Posted on 08/18/2011 10:58:40 AM PDT by Nachum
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. and the federal government are fighting over one of the largest oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico that could yield billions of dollars of crude in coming years, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The Julia oil field, about 250 miles southwest of New Orleans, may hold more than 700 million barrels of oil and gas equivalent. Exxon, which announced the discovery in June, wants to tap that field. But the Interior Department says Exxon's leases have expired and the company hasn't met requirements for an extension.
Exxon and part-owner Statoil have filed separate lawsuits in a Louisiana federal court to preserve the leases.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimorejewishlife.com ...
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
The leases will go to Brazil and we will buy the oil from them.
Hmmmmm ....
It seems like it’s at least once a week that I find myself siding against the United States. It is a strange feeling.
related (not duplicate) thread
Steffy: ‘Gulf of Mexico standoff: Exxon, U.S. battle over big find’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2765524/posts
“By February 2009, the government denied Exxon’s request, saying that the company didn’t present a specific plan to producing the oil.”
The a$$es had been in office for about 3 weeks.
Don’t know the facts but I bet Exxon wins in Court, but Obama gets what he wants no drilling.
“...saying that the company didn’t present a specific plan to producing the oil...”
####
How dare those malevolent oil men circumvent the pencil-necked, Ivy League attorney approval process!
Isn’t 250 miles a long way beyond the 12 miles limit?
Isn’t this oil field in INTERNATIONAL waters??
How can the USA control the ‘leases’??
I am confused.
Since when does this administration value having "specific plans"?
“this is your land,
this is my land, ...”
now commies control the u.s. government.
Exxon gives 95% of their political donations to Republicans. The Chicago shakedown thugs strike again.
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000000129&type=P&sort=A&cycle=2010
Top Recipients, 2009-2010
Candidate Amount
Blunt, Roy (R-MO) $28,800
Murkowski, Lisa (I-AK) $20,950
Fiorina, Carly (R-CA) $15,550
Lincoln, Blanche (D-AR) $12,500
Rubio, Marco (R-FL) $12,300
Oil Rising from Macondo Well: BP Hires Fleet of 40 Shrimp Boats to Lay Boom Around Deepwater Horizon Site
Fresh oil is surfacing all over the northern quadrant of the Gulf of Mexico. Reports of slicks that meander for miles and huge expanses of oil sheen that look like phantom islands are becoming common, again. Fresh oil, only slightly weathered, is washing ashore in areas hit hardest by last year’s massive spill, like Breton Island, Ship Island, the Chandeleurs and northern Barataria Bay. BP has reactivated its Vessels of Opportunity (VoO) program to handle cleanup.
That report looks like a lawyer trying to drum up some business.
Other sources report it quite differently.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/08/18/bp-investigates-new-sheen-in-gulf/
Cheri Ben-Iesau, commander of Coast Guard District 8 in New Orleans, said a Coast Guard plane was doing flyovers Thursday afternoon of the Green Canyon site as well as the Macondo well and was awaiting an update.
But she said the agency had so far found no evidence at the Green Canyon site that the sheen was linked to a leaking well head or subsea pipeline, nor that oil was still spilling into the water.
She said the Coast Guard gets roughly 10,000 reports a year of surface sheens in the Gulf, some of which are caused by natural oil seeps on the sea floor. Given the hot weather, the sheens tend to dissipate quickly, she said.
- - - - - - - -
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/18/national/main20093934.shtml
A statement from BP PLC placed the site of the sheen near two abandoned exploration well sites in the Green Canyon Block in the Gulf of Mexico, although its size and exact location wasn’t disclosed.
According to an online map published by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Green Canyon Block — a huge square-shaped area of water south of Louisiana — is south and west of the Mississippi Canyon Block where the Macondo well blew up.
A U.S. government official also said the area around Macondo was clear.
“They are not investing any sheens in the vicinity of the BP well,” Paul Barnard, Operations Controller for the New Orleans sector of the Coast Guard, told the AP on Thursday.
- - - - - - - -
Authorities juggle sheen reports
http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article273371.ece
Commander Cheri Ben-Iesau of the US Coast Guard in New Orleans said there had been a number of reports of sheens in the area in recent weeks. It asked area operators with pipelines and wellheads nearby, including BP, Shell and Enterprise Products Partners, to check into the situation.
Ben-Iesau told Upstream that two of the sheens were determined to be discharges authorised by US environmental regulators. The rest, she said, were natural seepages from the ocean floor.
The largest of the releases was estimated to be around 300 gallons, she said. But given choppy water conditions and hot weather leading to evaporation, any evidence of silvery oil or other materials was broken up too quickly to require any cleanup.
Nonetheless, “We take every one of them very, very seriously,” she said.
The drilling regulator for US waters, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Enforement (BOEMRE), said officials were continuing to respond to the situation.
“BOEMRE is working with area operators to determine if the sheen is associated with any permanently abandoned wells in the area,” spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said in a statement. “We will continue to investigate the situation.”
BP was asked to check into two of its plugged and abandoned exploration wells in the area, the company and Coast Guard said. It sent an ROV down to check out the site this past weekend, and saw no leakage around the wellheads, spokesman Daren Beaudo said.
Whoever wins needs to clean house at the EPA.
Whoever wins needs to clean house at the EPA.
A leadership that is determined to get its way
Proxies go to work on the streets
Opposition is intimidated and stifled
Laws are broken - nothing is done. This is an example of one of these
Law abiding citizens who try to resist these pressure are obstructed.
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