Venezuela says Maracaibo oil spills under control

July 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA said on Wednesday that oil spills in the nation’s western Lake Maracaibo were under control and that clean-up operations would be completed within a month.

Shipping sources told Reuters earlier this month that several spills in the lake had forced PDVSA to anchor at least five U.S.-bound oil tankers for cleaning.

Those tankers are now back in service and PDVSA said the environmental impact on the area, where the Latin American OPEC member produces much of its crude, had not been severe.

“While there has been a moderate impact caused by small leaks, the situation is under control,” PDVSA’s Environmental Director Ramiro Ramirez said in a statement.

He added that the company was making progress in its clean-up work, but did not give details of how much oil was spilled or how much had been collected.

“In no more than four weeks the clean-up operation will be completed in the affected areas,” he said.

Oil minister Rafael Ramirez later said that the no more than 8 barrels a day of oil was spilled in the recent leaks. He said the lake, which has produced oil since the 1920s, was filled with abandoned oil machinery and had thousands of kilometers (miles) of tubes snaked “like spaghetti” in its bed.

Environmental Director Ramirez said there had been leaks at five flow stations in the lake’s Urdaneta field and blamed them on thieves vandalizing the installations to steal power cables and other equipment.

The spills, which were first detected at the start of June, were initially denied by PDVSA. It later acknowledged there was a problem after local media broadcast images of leaking crude.

Last week, an opposition lawmaker who heads the legislative council of local Zulia state demanded the resignation of Venezuela’s energy and environment ministers over the case.

President Hugo Chavez nationalized 76 oil service companies in the Maracaibo area last year. Experts say the lake has the potential to produce up to 1 million barrels per day of oil, but that its rate of decline has accelerated since then.

Small spills in Maracaibo — which is one of Venezuela’s oldest oil production regions — are common. While the government has often promised to restore the local ecosystem, its efforts so far appear to have had little impact.

(Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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Venezuela says Maracaibo oil spills under control

July 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

CARACAS, June 30 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA said on Wednesday that oil spills in the nation’s western Lake Maracaibo were under control and that clean-up operations would be completed within a month.

Shipping sources told Reuters earlier this month that several spills in the lake had forced PDVSA to anchor at least five U.S.-bound oil tankers for cleaning. [ID:nN10216821]

Those tankers are now back in service and PDVSA said the environmental impact on the area, where the Latin American OPEC member produces much of its crude, had not been severe.

“While there has been a moderate impact caused by small leaks, the situation is under control,” PDVSA’s Environmental Director Ramiro Ramirez said in a statement.

He added that the company was making progress in its clean-up work, but did not give details of how much oil was spilled or how much had been collected.

“In no more than four weeks the clean-up operation will be completed in the affected areas,” he said.

Oil minister Rafael Ramirez later said that the no more than 8 barrels a day of oil was spilled in the recent leaks. He said the lake, which has produced oil since the 1920s, was filled with abandoned oil machinery and had thousands of kilometers (miles) of tubes snaked “like spaghetti” in its bed.

Environmental Director Ramirez said there had been leaks at five flow stations in the lake’s Urdaneta field and blamed them on thieves vandalizing the installations to steal power cables and other equipment.

The spills, which were first detected at the start of June, were initially denied by PDVSA. It later acknowledged there was a problem after local media broadcast images of leaking crude.

Last week, an opposition lawmaker who heads the legislative council of local Zulia state demanded the resignation of Venezuela’s energy and environment ministers over the case.

President Hugo Chavez nationalized 76 oil service companies in the Maracaibo area last year. Experts say the lake has the potential to produce up to 1 million barrels per day of oil, but that its rate of decline has accelerated since then.

Small spills in Maracaibo — which is one of Venezuela’s oldest oil production regions — are common. While the government has often promised to restore the local ecosystem, its efforts so far appear to have had little impact. (Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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Energy Efficiency Forum 2010: How Companies Put Tech to Work

June 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Back in 1990, when the Energy Efficiency Forum held its first meeting, few Americans would have known how to perform an internet search. In 21 years, the technology has become a daily, if not hourly part of our lives.

That seamless transition from niche to quotidian is the goal that brought energy thought leaders to Washington on Wednesday. Just as the basics of internet technology existed in 1990, the technology to vastly reduce energy consumption exists today. But for it to move into the mainstream, it will need to become easier, cheaper and maybe just plain more fun.

