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Shill, Baby, Shill!

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  May 15th, 2010 at 04:01 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Yesterday FoxNews.com carried an opinion piece written by your humble correspondent: “We Can’t Stop Drilling Off America’s Shores”.

It’s sort of a rewrite of a RedState piece from a couple of weeks back: “Q: Why Was BP Drilling in 5,000 Feet of Water.”

Some of the comments are a hoot.

 

Wow, that’s weird… someone who makes all of their money by offshore drilling is trying to convince us that we need to continue offshore drilling! While I appreciate the honesty of this author, he’s overlooking the fact that A. Alternatives to these highly polluting procedures exist and B. Our high dependence on these procedures is based on the fact that a more aggressive move toward renewables has yet to take place.

Well, I don’t actually make all my money from offshore oil and gas. We also drill on land. I also have a hobby which provides me a nice side income for just a few hours a month: clubbing baby harp seals!

</ snark>

Then there’s this:

Nice, impartial article about how safe off-shore drilling is written by an energy executive. LMFAO

Well, sir, if you would pull your H(ead) out of your FA for just a second, we can discuss that point. Can’t do it? That’s OK, we’ll proceed.

Virtually every soul in this country who knows anything about the energy business either draws a check from it or regulates it. Both groups are currently under attack. Where to turn?

The alternative chosen by some of the esteemed members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources was to turn to someone who knows nothing at all about the energy business. This week they listened to testimony from Sam Waterson (Wasserman? Waterston?), that out-of-work actor who does the TD Ameritrade ads on TV. Sam believes that we should just shut down offshore drilling altogether. (Sam and Ted Danson are board members of Oceana, a radical environmentalist outfit that famously predicted back in the’80s that the oceans were going to run out of fish in 10 years.)

But I’m still sensitive about being considered a single-minded energy shill. I’ve criticized BP in the past, naming them in a tie for #6 on the list of Top 10 Energy Whores. If it turns out that they were a negligent operator on the Deepwater Horizon, or operating outside their permit, I hope they’re hung out to dry. (I’ll be floored if that’s the case.)

I’ve always disclosed my profession, but like to think my opinions are based on what’s best for my country, not my bank account. The reader can decide. I have blogged favorably about opening ANWR, opening access to the OCS, the Marcellus Shale, the Haynesville Shale and hydraulic fracturing. None of these issues will benefit me or my company in any way; if anything, by encouraging supply in other areas decreases the price of our product and hurts our income. It’s a commodity business, remember?

In fact, I’ve had a running discussion with my boss (the VP of Exploration) for some time. He observes that if the Sam Waterstons of the world get their way, we’re bound to benefit, because it will inevitably drive up product prices while driving out competition. It’s true that the biggest oil boom in my career happened during & just after the Carter years, the time of maximum government involvement. (The worst time was after price decontrol, under Reagan, a policy I endorse.)

So, choose your expert. It will probably work out for me either way.

But I’ve saved my favorite comment for last:

We should be going toward the first fuel Ford [Henry? Gerald? Whitey? -ed.] wanted to implement until oil and chemical companies forced the turn toward crude oil. Hemp could save us. Not medicinal smoking, wth are we even talking about recreational use when we should be talking industrial first and foremost. We perpetuate rogue nations to becoming a military threat by using all their oil and we need off of it now. All of you do your homework on industrial hemp and its history and then comment.

Dude.

Cross-posted at VladEnBlog.

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COMMENTS

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  • SteveLA

    Vlad

    Glad to read it, very interesting.

    One sort of inside baseball question though, will this spill accelerate work up on the Haynesville Shale find to bring it on line any faster?

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

      There’s no loss of supply with the BP well. And the Haynesville is 100% nat gas.

      FYI there are almost as many Haynesville wells drilled and awaiting completion as there are producing. Partly due to manpower & equipment, partly due to soft gas prices, and partly due to the fact that operators there are drilling wells largely to hold on to the leasehold that they bought at record prices in 2007-08.

  • http://phxg.wordpress.com/ phxg

    By focusing on oil as just a transportation fuel for autos undermines the importance of the substance for the quality of life, let alone the ability to save and maintain health in the world (think medical plastics).

    There are no viable alternatives to oil for replacing a vast number of everyday products.

