Original Article

Hours of shooting heavy mud into a damaged deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico has significantly slowed, but hasn‚t yet shut off the massive flow of oil that‚s been leaking over the past 38 days, a top BP official said Thursday afternoon.

BP engineers planned overnight to shoot another 630,000 gallons or so of the heavy drilling fluid into the well‚s blowout preventer and perhaps add to the mix an array of denser, solid materials in what is known as a „junk shot.‰

„It‚s the experts on the job who will determine what order to pump this stuff in,‰ said Doug Suttles, BP‚s chief of operations.

The effort to prevent more oil from reaching inland Louisiana marshes took a turn Thursday with the partial approval of Gov. Bobby Jindal‚s plan to dredge sand and create berms along 100 miles of historic barrier islands. Jindal pressed Thursday for quick construction of one project BP will pay for and full approval of the rest of the plan submitted to the federal government May 11.

Meanwhile, a team of scientists Thursday morning revised upwards estimates of the amount of oil that has been flowing since the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20. These estimates now clearly place this disaster as the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The new federal estimates say the leak is releasing 504,000 to 798,000 gallons of oil per day, more than double initial estimates of more than 210,000 per day.

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, BP‚s Suttles sounded a more cautious note than he had the day before when BP began shooting in the mud, a procedure known as a „top kill.‰

Suttles said BP injected two rounds of the dense mud into the well, but stopped about 11 p.m. Wednesday night and spent much of Thursday trying to gauge its success.

„We clearly had suppressed the amount of oil that was coming out, but we have to be able to suppress it to the point where it stops flowing,‰ Suttles said.

The „top kill‰ procedure is the latest in a series of so far unsuccessful efforts to contain or halt the leak. If the „top kill‰ or the related „junk shot‰ is successful, cement will be injected afterwards to plug the well.

Suttles has said it could be several days before BP will inject cement, and even if the well is successfully sealed, the company will continue to construct two relief wells it started earlier in the month.

Suttles said Thursday that much of the mud pumped into the well‚s blowout preventer clearly flowed back out of the main leak located further up the riser pipe, as can be seen in BP‚s online video. Nevertheless, some of the pumped-in mud appears to be going into the well itself, he said, though it‚s hard to know how much.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday approved six of 24 sand berms or sand booms that Gov. Jindal wants to construct to shore up some of Louisiana‚s barrier islands.

The partial approval covers about 40 of the 100 miles that Jindal wants to fortify.

Left open is the question of who will pay for it.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen agreed Thursday to have BP pay for just one of the six corps-approved projects, a 2-mile stretch known as Scofield Island, located near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish.

If the new Scofield Island barrier is effective in stopping oil intrusion and has a net environmental benefit, Allen said, he will consider asking BP to pay for some or all of the other five projects.

The state has permission to pay for these five projects with its own funds and perhaps seek reimbursement later from BP.

That‚s not good enough, said Jindal in a news conference from Port Fourchon less than two hours after the announcement.

„What we don‚t want is our federal government making excuses for BP,‰ Jindal said. „Make them fix it. They‚re responsible.‰

Jindal, however, deflected reporters‚ questions about whether the state would, with its own money, build these sand barriers, rather than wait.

Instead, the governor said he will press the federal government hard to keep on BP to quickly build the Scofield Island barrier and demonstrate its effectiveness.

Jindal noted that earlier Thursday he saw firsthand how a half-built sand berm on East Grand Terre Island that the state authorized a week ago is already stopping oil from heading inland.

„We‚ve got all the proof we need right here,‰ Jindal said. „We know it works

Original Article

A proposal backed by newly-appointed Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle could encourage more traditional oil and natural gas exploration in the coastal areas of south Louisiana, a region that has been overshadowed by the highly popular shale plays in the northern part of the state.

While officials are beginning to see a small return to deep-well drilling operations in the south, “…there is cause to be concerned,” said Angelle at a South Central Industrial Association meeting last Tuesday. “There is a new cheerleader at high school and it’s called the shale plays.”

There are currently 142 drilling rigs located in north Louisiana, a number that far outweighs the 35 in the south that are struggling to keep pace.

If approved, Angelle’s proposal, which is being considered by the Louisiana Mineral and Energy Board, would reduce royalties paid to the state for wells located 15,000 feet or below in the coastal zone. That, he said, could bring new life to a dying tradition.

