Old Harry – II
I would like to return to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which has had such a devastating impact on the environment of the gulf, as well in the islands and bayous (or marshlands) of Louisiana and several other Gulf states. In terms of the geographic scope of this oil spill, it is conceivable that the oil spill could eventually be borne by the Loop Current up along the East Coast of the United States. Of course, Cuba is directly south of Florida, and would be impacted well before any oil reached the Loop Current, as would the Bahamas. Talk about a disaster.
A NASA satellite image of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as of May 24th 2010
I am not predicting that the same type of oil spill will necessarily occur in the Old Harry field of Gulf of St. Lawrence, where drilling is expected to be undertaken this fall by Corridor Resources, of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nor am I trying to hype public fears – whether my own or anyone else’s – about the destructive effects of a possible environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Rather, I am convinced that every business operation involves the weighing of risks and benefits. This is how business decisions are made. In British Petroleum’s case, it simply took the risks of a major, uncontrollable oil spill for granted, whereas it was blinded by the benefits of profits gushing up to the surface from the well itself. So let’s look at what has been happening in the Gulf of Mexico before letting the Gulf of St. Lawrence project go ahead.
The platform on its way to the Gulf of Mexico
We have only to consider a few facts.
1) The remedies BP has deployed over the last two months to control the spill have only just begun to work, and whether they continue to work or not now depends partly on weather conditions. The tropical storm and hurricane season is approaching. Appropriate measures and proven technologies should have been in place when BP started, but obviously they weren’t. This is not only BP’s fault, but points to an extremely slack regulatory system in the United States.
2) BP’s estimates of of the spill flow rate have been challenged by independent scientific observers as extremely under-stated. BP started off with an optimistic if not misleading estimate, according to which only 1,000 barrels a day were leaking. Just two weeks ago, however, that is two months after the Deepwater Horizon accident, US government agencies and independent scientists placed the spill flow rate at between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day.
3) As of two days ago, BP had successfully collected 890,000 barrels of oil, but it had also burned off 314,000 barrels of oil - which creates other problems for the environment.
Burning off crude oil also creates environmental problems
4) Many living organisms, including humans, are being exposed to toxic chemicals in crude oil such as benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and to other toxic chemicals such as propylene glycol and 2-butoxyethanol, due to use of chemical dispersants. These chemicals can have a serious effect on people with existing health problems, unborn babies, infants, children and pregnant women. They can affect the nervous, respiratory and many other systems.
5) The area in the Gulf of Mexico now closed for fishing covers about 225,000 km² – almost the same size as the entire Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The sector of the Gulf of Mexico closed for fishing as of June 21st 2010
6) It is proving impossible to predict the environmental consequences, whether short-term, mid-term or long-term, of the Deepwater Horizon accident. BP has tentatively agreed to put $20 billion into an escrow account for victims of the disaster. The company may be sold, go bankrupt or be completely reorganized under a new administration. It may take 50 years for the environmental part of the mess to be biodegraded or remedied, or to disappear in some other manner. And health problems caused by exposure to toxic chemicals are notoriously slow in developing.
The long and short of it is, we need to know exactly what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico, and what the impacts will be, before Old Harry in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is allowed to go ahead.
Environmental disasters can be fatal