    • Xasteius
    • audax

      …from polypropylene (PP) may come from oil (oil to naphtha to propelyene monomer to polypropylene) but if from polyethylene (PE) in the USA it will most likely come from Natural Gas (NG to ethane to ethylene to polyethylene). With the current BTU price disparity between oil and NG, more and more PP production in US is coming from the NG stream. Though not as efficient, the price disparity is just too great not to.

      • http://phxg.wordpress.com/ phxg

        But if we increase NG exploration the greenies will attack that with similar vigor.

        • audax

          …expound better on the NG situation in US and I believe he has written on the frac proceedure under attack by the greenies that is responsible for opening four megalarge shale fields in the US in recent years. Believe these finds have made US self sufficient in NG production in the last year or so and if planned NG to LNG facilities coming on line we could soon be a net exporter of NG. Would like to hear more about this myself. These finds and the successful explotation (I love that word) have also kept the price of NG very low by historical standards, in the low $4/MMBTU average range the last year or so with small spikes in the winter months but certainly not the spikes we saw a few years ago into the mid teens.

        • citizenkh

          It depends on the prices of feedstocks. Presently, NGL’s (natural gas liquids mad up mostly of ethane) are the mac daddy for olefins cracker as feedstock here in the U.S. Shell Chemical bought a refinery near New Orleans and close to its olefins cracker at Norco (Shell Chemical and Shell Oil are NOT the same but close) in the late 1990′s. Such cracker can even use No. 6 fuel oil if designed to be that flexible and the price is right. That refinery is presently being converted from a simple crude unit into an integrated more complex refinery.

          Propylene is the secondary product anyway, with ethylene being the primary product, and much more important to the manufacture of many more medical goods (pharmaceuticals) than propylene.

          NGL’s are also easier on the equipment of olefins units, less coking in the furnace tubes.

          Westlake Group has used only NGL feedstock for its crackers (at Lake Charles, LA and Paducah, KY) when everyone else was using less expensive naphtha. They have been very profitable.

          • citizenkh

            I’ve sold one of those olefins units, a.k.a. ethylene crackers.

          • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

            Not in the energy business anymore. Don’t really miss it.

          • citizenkh

            refinery?

            That was some money making business until they tried to corner the fuel oil market.

          • citizenkh

            owned by Shell Chemical were sold to Shell Oil and the 3rd in Puerto Rico is about to be torn down.

            Shell Chemical had two here in the U.S., St. Rose and Saraland (Mobile), as well as Sun Yabucoa, PR were bought manly for their feedstock to Norco and Deer Park (Shell Chemical) olefins units. Those units have furnaces flexible enough to take any hydrocarbon as feedstock.

            Of course, olefins units require a LOT of natural gas (methane) fuel to provide the necessary volume of high temperatures at a competitive cost.

  • juumanistra

    Vlad,

    Your commentary on the sources of experts in the industry being either those who’re out in there involved in production somehow or those who’re doing the regulating is a pithy summation of what a lot of folks don’t seem to understand. As a day-old newly minted J.D. who spent a year doing oil and gas law coursework I’d say I’ve had a fair amount of exposure to the industry, and I find myself amazed that we even have much of an industry left, given the immense amounts of capital involved and the number of dry holes that’re produced, even on good prospective sites. A tribute to the ingenuity of the operators. …or maybe it’s just because my fellow brethren in the bar haven’t quite figured out how to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs just yet. (Though some will, invariably, keep on trying.)

    Industrial hemp folks are always good for a laugh, if only because of the ferver they cling to it. Produce a study which claims that hemp can be used to cure cancer by means of a process which also produces rainbows and unicorns, and you’ll have spawned a thousand Internet posts cursing William Randolph Hearst for depriving the world of unicorns.

  • http://thesandsinstitute.org Vassar Bushmills

    then thought, then I’d get in a fight with these guys, then I’d have to send Vinnie and Augie over to settle accounts for the bad manners , …so what the Hell.

    I did pass it around to some business people who appreciated it, one that construction guy with the question. It hit all the major points of their concerns, while quite frankly, you couldn’t have with the others unless you had the codex to Halo.Thanks for taking the time to respond to my friends.

    Good show all around

  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    …”addiction” to foreign oil yet they are completely let off the hook as the primary reason we import rather than export oil. If not for the anti-capitalist, eco-Marxist movement and their handmaidens in the Democrat party we would be 100% energy independent and in fact could be net exporters of oil.

