Recently in Energy Category

Updated:  Sunday, BP surprised everyone by announcing that now that they had a "capping stack" set, they were not going to actually hook up all the ships they have on station to collect the oil; rather, they were going to run a well integrity test to see if they could shut-in this badly damaged well that has been flowing into the Gulf now for 86 days uncontrolled.  My first reaction was What?  Well integrity test? ...

I was on Hardball today with Chris Matthews, talking about the new capping stack and implications.  Have a look:...

In response to two losses in federal courtrooms in the last two weeks, the Department of Interior issued a new order yesterday to suspend the drilling of deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico.  Besides the name change, this new order corrects the weaknesses in the previous order that was overturned by the courts and is more directed, focusing on actual forms of well control, rather than simple water depth.  The order makes a lot...

You remember that the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, who was serviing a life sentence for killing 270 people on Pan Am Flight 103, was released from a Scottish prison for humanitarian reasons, in August of last year.  We were told that he was terminally ill and only had 3 months to live, and that it would be better for all if he returned to his home country.  You also recall that he...

I was on MSNBC Live today talking about the new effort to contain BP's blowout well.  Have a look:...

In a letter from Bob Dudley to Adm. Thad Allen on Friday, he included several exhibits.  One was a good illustration and summary about how they plan to intersect the blowout well with the relief well.  Here it is, as big as I can show it:As of yesterday, they are at 17,810  feet MD (measured depth) below sea level.  Their next depth target is 17,874 feet MD, 17,120 feet TVD (true vertical depth) before they...

Yesterday, I watched Kent Wells' presentation to the press explaining the latest operation that the Coast Guard finally pushed them into starting today.  Wells did a good job, as always, explaining the specific operation, but avoided key questions about what all of us want to know: the flow rate, and what happened to the BOP (blowout preventer).  As we talked about earlier today, the Coast Guard insisted that BP use the present weather window to...

Yesterday, the Coast Guard and BP acknowledged that there was a second piece of drillpipe stuck in the blowout preventer that is now complicating the installation of the latest effort to contain the blowout well.  A photo (shown at left) of the two pieces of crushed pipe inside of the cutoff riser started a lot of buzz yesterday.  Some are speculating that the second piece is pipe that was shot up from below due to...

For the last 81 days, I've been watching the government, perpetually 2 steps behind BP, fail time after time to keep BP honest, or even understand the issues enough to not just take what they were saying at face value.  It started from the first moment.  Initially, when the Horizon sank after being incinerated for 2 days with flames roaring 250 feet over the rig floor and melting the derrick, BP said the well wasn't...

I was on Countdown last night, talking to Keith about BP's motivation to not capture all of the oil from the blowout well before they get it killed.  Have a look:Here's the entry that appeared on the Huffington Post yesterday....