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Message |
    
sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15518
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Monday, August 7, 2006 - 11:07 pm: | 
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U-G-L-Y situation. 16 miles of pipe need to be replaced and it's going to take months.
Say hello to $4 a gallon gas. And the hurricane season isn't going to help.
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Southerner
Citizen
Username: Southerner
Post Number: 1400
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 7:52 am: |
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Hello. I'd prefer to see $5 a gallon. |
thegoodsgt
Citizen
Username: Thegoodsgt
Post Number: 1038
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 7:54 am: |
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And in an ironic moment of clarity, we find that we consumers are the problem! |
mimosa
Citizen
Username: Mimosa
Post Number: 230
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 8:26 am: |
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$5 a gallon will be good for our economy...how?? |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1811
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 9:52 am: |
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its criminal what BP has done in Alaska. The pipeline needs regular maintenance and obviously it was not maintained. Even while BP was netting a nice profit of 80 something million dollars per day they couldnt devote any of that to maintenance.
The executives should be brought up on criminal negligence charges. |
Strawberry
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 7664
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 9:54 am: |
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A little early to call for criminal charges. |
crabby
Citizen
Username: Crabbyappleton
Post Number: 758
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 9:58 am: |
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In the long run higher prices will be good. COnsumers behavior will change. They'll demand better fuel economy and that in turn could get the energy companies to develop all the alternative energy ideas (wind power, ocean/wave power etc etc) so that we can get off the oil train. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2231
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 11:01 am: |
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Higher gasoline prices may just force us to look for a way out of dependency on oil, whether foreign or domestic. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5783
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 11:03 am: |
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BP didn't do proper maintenance on the pipeline since 1992. The LA Times has the story today.
As for oil companies taking the profits and pocketing them, that's not the case in a recent study.
"The top 20 U.S. and Canadian oil companies actually invested 50 percent more than they earned in the past 10 years in efforts to produce more oil, but adverse geopolitical developments conspired to give them fewer opportunities to expand production while fading oil fields in the U.S. and elsewhere forced them to spend substantially more just to maintain current production, according to the study by the Ernst & Young accounting firm.
"Reinvestment is under way, and it's strong," said Charles Swanson, an energy analyst at the firm, but "average costs to find and develop oil and gas reserves have tripled since 1997, while total reserve-replacement costs have more than doubled."
The study found that the top companies -- including Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, among others -- took in a mind-numbing $5 trillion in revenue from sales of oil and related products between 1995 and 2005. After subtracting the cost of equipment, leases, labor and other operating expenses, the companies posted whopping profits of $336 billion.
Over the same time span, however, the companies spent even more than they earned -- $550 billion -- on oil exploration and development. Some of them went deeply into debt to finance new ventures, especially during times of lean profits."
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20060808-124344-3187r |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1812
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 11:30 am: |
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cjc - are you suggesting that oil companies are losing money? I would like to know when the last time the oil companies had 'lean profits', and what exactly a 'lean profit' might look like.
The fact that proper maintenance has not been done on the pipeline for 14 years tells me that there is a tremendous problem with priorities over at BP.
2nd quarter statement
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B0B0B2B07%2DE479%2D47C2% 2D9EAF%2DB98FCAA40A1C%7D&siteid=mktw&sid=127362&symb=
contains this nugget from BP Group Chief Executive, Lord Browne
Quote:"BP's second quarter result reflected good overall operating performance
and continuing strong upstream and refining margins. The Texas City
refinery is now running at 200 mb/d and further units will be brought
onstream across the balance of 2006. Our actions to control costs are
on track. Results are being impacted by higher tax charges. Strong
cash generation continues to support shareholder distributions through
dividends and buybacks".
I guess those actions controlling costs are just not doing any maintenance.
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Southerner
Citizen
Username: Southerner
Post Number: 1403
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 2:22 pm: |
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I love this. Posters like Hoops want to tell a private business how to manage their resources. That was a good laugh. It seems to me the same die hard libs who loothe the oil companies continue to buy their product and at the same time whine the loudest when the product's production is slowed. You would think the gas guzzling Hummer owners would be crying the loudest, but instead Hoops is screaming. I feel like I'm in bizarro world. Why don't you libs do what you do on all other occassions and that is boycott and picket? Something tells me it's because you either don't really believe your rants or you lack such self control that you just have to pull in and fill up. Either way, us neo-cons are having a great laugh watching you whine while at the same time filling up. And I bet some of you still shop at Target and Wal-Mart from time to time. Don't admit it though because you may not get invited to the next wine tasting in the neighborhood. |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1819
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 2:56 pm: |
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Dont be so dense. This issue affects the price of gas and as such affects us all. No one is telling a private business how to spend its money, but the negligent (in)actions of this one business has a direct affect on the nations pocketbook.
Your post is so full of mumbo jumbo that no one but you probably understands what you are talking about. I dont think I could deconstruct your disjointed diatribe against posters like Hoops, and liberals in general without some kind of rosetta stone.
The only thing that is known about your opinion here is that 'you love this'.
own any BP stock? |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5420
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 3:02 pm: |
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BP isn't a private business, it's a public corporation. And I imagine that most people on this board on some level own stock in it.
So guess what? We're owners. |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 6864
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 4:10 pm: |
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Tom..too big a thought there.
Southerner would like us all to walk to NYC, cause boycotting oil or doing what we are supposed to do, would result in the ultimate shut down of NJ Transit, Metro North and all the bus lines. Nevermind we couldn't cook or shower or launder our clothes.