    The ignorance and obfuscation of the Democrat party is made all the more maddening because it was none other than the Congressional Research Service that reported just over six months ago that we have more fossil fuel resources than ANY other single nation on the planet. The link to the CRS pdf doc can be accessed from this Human Events article: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34233

    If we used nuclear for most of our electricity and reserved fossil fuels for transportation, plastics, pharma, etc. then we have centuries worth of supply.

    Unfortunately the Left works day and night to maintain the fog of lies that has proven nearly impenetrable.

  • texasgalt

    What are the odds?

    • 6eorge Jetson

      stumbling on a good decision, versus a few centrally planned efforts covering a good decision. (Central planning leads to more CYA than coverage of many potential ideas.)

      A multitude of Clouseaus and freedom win 9 times out of 10. In technology, successful business implementations often come from ideas that the majority of the field believes will never work, until that one guy/gal sees why it can.

      If this makes a positive difference, kudos to Costner.

      • texasgalt

        And as it could relate to me, I believe it. They all said what I wanted to do 30 years ago was doomed. In point of fact it should have failed, but I didn’t know enough to know it couldn’t possibly work.

        If Costner has an answer, so much the better, but it’s a darn big body of water and his biggest machine can do 200 gallons per minute. Seems implausible but. . .

        Worst case he gets some publicity for a sagging career.

        • citizenkh

          and cooked the books in those “tests.”

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

      Industry knows how to separate oil from water. That’s not the trick.

      The problem is the oil is so dispersed, takes an armada to cover the area.

      • 6eorge Jetson

        Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but could the damage of this spill been ameliorated if an industrial strength implementation of this methodology been deployed on April 20th?

        Maybe this is more of a investment behavior psychology question. Ignoring a good solution because of the desire to be perfect, thus discounting the risks of a disaster.

        And while we’re on the topic, have you seen any good metrics of “environmental disaster”. More direct. Birds killed, etc?

        The damage per gallon spilled seems to date to be much less than that incurred in the Exxon Valdez spill.

        • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

          Both the Marine Spill Response Corp. and Clean Gulf Assoc. have had all their available & appropriate equipment involved.

          MSRC is a for-profit business. CGA is an industry consortium which all but a few operators belong to.

          The notion that industry was unprepared, no boom, etc. is just a lie. The magnitude of the spill is probably beyond any technology’s ability to keep it contained.

          http://www.msrc.org/
          http://www.cleangulfassoc.com/

          • 6eorge Jetson

            Note to self…version 1,234…always question the framing of the MSM story.

            Love your RedState writing.

          • citizenkh

            and the Dutch (actually Netherlands Antilles) ships WITH Dutch open ocean skimmers were out at work in the Gulf of Mexico.

            It takes a few weeks to get here and then at least a few days to attach those skimmers.

            So much misinformation in the entire blogosphere which was as bad or worse than the MSM in reporting.

            BP had every single spill response contractor who could respond under contract AT FULL RATES, not standby when not working, within days after DWH sunk and deployed along the Gulf Coast.

          • citizenkh

            it would have been if Blank Zero had still been governor.

        • Achance

          than portrayed in the media, too. They’re still showing that one oiled otter over and over and everything that died or for any reason has a reduced population was blamed on the spill. Although as has been pointed out elsewhere EV was much closer to the shoreline, so a LOT of the oil did make the shore.

          • 6eorge Jetson

            and not a bug

          • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir
          • citizenkh

            blogs were as bad or worse than the MSM in reporting on this. It kept me PO’d for months.

            Some really bad and phony made up reports from “watchmen” type who knew nothing of such matters.

    • citizenkh

      and everyone in the industry knows it. How he sold 32 of those poorly made lightweight poor performing junk to BP speaks to star power, and some help with the push from the likes of Billy Nungesser (Plaquemines Parish president and unsuccessful candidate of LA Lt. Gov.) and a few others.

      The deal to BP was for $70 MILLION and even a name brand much larger much more productive centrifuge (which needs a stable fixed platform) would have cost no more than $15 million.

      Now he and Stephen Baldwin, among a few others are fghting over the ill gotten gains in court.

      Every centrifuge expert in the biz finds anything made by CINC laughable.

      • citizenkh

        I am referring to the Centrifuge Industry, not oil. He’s never been able to sell more than a handful for any application and no repeat sales at all.

  • jb13

    regarding the first commenter on your piece, Vlad: What are the “alternatives” to oil and natural gas that he/she/it believes now exist that, if implemented, would completely negate the need for offshore drilling?

