more visible and easier to contain.  But the whole point is to bring in safety measures to prevent ANY spill.  Since deep water has many times more reserve than shallow water, to get the same amount of oil you would probably have to drill 3 shallow water wells instead of 1 deep water well.  This alone increases the risk of any explosion.