Southerner...you win everything you post just makes me 
and yet at the same time be thankful that we only share the country, not the neighborhood. |
Stevef
Citizen
Username: Stevef
Post Number: 219
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 4:17 pm: |
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Southerner is a kid. Gotta be. |
Southerner
Citizen
Username: Southerner
Post Number: 1406
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 5:46 pm: |
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I'm not the one whining about a product and then continuing to buy it. If Hoops and you others were really so angry at BP you would not continue to line their pockets with your hard earned money. And yes, I absolutely love it every time a lib fills up because I know they have zero self control which is why the are always looking to blame someone. In this case it's big oil.
And Duncan, a little over the top don't you think? Please let me know at what price you and your family stops cooking and taking showers.
Hoops, you are wrong. The cost of oil doesn't effect me. It definitely changes my priorities on certain aspects of my life, but it has no more effect than taxes and other every day decisions. The chicken little routine is definitely tried and true. |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5421
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 6:21 pm: |
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You believe that the price of oil doesn't affect you because you're only thinking about driving your car.
Anything you buy, and in particular I'm thinking about non-optional things like groceries and clothing, has to get from the farm to the store. That takes oil. Anything plastic comes from petroleum. That includes the packaging for those groceries and clothes, and maybe even the clothes themselves. The fertilizers that give us the kind of crop yields we've come to depend upon are made from petroleum.
The very roads that these goods are transported over are paved with petroleum products.
Too much of our world revolves around oil, and you can't just decide to "get off." |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1822
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 - 10:22 pm: |
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Southerner - The issue is not one that is partisan. The issue is incompetance, the issue is environmental safety, the issue is one of unnecessary costs due to negligence.
From the Center for American Progress
Quote:Beyond the Pale
Yesterday, British Petroleum (BP) announced the closure of its Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska's North Slope, the "nation's largest oil field," because it had detected corrosion in a major pipeline. The company said it will replace 16 miles of pipeline, and some analysts believe it "could take six months or perhaps a year for production to return to normal." Oil prices jumped $2 to $77 a barrel for crude oil, and gas prices "began to rise as much as 5 cents a gallon in some cities." "Analysts predicted an additional rise of at least another 5 cents in the coming days, particularly on the West Coast." The incident once again demonstrated the harmful symptoms of America's addiction to oil. One year ago today, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act into law, promising it would "take pressure off price for American consumers." Today, the "numbers are starting to add up," with disruptions "currently afflicting the world’s oil markets in Nigeria, Iraq, Venezuela," the Gulf of Mexico, and now Alaska. Conservatives used the supply disruption to push for more drilling once again. "This problem, like the hurricanes last fall," Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NW) said yesterday, "underscores the pressing need to expand domestic oil and gas production." What America really needs is a new direction.
NO SURPRISE ABOUT PIPELINE CORROSION: In a press release, BP announced the shutdown came "following the discovery of unexpectedly severe corrosion and a small spill from a Prudhoe Bay oil transit line." But there was nothing unexpected about the problems in the oil lines. Last March, "the largest oil spill ever in the energy-rich North Slope" occurred after a corroded pipe leaked up to 267,000 gallons of crude at Prudhoe Bay. Government reports concluded that six other places along the pipeline also had the same corrosion, and last month, BP had to shut down 12 Prudhoe Bay oil wells after whistleblowers revealed the leaks. ("It takes two leaks before they figure out that corrosion is a significant issue," said David Pursell of Houston's Pickering Energy Partners in Houston. "One time is not enough?") The Department of Transportation ordered BP to use a "smart pig," a device used to test for pipeline abnormalities, after the March leak. BP had not conducted such a test since 1992, and "regulators say more frequent tests should have been done." BP's Alaska President admitted as much yesterday, promising the company would be "adjusting considerably our corrosion program." The EPA "has launched a criminal probe to determine whether the company was negligent in managing the pipeline."
BP FACES BIG PROBLEMS: The closure is the latest stain on BP's "carefully-crafted 'Beyond Petroleum' image." A criminal investigation into the March oil spill is ongoing. In 2005, an explosion at a Texas City refinery killed 15 people, leading the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to fine the company a "record $21.4 million for more than 300 alleged violations." (OSHA fined the company another $2.4 million for safety violations in Ohio, and BP is now a part of OSHA's "Enhanced Enforcement Program" for serial violators.) Last year's hurricanes damaged BP's Thunder Horse offshore drilling platform in the Gulf, but a "recent test showed two underwater leaks...and it was not expected to be back online until early 2007." The Federal Trade Commission has also accused BP traders -- one of whom has pled guilty -- of "conspiring to corner the propane market and sparking a sharp rise in the price of the heating fuel." But BP's problems haven't hurt the bottom line. Last quarter, BP pocketed $7.27 billion, or $900 a second, in profits.
So building on tom's point - All of us are going to be paying much higher prices on everything, our collective buying power is going to be affected, due to the negligence of this corporation.
How is it that you are defending these bums?
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Southerner
Citizen
Username: Southerner
Post Number: 1408
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 7:59 am: |
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Hoops/Tom,
I feel your pain. And when have I ever defended these bums? My point is that you are whining about something you can control. Tom, your point could be made on any number of issues yet I don't hear you railing against government regulation which drives up prices, or taxes which eat into our disposable income, etc, etc. There are a lot of things you can't just "get off", but they don't seem to bankrupt us and change our way of life. This is just another chicken little scenario that is a good issue for you libs, which is the true reason you guys are so worked up. Let's face it, if gas went to $1 per gallon tomorrow you libs would be pissed because there goes your main campaign issue. Like I stated earlier, the price of gas has had very little impact on my way of life or on my decisions. But I do love the thought of you guys believing this. |
dave23
Citizen
Username: Dave23
Post Number: 1941
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 - 11:00 am: |
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Southerner,
You're making me dizzy:
"The cost of oil doesn't effect me. It definitely changes my priorities on certain aspects of my life..."
You need to consult a dictionary (for two reasons). |
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