Here’s a snapshot of how some business leaders at the forefront of the technological transformation are hoping to get there.

Thinking Systemically

“Why is it that my phone knows I’m here, but my office equipment doesn’t?” asked Rob Bernard, who spearheads Microsoft’s environmental strategy. Engineering isn’t the problem. Having the structures in pace to merge the technology and the information is.
Environmental point-men from leading U.S. companies brainstormed about innovative solutions at the intersection of technology and efficiency at the 2010 Energy Efficiency Forum. L-R: Rob Bernard, Microsoft; Neil McPhail, Best Buy Co.; Richard Lechner, IBM; Stephen Stokes, AMR Research.

These days, Bernard spends a lot of his time thinking about how to manage this all the way from the coders on down to the consumers.

Bernard’s counterpart at IBM is thinking systemically, too.

“You can’t look at this in the traditional silos,” said Richard Lechner, Vice President for Energy and Environment at IBM. One of his favorite examples is the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, which uses a dashboard to look at all of the resort’s energy draws and make trade-offs so that the casino — the business’s main source of income — can stay open. The Venetian is even working with the city of Las Vegas to incorporate external issues like traffic and security alerts into its planning.

The ongoing smart grid lovefest shows that taking a wider lens to energy use isn’t just critical to reducing consumption — it also poses a huge market in its own right. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is keeping its eye on the ancillary services market, currently estimated at $12 billion in the United States and growing.

Scaling Up in the Transport Sector

Robbie Diamond, president of the Electrification Coalition, frames his thoughts on the transportation sector with three numbers. “There are 1.6 million hybrids on the road today and it took about 11 years to get there,” he said. “But, there are 250 million other vehicles out there.”

Transportation, at once one of the nation’s most entrenched energy problem and most exciting solutions, remains a slippery sector. So far, plug-ins, hybrid electric and electric vehicles simply have not penetrated the market.

While a technological breakthrough on something like battery energy storage could be a game-changer, panelists Wednesday didn’t pin engineering as the biggest barrier. Cost and infrastructure are much more problematic, they agreed.
!–pagebreak–

Plug-in and electric vehicles take 4-7 years to make up for the extra cost in fuel savings. That’s too long, declares Scott Harrison, CEO of the truck electrification company Azure Dynamics. “We’ve got to bring this down to a two or three year payback,” he said.

Meanwhile, Richard Lowenthal is tackling the problem of getting charging stations where people live and work. That’s no small challenge when the market remains scattered and when more than half the cars in his home city of San Francisco are parked curbside rather than in a home garage at night.

He’s watching Europe closely, though — his company’s biggest customer is the city of Amsterdam — and he maintains that it can be done in the U.S., too. Coulomb Technologies’ mission: to see the day when customers in an American car showroom can look at electric vehicle and not have their decision influenced by concerns about charging.

“It’s very important for people not to be told what to do or mandated what to do,” Lowenthal said. “Our businesses need to stand on their own.
L-R: Robbie Diamond, Electrification Coalition; Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb Technologies; Scott Harrison, Azure Dynamics; Thomas Reddoch, Electric Power Research Institute; Mary Ann Wright, Johnson Controls.

But the vehicle visionaries do see a way government can help the fledging industry get a foothold. Diamond’s Electrification Coalition has called for a program emulating the Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” competition. It would have communities compete to become deployment clusters. The idea is that these clusters, or “electrification ecosystems” would help different aspects of the puzzle co-evolve, and would provide valuable lessons learned toward nation-wide deployment.

“On one hand, it’s a race to the moon,” Diamond said, “on the other, it’s a very simple thing with lots of little logistical pieces.”

Improving User Experience

“Consumers will ultimately determine our success,” said Thomas Reddoch, whose Electric Power Research Institute focuses on technologies that touch the consumer such as vehicles, consumer smart grid technologies and distributed renewables. “Let’s not make our electric vehicles look like clown cars.”

It may sound obvious, but amidst all the talk of government incentives and business process optimization, sometimes it’s hard to remember that, at the end of the day, energy efficient technologies have to be something consumers want to use.

Neil McPhail is one person who doesn’t need to be reminded to think about the customer. His company, Best Buy, has profited by selling some of today’s energy hogs and now is carving out a new role for itself by carrying the voice of the consumer upstream to influence design.

