Sitting Ducks In The Gulf: Hurricane Intensity And The Risk Of Long-Term Impacts On Oil & Gas Prices
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 09. 6.08
A recent guest post from Rocky Mountain Institute points out how vulnerable the USA remains to hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, citing hurricane Gustave as an example. This current post's graphic dramatically displays the risk. The more intense a future hurricane is, the greater the chance of in inland incursion (per the image) doing long term physical damage to refinery equipment and pipelines.
Via::USEIA, EIA Report on Hurricane Impacts on U.S. Energy
Heres' an excerpt from the Minerals Management Service explaining how lucky the nation was with Gustav causing little physical damage.
Over the next few days, companies will be completing their damage assessments to petroleum infrastructure. As long as companies continue to report no long-term damage, crude oil prices are not likely to spike significantly higher due to Hurricane Gustav
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Well then I guess Louisiana governement had better re-think their shabby care of the disappearing wetlands... there was a natural storm buffer in place once upon a time.
spelling is atrocious here..."siting" should be "sitting" and "governement" ... "government" come on you American people these are easy words to spell!
Hmm - stack lots of rigs in a confined area. Recipe for disaster!
Recipe for success - create backups! Drill now, drill lots of places! By geographically dispersing our sources of energy (and oil is one of the most dense forms of energy that is easily handled), we can eliminate the risk posed above.
Ok, I'm not typically one to criticize in this manner... but both the post and the USEIA report are very narrow in scope, and without further discussion of the surrounding facts.... quite ridiculous.
Yes, a lot of our fossil fuel dependency is concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico. There's oil and gas there...
Yes, a lot of it is off of the coast of La. Other states and the Feds have elected NOT to allow it off other Gulf coastlines.
La has been trying to revitalize their wetlands, which will buffer the impact of future storms inland and protect pipelines - but do NOTHING to change the fact that storms that hit the land must first go over the tops of drilling rigs positioned in the Gulf. The magnitude of the difficulty in revitalizing the La wetlands is beyond my ability to express and can not possibly be done without the cooperation of a large number of regional governments and global businesses, not to mention the Federal government and individual landowners.
Yes, we are vulnerable to mother nature regarding our fossil fuel supply which is disproportionately sourced from the Gulf of Mexico. Solution - get off fossil fuels and take Amory Lovins' advice to heart.
Do not overlook the fact that we are ALWAYS vulnerable to the conditions and whims of mother nature... hurricanes are just one wrench in her toolbox.
I am very afraid with this situation.