الإنسان
قال تعال (وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ الْأَسْمَاءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَلائِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنْبِئُونِي بِأَسْمَاءِ هَؤُلاءِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ) (البقرة:31)
ترى لو لم يلهم الله الأحياء بأن يتخاطبوا، وأن يلهم كل صنف لغة يتفاهمون، بها كيف تكون الحياة.. ؟ لغة الإنسان، عبارة عن ألفاظ وجمل ينادي بها على الأسماء ويشرح بها الأفعال، وأصوات تعبر عن الاستحسان والاستهجان، قهقهة للفرح، وآهة للألم والحزن وأنين ونداء للاستغاثة، وبهذه أصبح الإنسان يستطيع أن يطلب الغذاء إذا جاع، وأن يستغيث إذا ألم به مكروه... وتمكن من أن يتفاهم مع غيره بما حفظ عليه حياته... ومن أعجب ما يسرت به الحياة على الأحياء.. تفاهم الذين أصابهم العي في ألسنتهم، أو حرموا الكلام أصلا.. فهم يتفاهمون بإشارات أسرع من الألفاظ، وإذا تخاطب اثنان منهم قل من يستطيع أن يتسامعهما، بل لا يمكن لغيرهما أن يفهم كلامهما السريع الطويل.. ولم يتعلموا هذه اللغة إطلاقاً..إنما يسرت لهم كما يسرت لغيرهم الكلام من لدن حكيم خبير.
الحـيـــوان :
قال تعالى : (حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَوْا عَلَى وَادِ النَّمْلِ قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لا يَشْعُرُونَ) (النمل:18)
أثبت العلم أن للحيوان لغته الخاصة، فلكل نوع من أنواع الحيوانات لغة خاصة به، يتفاهم بها، ويتعارف مع غيره على أحوال ما حوله.. فهذه هي الدجاجة التي تصدر أصواتاً مميزة، فنرى صغارها أقبلت في سرعة تلتقط معها الحب.. وتصدر أصواتاً مخافة، فإذا بالصغار تهرول إلى العش في لحظة.
ويقول " ألن ديفو "أحد علماء الحيوان أنه وقف يوماً يراقب ثلاثة من صغار الثعلب تلعب حول أمها، وإذا بصغير منها يدخل في الغابة، ويبتعد عنها بعدا بحيث غاب عن النظر، فاستوت الأم قائمة ومدت أنفها إلى الناحية التي ذهب منها،، وبقيت على حالها هذه برهة عاد بعدها الصغير في اتجاه أمه لا يلتفت يمنة أو يسرة، كأنما كانت تجذبه بخيط لا تراه العين. ومن الدراسات المماثلة أمكن لعلماء الحيوان تعلم لغة الحيوانات.
و النحلة إذا عثرت على حقل مزهر عادت إلى الخلية وما إن تتوسطها حتى ترقص رقصاً خاصاً، فإذا بالنحل يندفع إليها، ويسير خلفها إلى حيث تهديه النحلة إلى الزهور.
و يقول اللورد" أفبري " أنه طالما أراد أن يمتحن عقل النمل، والوقوف على طريقة التفاهم بين أفراد، فمما فعله في هذا السبيل، أنه وجد يوماً نملة خارجة وحدها من جحرها، فأخذ ذبابة ولصقها على فلينة بدبوس، وألقاها في طريق النملة، فما أن عثرت عليها، حتى أخذت تعالجها بفمها وأرجلها مدة تزيد على العشرين دقيقة، تيقنت بعدها، فعادت أدراجها إلى جحرها، وبعد ثوان معدودة، خرجت النملة تتقدم نحوها و معها اثنتي عشرة نملة من أخواتها، انتهت بها إلى الذبابة ثم وقع عليها النمل، يمزقها تمزيقاً، وعاد النمل إلى جحره وكل منها تحمل جزءاً من الذبابة.. فالنملة الأولى قد رجعت إلى زميلتها ولم يكن معها شيء قط.. فكيف تم لها أن تخبر باقي النمل بأنها وجدت طعاماً سائغاً، وفريسة شهية ما لم يكن تم ذل بلغة خاصة...!!!
و يتكلم نمل الشجر في المناطق الاستوائية بلغة عجيبة، إذ يصعد إلى الشجرة ويدق دقات غير منتظمة، تقارب إشارات مورس التلغرافية، ويبلغ من قوتها أن تسمع من بعيد....!! وما صرير صرصار الغيط، الذي كثيراً ما يسمع في الليل الدافئة في الحدائق والمزارع، إلا دعوة منه لأنثاه إذا بعدت عنه. وكذلك نقيق الضفادع الذي لا يحدث إلا ليلاً.