“Our customers are starting to ask questions: ‘What’s the next step? This technology has become an integral part of our lives, but how do we balance that with efficiency?’” McPhail, the Senior Vice President and General Manager at the company, said.

For McPhail, the solution doesn’t have to be a wonky one. Maybe the “killer app” for efficiency will fill a need we’re not even aware of, like cell phones did. Or maybe it will take off for another reason.

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BP, Obama face clamor to halt oil spill “crime”

May 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Louisiana (Reuters) – Lawmakers and local residents clamored on Sunday for BP and the Obama administration to do more to save the Gulf Coast from an out-of-control oil spill that has become the biggest environmental catastrophe in the country’s history.

U.S. | Green Business | Gulf Oil Spill

One congressman called the nearly six-week oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico an “environmental crime,” while a Louisiana senator demanded BP invest $1 billion immediately to protect the region’s treasured marshlands.

The failure on Saturday of a “top kill” technique attempted by London-based BP to try to seal its leaking Gulf well has unleashed a surge of anger and frustration that poses a major domestic challenge for President Barack Obama.

Obama, who has called the leaking BP well a “man-made disaster,” is trying to fend off criticism that his administration acted too slowly in its response to the spill, now known to be the worst in U.S. history.

He is in a bind because it appears only BP can stop the leak, although he has made clear the government is in charge. But critics say he has not directed enough resources to the unfolding disaster and he has been present enough.

The White House said on Sunday that the government will triple clean-up resources in areas affected by the spill, while the administration’s top energy and environment officials head back to the Gulf this week following Obama’s second visit on Friday.

“This is probably the biggest environmental disaster we have ever faced in this country,” top White House energy adviser Carol Browner told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

BP, its reputation and market value already battered by the catastrophic spill, and the entire U.S. oil industry face more probing questions about why safety backups did not accompany their pursuit of oil in ever deeper offshore waters.

“I think without question if the word criminal should be used in terms of an environmental crime against our country, that what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico is going to qualify,” U.S. Representative Ed Markey told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Department of Justice officials are part of an ongoing federal investigation into the April 20 rig explosion that triggered the spill, and the Obama administration has not ruled out the possibility of a criminal prosecution.

In Louisiana, which has borne the brunt of the oil spill impact so far, local authorities demanded that BP and the federal government rush a plan to create a sand barrier to the oil by dredging and building up outlying sandbanks and islets.

“I’m devastated … We are dying a slow death, every time that oil takes out a piece of the marsh, a piece of Louisiana is gone forever,” said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, where the oil has clogged wetlands.

“Even the government seems powerless and all the experts. If these people can’t stop it, then who in the name of God can?” Father Gerry, a priest at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Port Sulphur, Louisiana, said, his voice heavy with emotion.

‘OIL COMING UP UNTIL AUGUST’

After giving up on Saturday an attempt to pump heavy fluids and blocking materials into the leaking well to “kill” it, BP is pursuing another option from its undersea toolbox.

But BP warns that the new procedure, which will try to fit a containment cap over the leaking well, could take between four and seven days. Even then success is not guaranteed because it has never been attempted before at the depth — a mile down — where the oil is leaking.

BP Managing Director Robert Dudley told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the company would know by the end of the week whether the new containment effort worked.

The next BP step would involve undersea robots using diamond-rimmed saws to cut off a pipe over the well to put in place a containment device that would try to siphon off most of the leaking oil and gas up to a tanker ship on the surface.

Dudley said he did not think BP CEO Tony Hayward, who has faced heavy criticism, should be forced to resign.

A surer solution to the leak, a relief well already being drilled, is not expected to be finished until early August.

This means crude oil continues to spew out daily, feeding a huge, fragmented slick that has already polluted marshlands teeming with wildlife and rich fisheries in Louisiana.

“There could be oil coming up until August.” Browner told CBS’s “Face The Nation,” “We are prepared for the worst.”

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu called on BP to immediately invest $1 billion to protect marshes, wetlands and estuaries across the region. “While we may not be able to plug the leaking well right away, there is nothing that should stop us from getting help to the Gulf Coast immediately,” she said.

OBAMA’S ‘KATRINA’?

Gulf residents fear the spilled oil could be whipped further inshore by what promises to be the most active Atlantic storm season since 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina.