    Judging by his/her/its next comment regarding “renewables,” I can only guess. But maybe he/she/it has never actually attempted to refill the fuel tank of a car/truck/boat/airplane with wind or solar energy. I have, and, trust me, it doesn’t work.

    So, until such a vehicle is invented to allow me to run my car for as much or less than what I pay now (and merely shifting that expense onto my home’s electrical bill DOES NOT mean I am paying nothing to fuel my car, lefties), I still await their response to this question:

    What, precisely, do you mean by “viable alternatives?”

    I suspect I will be waiting a long, long, long time.

    • Scope

      is that the communists are also working on the “smart grid” which would control you electricity intake. Something like only being able to wash and dry your clothes in the middle of the night. I guess if you have a big family, your electricity use for your vehicle is sh1t outa luck. This administration believes that the reason socialism/communism didn’t work in the past, anywhere it has been tried, was because they didn’t have the “right” people to implement it. Hitler was against the Jews, Obama’s far left radicals are against the entire American population.

    • Menlo
  • Achance

    the usually civil tone of discourse here until one goes to the largely unmoderated newspaper and TV comments section. Snarling, foul-mouthed sophomoric lefties are usually 5-1 on any conservative. Here with the Juneau Empire’s comments they have a “Report Abuse” function that only takes three reports to erase a comment. The Lefties just get on their cellphones like 9th Grade girls and erase any comment they don’t want to read. Any conservative comment is lucky to stay up 15 minutes.

  • bk

    They see him as infallible on the topic, not the greatest huckster of all time. He barely had a million dollar net worth when he left office, but now is worth over $100 million and just opened some pretty tony new digs.

    • 6eorge Jetson

      AL GORE: “Every penny that I have made, I have put right into a non-profit deal, Alliance For Climate Protection”

      • bk

        and end with cash in Gore’s pocket.

  • Rusty_S

    “…All of you do your homework on industrial hemp…”

    • eastbaylarry

      Have you done the math?
      Corn is a better ‘fuel’ based on return per acre, but then there’s those pesty food price increases and the food shortages thing.

      Maybe someday somebody will genetically engineer an “oil berry” plant that can produce 91 octane gasoline as it’s juice, but until then, agra-fuel will not be viable.

    • eastbaylarry

      Have you done the math?
      Corn is a better ‘fuel’ based on return per acre, but then there’s those pesty food price increases and the food shortages thing.

      Maybe someday somebody will genetically engineer an “oil berry” plant that can produce 91 octane gasoline as it’s juice, but until then, agra-fuel will not be viable.

      • Rusty_S

        No, it just seemed from the lucidity of the comment Vlad excerpted, that someone had done their homework “on” hemp. Sorry for the confusion.

        • citizenkh

          was the haze of reefer smoke.

  • dennism

    …at FoxNews.com could have gone on to point out the pollution that third world countries permit their State-owned oil companies to create. Witness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn2ThjCZEEI&feature=PlayList&p=E878A76DA41731C2&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=5

    An order for foreign oil not only outsources jobs, it outsources pollution to a degree that’s totally impermissible here. The lefites would call for Vlad’s crucifixtion if he spilled a single barrel or oil. All except Sean Penn, he’d want the sanction to include some sort of trauma to Vlad’s fundamental aperture.

    I’d hope Vlad would plead down. He’d get no worse than two years solitary confinment where he’d have to listen to looped tapes of Katrina vanden Heuval and Ann Lewis 24/7. O death, where is thy sting?

    I’d also remark that Vlad’s a little thin skinned about the criticism of his day job. Particulary in view of his jab at Sam Waterston for being out of work. Irony or hypocrisy? You be the judge.

    • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Vladimir

      You say that I “could have gone on to point out…” etc.

      As it was, it had to be pared down to meet the 800 word limit. My style is naturally wordy. Why take 10 words to make a point when 100 will do?

  • itrytobenice

    Something along the lines of:

    The best argument in opposition to democracy is a 5 minute conversation with a voter.

    It’s scary to think that those people have the right to determine the leadership of this country. Plus: HEMP!!!!

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    But fuel is not nearly it’s best use. It really shouldn’t be tarred and feathered along with cannabis because it is a form of the same plant, but not the same.

    We will not be growing our fuel economically unless those algae things work out. It is just too wasteful of farm land.

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