News and Views you don't have to lose:
How long will it take for Oil tankers to again off load at the port of New Orleans?
by Michael C. Ruppert
Oil energy expert Jan Lundberg, the United States has just lost between 20% and 25% of its energy supply.
This comes as the Energy Information Administration has just admitted that global demand has been outstripping supply for several months before Katrina.
Gulf energy production has four main components: drilling and production, pipeline delivery to shore, refinery capacity, and then delivery to the rest of the nation. We have heard precious little about the damage to Louisiana’s Port Fourchon which is the largest point at which energy passes from sea to land in the region. It is heavily damaged and mostly inoperable for now, despite optimistic financial reports, intended to calm the markets, stating that “damage is minimal.”
Production, if and when it starts trickling again, will most likely shift to Port Murphy or to Lake Charles... Shifting energy flows will never replace what was lost because those two facilities already face the daunting task of restoring their own output. They can’t handle the additional burden of compensation for what has been lost. As one astute and great researcher put it, “How will the oil companies even find their workers or tell them where to report for work?” Where will the workers live? Where will they buy groceries? How will they get to and from work if the gasoline they’re supposed to produce isn’t there? The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is also much more seriously damaged than press accounts disclose. It’s here that supertankers from overseas (used to) offload. They have no place else to do it. They’re too big. I have seen video of LOOP damage which doesn’t look anything like the minimal damage that’s been reported. OK, so when the port is fixed what about the damaged pipelines running to shore? How many boat anchors have been dragged over them? In how many places are they ruptured, crushed or broken?
As many as twenty offshore rigs have now been confirmed as adrift, capsized, listing or sunk. Each rig may have as many as eight wells. Where’s the money coming from to replace them? How long will that take?
Bottom line: my assessment is that New Orleans is never going to be rebuilt and that US domestic oil production will never again reach pre-Katrina levels. The infrastructure is gone, the people are gone, and the US economy will be on life support very, very quickly. If people are griping at $5.00 gasoline what will they do when it’s $8.00? $10.00?
http://www.guerrillanews.com/headlines/4636/You_Bet_Your_Life
Coffee, corn and soybeans
For farmers in the Midwest, weeks away from the annual harvests of corn and soybeans, Katrina threatens to create bottlenecks for the huge amount of U.S. grain earmarked for overseas buyers.
Energy is just one of the question marks for farmers. But they have more to worry about. About 20 percent of U.S. corn is sold overseas, and almost 40 percent of U.S. soybeans. The vast majority goes down the Mississippi River in barges so it can be shipped out of New Orleans.
With that port closed, hundreds of barges are backed up on the river. The harvest of corn won't start for about two more weeks. But already local grain elevators are partially filled with the surplus from last year's record crop. There is a limit on where to store this year's crop when it comes in. What will happen?
Some of the crop will likely be diverted away from the river and to rail, but that will add substantial costs.
The Coast Guard announced yesterday that ports at Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla., were reopened, but ships wouldn't enter immediately as navigational aids were replaced and underwater hazards removed.
Farmers have begun to worry that the big grain companies with contracts to supply overseas buyers will turn elsewhere, perhaps to China or South America, for a ready supply, said Terry Francl, an economist with the American Farm Bureau.
Take coffee. For consumers, it could mean higher prices for a cup of coffee or a pound of bananas in coming months. New Orleans is the nation's second-largest port for incoming coffee shipments. But redirecting those shipments doesn't solve all the problems, because the city is also a major coffee production center.
About a quarter of the entire U.S. stock of unprocessed coffee is stored in New Orleans. More than half of the Folger's and Millstone brand coffees sold by Procter & Gamble are made at two plants in New Orleans.
The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/
2002465978_katrinarefining02.html
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. MY NEWSLETTER has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is MY NEWSLETTER endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewsViewsnolose
by Michael C. Ruppert
Oil energy expert Jan Lundberg, the United States has just lost between 20% and 25% of its energy supply.
This comes as the Energy Information Administration has just admitted that global demand has been outstripping supply for several months before Katrina.
Gulf energy production has four main components: drilling and production, pipeline delivery to shore, refinery capacity, and then delivery to the rest of the nation. We have heard precious little about the damage to Louisiana’s Port Fourchon which is the largest point at which energy passes from sea to land in the region. It is heavily damaged and mostly inoperable for now, despite optimistic financial reports, intended to calm the markets, stating that “damage is minimal.”
Production, if and when it starts trickling again, will most likely shift to Port Murphy or to Lake Charles... Shifting energy flows will never replace what was lost because those two facilities already face the daunting task of restoring their own output. They can’t handle the additional burden of compensation for what has been lost. As one astute and great researcher put it, “How will the oil companies even find their workers or tell them where to report for work?” Where will the workers live? Where will they buy groceries? How will they get to and from work if the gasoline they’re supposed to produce isn’t there? The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is also much more seriously damaged than press accounts disclose. It’s here that supertankers from overseas (used to) offload. They have no place else to do it. They’re too big. I have seen video of LOOP damage which doesn’t look anything like the minimal damage that’s been reported. OK, so when the port is fixed what about the damaged pipelines running to shore? How many boat anchors have been dragged over them? In how many places are they ruptured, crushed or broken?
As many as twenty offshore rigs have now been confirmed as adrift, capsized, listing or sunk. Each rig may have as many as eight wells. Where’s the money coming from to replace them? How long will that take?
Bottom line: my assessment is that New Orleans is never going to be rebuilt and that US domestic oil production will never again reach pre-Katrina levels. The infrastructure is gone, the people are gone, and the US economy will be on life support very, very quickly. If people are griping at $5.00 gasoline what will they do when it’s $8.00? $10.00?
http://www.guerrillanews.com/headlines/4636/You_Bet_Your_Life
Coffee, corn and soybeans
For farmers in the Midwest, weeks away from the annual harvests of corn and soybeans, Katrina threatens to create bottlenecks for the huge amount of U.S. grain earmarked for overseas buyers.
Energy is just one of the question marks for farmers. But they have more to worry about. About 20 percent of U.S. corn is sold overseas, and almost 40 percent of U.S. soybeans. The vast majority goes down the Mississippi River in barges so it can be shipped out of New Orleans.
With that port closed, hundreds of barges are backed up on the river. The harvest of corn won't start for about two more weeks. But already local grain elevators are partially filled with the surplus from last year's record crop. There is a limit on where to store this year's crop when it comes in. What will happen?
Some of the crop will likely be diverted away from the river and to rail, but that will add substantial costs.
The Coast Guard announced yesterday that ports at Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla., were reopened, but ships wouldn't enter immediately as navigational aids were replaced and underwater hazards removed.
Farmers have begun to worry that the big grain companies with contracts to supply overseas buyers will turn elsewhere, perhaps to China or South America, for a ready supply, said Terry Francl, an economist with the American Farm Bureau.
Take coffee. For consumers, it could mean higher prices for a cup of coffee or a pound of bananas in coming months. New Orleans is the nation's second-largest port for incoming coffee shipments. But redirecting those shipments doesn't solve all the problems, because the city is also a major coffee production center.
About a quarter of the entire U.S. stock of unprocessed coffee is stored in New Orleans. More than half of the Folger's and Millstone brand coffees sold by Procter & Gamble are made at two plants in New Orleans.
The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/
2002465978_katrinarefining02.html
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. MY NEWSLETTER has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is MY NEWSLETTER endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewsViewsnolose
posted by T. Scott Brineman | 12:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home