That deadly storm proved a political disaster for President George W. Bush, who was accused of complacency in handling it, and Obama is fighting to prevent the Gulf spill from becoming his own “Katrina” ahead of the November congressional elections.

Louisianans still recovering from Katrina’s devastation were frustrated by the oil spill response. “It’s been a screw-up from day one. Nothing was at the ready and no one was in a position to respond,” said Claude Marquette, a retired physician, 68, speaking as he sat with his wife in his boat.

BP’s Hayward had predicted that despite risks, the “top kill” had a 60 to 70 percent chance of success. He said he did not know why it failed to stop the gusher.

The misstep is likely to drive his credibility lower, along with his company’s market value, which has dropped by 25 percent since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers, and triggering the spill.

The government estimated last week that 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons/1.9 million to 3 million liters) a day are leaking from the well. At that rate, the government now knows that the Gulf disaster has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaskan waters.

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe, Rachelle Younglai and Alan Elsner in Washington, Pascal Fletcher in Miami, Eileen O’Grady in Houston and Patricia Zengerle in Chicago; Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Mary Milliken; Editing by Eric Beech)

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WRAPUP 4-BP, Obama face clamor to halt oil spill ‘crime’

May 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

* BP’s ‘top kill’ failure triggers anger, frustration

Stocks | Bonds | Global Markets

* Lawmaker calls worst U.S. spill “environmental crime”

* Next BP well containment option could take 4-7 days

* Only surer solution is relief well, two months away (Updates with White House statement, details)

By Ed Stoddard and Sarah Irwin

VENICE, La., May 30 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers and local residents clamored on Sunday for BP and the Obama administration to do more to save the Gulf Coast from an out-of-control oil spill that has become the biggest environmental catastrophe in the country’s history.

One congressman called the nearly six-week oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico an “environmental crime,” while a Louisiana senator demanded BP invest $1 billion immediately to protect the region’s treasured marshlands.

The failure on Saturday of a “top kill” technique attempted by London-based BP (BP.L) to try to seal its leaking Gulf well has unleashed a surge of anger and frustration that poses a major domestic challenge for President Barack Obama.

Obama, who has called the leaking BP well a “man-made disaster,” is trying to fend off criticism that his administration acted too slowly in its response to the spill, now known to be the worst in U.S. history.

He is in a bind because it appears only BP can stop the leak, although he has made clear the government is in charge. But critics say he has not directed enough resources to the unfolding disaster and he has been present enough.

The White House said on Sunday that the government will triple clean-up resources in areas affected by the spill, while the administration’s top energy and environment officials head back to the Gulf this week following Obama’s second visit on Friday.

“This is probably the biggest environmental disaster we have ever faced in this country,” top White House energy adviser Carol Browner told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

TAKE A LOOK on the spill [ID:nSPILL]

BREAKINGVIEWS: [ID:nN28122201]

INSIDER TV: link.reuters.com/wuw64k

Graphic: link.reuters.com/neh56k

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BP, its reputation and market value already battered by the catastrophic spill, and the entire U.S. oil industry face more probing questions about why safety backups did not accompany their pursuit of oil in ever deeper offshore waters.

“I think without question if the word criminal should be used in terms of an environmental crime against our country, that what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico is going to qualify,” U.S. Representative Ed Markey told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Department of Justice officials are part of an ongoing federal investigation into the April 20 rig explosion that triggered the spill, and the Obama administration has not ruled out the possibility of a criminal prosecution.

In Louisiana, which has borne the brunt of the oil spill impact so far, local authorities demanded that BP and the federal government rush a plan to create a sand barrier to the oil by dredging and building up outlying sandbanks and islets.

“I’m devastated … We are dying a slow death, every time that oil takes out a piece of the marsh, a piece of Louisiana is gone forever,” said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, where the oil has clogged wetlands.

“Even the government seems powerless and all the experts. If these people can’t stop it, then who in the name of God can?” Father Gerry, a priest at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Port Sulphur, Louisiana, said, his voice heavy with emotion.

‘OIL COMING UP UNTIL AUGUST’

After giving up on Saturday an attempt to pump heavy fluids and blocking materials into the leaking well to “kill” it, BP is pursuing another option from its undersea toolbox.

But BP warns that the new procedure, which will try to fit a containment cap over the leaking well, could take between four and seven days. Even then success is not guaranteed because it has never been attempted before at the depth — a mile (1.6 km) down — where the oil is leaking.

