It appears that we’ve lost one of the most important tools in the field of Earth observation: on April 8, the Envisat satellite stopped communicating with its handlers at the European Space Agency. While this is not happy news, the satellite was a real workhorse well beyond its expected lifespan and was an outstanding success […]
How’s this for a number? According to data released by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Enforcement, there are currently 24,486 known permanently abandoned wells in the Gulf of Mexico, and 3,593 “temporarily” abandoned wells, as of October 2011. Permanently Abandoned Wells in the Gulf of Mexico Temporarily Abandoned Wells in the Gulf […]
Before this month, the last time the NRC received any report coming from Taylor Energy’s chronically leaking platform 23051 was July 21. Well, after a long absence, we started seeing NRC reports again starting on September 1 and since then, someone’s been reporting on that leak on an almost daily basis. And, as before, it […]
We’ve been following the recent media reports about oil leaking at the Deepwater Horizon site, and we have received a lot of inquiries about whether we could corroborate these reports. Well John has been out of the office dealing with some family medical issues (don’t worry – he’s fine and he’ll be back soon), so […]
Proponents of drilling in the Arctic Ocean claim the risk of significant spills is much lower than in places like the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, because the water is much shallower and the wells won’t be drilled nearly as deep as BP’s failed Macondo well. But recent spills in the Bohai Bay off China, including […]