“I just want to create an opportunity to get more dollars into the state of Louisiana,” explained Angelle.

The measure would also require companies that take advantage of the incentives to compensate for impacts to the environment, creating a symphonic relationship between energy exploration and coastal preservation.

Lately, investment dollars have been flooding the north, primarily backing natural gas exploration in the Haynesville Shale field, an area that harnesses 9 percent of the nation’s drilling activity. In the past year, similar ventures have spiked in places like Texas and Pennsylvania, which both have fairly large natural gas shale plays and have evolved into major competitors.

About 90 percent of rigs drilling in Louisiana today are searching for natural gas, not oil. “Things are changing. The winds are blowing in another direction and we are going to have to adjust our sails,” said Angelle. “There are two Louisianas.”

To the south, companies are looking to drill at greater depths in offshore waters, something that takes more time and carries higher costs. In the north, quick dollars are being made from shale plays that produce nearly 100 percent of the time. For the crowd on Wall Street, these plays are seen as a sure-fire investment.

The Mineral and Energy Board said a decision on the new proposal could be made at their next meeting.

“I feel the incentive of a reduced royalty rate would encourage additional drilling in the coastal zone,” said Louisiana Oil and Gas Association President Don Briggs. “Any support to and for the industry at this time is important.”

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, however, could change the way things are done forever. “I am very concerned for over reaction by state and federal regulators as a result of the BP spill,” noted Briggs.

On April 20, a blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon rig located about 52 miles southeast of Venice, La., failed to activate. This incident has caused millions of barrels of oil to gush into the surrounding waters, threatening the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Although working feverishly, BP has yet to come up with a permanent solution to stop the flow of crude.

Officials from the oil and gas industry fear the situation could ultimately tarnish the state’s image, hindering tourism and turning away investors.

Original Article

An alternative fuel that has been successful in cities such as Fort Worth, Texas, could be widely used and available in Lafayette in the coming years.

Tentative plans are in the works to eventually build three compressed natural gas refueling stations in the city and have vehicles, such as school buses, city buses and other public vehicles run on the fuel, which proponents say burns about 30 percent to 50 percent cleaner than regular gasoline and costs about $1 per gallon less.

Lafayette Consolidated Government Planning Manager Mike Hollier said city-parish, Lafayette Parish School Board and UL officials have been discussing CNG’s potential in the area for about a year, most recently in relations to a grant application to the state Department of Natural Resources.

The three entities are working together as the Lafayette Parish CNG Consortium and are asking for the $749,000 grant to help build the first CNG station in the city. Hollier said officials also are working on two more CNG-related grant applications to the Federal Transit Administration.

Hollier said the idea of finding an alternative fuel gained more attention when gasoline and diesel costs skyrocketed during the past two years, straining the transportation budgets of all of the agencies.

“Just about everybody thought it would involve working in the direction of biodiesel or hybrids, but that proved to be very, very costly,” Hollier said. “It finally evolved into a discussion about compressed natural gas. A team went to Fort Worth, which has had CNG systems for more than 25 years, and they came back and the decision was to go in that direction.”

Gifford Briggs, vice president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said the biggest limitations on CNG usage are that it has a limited infrastructure across the country and only certain vehicles can be converted to run on the fuel. But for the vehicles than can use it, the cost savings can be substantial.

“The technology has evolved to where you get the same efficiency in terms of miles per gallon, so you have the same power, but your emissions are reduced significantly,” he said. “The biggest difference is the price value because you save about $1 to $1.25 per gallon. From a cost standpoint, if you are traveling a lot, it really adds up.”

CNG tends to be cheaper because it is not as susceptible to fluctuations in the price of natural gas the same way that gasoline is based on the price of oil, Briggs said.

“If oil jumps up 10 percent, you’re probably going to see a similar increase in the price of gas,” Briggs said. “But if natural gas goes up, you may see half of that increase.”

Lafayette officials are hoping to have the first CNG station on University Avenue, near the LCG building at University Avenue and Evangeline Thruway, mainly because the location is already situated along pipelines that would make it easier to pump in natural gas.

Hollier said the city’s proximity to the Henry Hub and the Haynesville Shale also make it a prime location for expanded use of the fuel in future years.

“The only obstacle to CNG right now are the infrastructure costs,” Hollier said. “You do need specialized service stations and vehicles. But once you get past that initial capital investment, you can have some really great efficiencies.”