BP Managing Director Robert Dudley told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the company would know by the end of the week whether the new containment effort worked. [ID:nN30243982]

The next BP step would involve undersea robots using diamond-rimmed saws to cut off a pipe over the well to put in place a containment device that would try to siphon off most of the leaking oil and gas up to a tanker ship on the surface.

Dudley said he did not think BP CEO Tony Hayward, who has faced heavy criticism, should be forced to resign.

A surer solution to the leak, a relief well already being drilled, is not expected to be finished until early August.

This means crude oil continues to spew out daily, feeding a huge, fragmented slick that has already polluted marshlands teeming with wildlife and rich fisheries in Louisiana.

“There could be oil coming up until August.” Browner told CBS’s “Face The Nation,” “We are prepared for the worst.”

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu called on BP to immediately invest $1 billion to protect marshes, wetlands and estuaries across the region. “While we may not be able to plug the leaking well right away, there is nothing that should stop us from getting help to the Gulf Coast immediately,” she said.

OBAMA’S ‘KATRINA’?

Gulf residents fear the spilled oil could be whipped further inshore by what promises to be the most active Atlantic storm season since 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina.

That deadly storm proved a political disaster for President George W. Bush, who was accused of complacency in handling it, and Obama is fighting to prevent the Gulf spill from becoming his own “Katrina” ahead of the November congressional elections.

Louisianians still recovering from Katrina’s devastation were frustrated by the oil spill response. “It’s been a screw-up from day one. Nothing was at the ready and no one was in a position to respond,” said Claude Marquette, a retired physician, 68, speaking as he sat with his wife in his boat.

BP’s Hayward had predicted that despite risks, the “top kill” had a 60 to 70 percent chance of success. He said he did not know why it failed to stop the gusher.

The misstep is likely to drive his credibility lower, along with his company’s market value, which has dropped by 25 percent since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers, and triggering the spill.

The government estimated last week that 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons/1.9 million to 3 million liters) a day are leaking from the well. At that rate, the government now knows that the Gulf disaster has surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaskan waters. (Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe, Rachelle Younglai and Alan Elsner in Washington, Pascal Fletcher in Miami, Eileen O’Grady in Houston and Patricia Zengerle in Chicago; Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Mary Milliken; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Coming soon, cars powered by dirty nappies, food scraps

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, Mar.24 (ANI): Australia’s most popular car the General Motors (GM) Holden could soon be seen running on daily household garbage, including dirty nappies and food scraps, as the car company has formed a consortium with Caltex, the Victorian Government and three other technology companies to explore the viability of an ethanol plant that would convert household rubbish into fuel.

The plant is likely to be set-up in Melbourne, which will use GM partner Coskata’s technology to produce more than 200 million litres of ethanol a year from household rubbish and building waste for E85 automotive fuel, a blend of up to 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol.

The ethanol plant would take two years to build and would be capable of producing 200 million litres of ethanol a year from a variety of waste, including building materials, paper, cardboard and household food scraps.

Talking about the ambitious plan, Holden”s energy and environment director, Richard Marshall said the technology would greatly reduce Australia’s dependence on conventional and foreign fuel and would be eco-friendly as well.

“Our vision is that this technology will, in time, cut Australia”s dependence on petrol by up to 30 per cent and make a contribution to sustainable motoring and greenhouse gas reduction,” The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Marshall, as saying.

“This process can use anything from dirty nappies to food scraps,” he said.
(ANI)

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Sam Pitroda calls for ICT’s application for development

August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug. 26 (ANI): Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda has called for the application of information and communication technology (ICT) in the field of education, health, environment and agriculture in order to bring in a generational change among the Indian masses.

“The key in terms of what next is to focus on five to six key areas. My preference would be health, education, energy and environment. Pretty broad four to five big areas,” Pitroda said, delivering a keynote address at a function to mark the silver jubilee of Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).

He also noted that information technology (IT) should be used as a tool to enhance the education sector in the country.

On this score, he called for IT and ICT to supplement and complement each other for positive results.

“They key is we need to use IT in a very different way to build productivity and efficiency in education. Learning models have to change. We need to take advantage of available IT infrastructure to really enhance our teaching as well adds to our teachers resource,” Pitroda, added.

C-DOT is the premier organisation engaged in research and development (R andD) of IT in India and it was set up on August 25, 1984. (ANI)

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