و قد لوحظ أن أسراب الفيلة، لا تكف لحظة عن غمغمة، طالما هي تسير في رهط، فإذا تفرقت الجماعة، وسار كل فيل على حدة انقطع الصوت تماماً.. ومن
أعجب ما يؤيد لغة الفيلة، تلك الأصوات المزعجة التي تلاحظ عندما تجتمع الفيلة المحكوم عليها لتعيش وحيدة... فقد حكمت عليه الفيلة بالعزلة والوحدة...!!!
و أصوات الغراب مميزة تميزاً واضحاً.. فنعيبه أكبر على الخطر. وهو يصدره ليحذر به أبناء جنسه، بينما يصدر في مرحه ولعبه أصواتاً أخرى تقرب من
القهقهة و مما يثبت تفاهم جماعات الغربان ما تأتيه في حياتها من أمور تكاد تكون عجيبة، إذ المتداول أن الغراب من الطيور الحقيرة التي يمر عليها الإنسان دون انتباه، ويقول " اكلاند " إن الغراب يفوق الطيور الأخرى منه حجماً،و الأقوى منه، بسبب مكره الممتاز، وبالرغم من أن الغراب لص، وفيه عيوب أخرى من سفاهة ودناءة وخسة،فهو طائر مسل عندما تراقبه.. راقب جماعة من الغربان وقت نومها، تجد أنه بعد محادثة طويلة ذات ضوضاء مع جيرانها، وانتقالها من مكان إلى آخر، يستقر العجوز على فرع شجرة، ويبدأ في التأهب للنوم مبكراً، وما يكاد يفعل حتى تأتي بعض الغربان الأشقياء، تدور حوله مرة أو مرتين، ثم تحط بجواره حتى يوشك أن يفقد توازنه أو تصطدم به عمداً لزحزحته من مكانه... فيعلوا صراخه لانتهاك حرمته، وإقلاق راحته، بصوت مميز. وتتكرر هذه المحاولات وتصيح صغار الغربان بأصوات ضاحكة تعلن عن فرحها.. وليس هناك أدنى شك في أن الغربان مغرمة بالهزل، وتنظم الألعاب لنفسها. فقد قرر العلماء أنها تلعب المساكة والاستغماء...!!
و مما لوحظ في دراسة حياة الغربان أنها تحب كل الأشياء التي تبرق في الشمس. ولكل غراب مخزنه السري الخاص به الذي قد يكون ثغرة في شجرة، أو تحت سقف برج قديم، أو خلف حجر في كوبري، وقد وجد أن بأحد المخازن التي أمكن اكتشافها، من دراسي حياة الغربان قطعة من مرآة مكسورة ويد فنجان، وقطعة من صفيح وأخرى من معدن، وأشياء تافهة متنوعة كلها تتفق في أنها تتألق في الشمس.
و يفهم الحيوان لغة الإنسان ويستجيب لها، كما يدعو الإنسان الدجاج إلى الغذاء بصوت معروف، ويدعوا الإوز والبط بصوت مغاير ويدعو الدواب إلى الشراب بالصفير كما يستطيع الأولاد في الريف عند صيد السمك من جذبه قريباً منهم بأصوات خاصة. وكلنا نعلم أن الكلب في المنزل أن الكلب في المنزل يعرف بل ينفذ أوامر سيده، وفي أمريكا رجل أسمه "جاك ماينز " تخصص في دراسة الإوز البري، وبلغ من علمه بلغتها، أنه يستطيع أن يدعو سرباً طائراً إلى النزول، حيث يختفي وذلك بأن يخاطب الإوز بلغتها ويخبرها بوجود بركة صالحة وطعام كثير.
و قد يستطيع الإنسان أن يبادل الحيوان لغته ويتفاهم معه، فقد كتب "مورتون طمسون " في "مجلة "The American Mercury أن أخاه لويس الطالب بمدرسة الطيران كان يسمى " لويس الحصان " إذ أنه كان يكلم الخيل ويحادثها، وبدأ بذلك وهو طالب في مدرسة قرية في " سان دييجو " وكان بها خيول غير مروضة، كثيراً ما قضى معها لويس الأوقات الطويلة، يلاعبها ويروضها، ولم يقضي إجازته، بل ولا فسحته إلا إما راكباً أو مصاحباً حصاناً. وكان يراهن التلاميذ على أي حصان يفوز في سباقها.. ولم يحدث أن أخطأ مرة، ولما حاول أخوه أن يهتدي إلى سر ذلك، أجابه أن الخيل تخبرني عن حالتها في الجري، ورأيها في راكبها، وفي المضمار، وكثيراً ما وضع ذلك موضع الاختبار والامتحان، فكان يذهب إلى حلبة الخيل في أي مكان وكلما مر به حصان نظر إليه لويس نظرة متسائلة بصوت معين، فيلتفت الحصان ويلوي عنقه بهزات معينة، وهمهمة خاصة. ثم أخيراً ينطق لويس برقم الحصان الذي سيفوز. قال لأخيه يوماص : الجواد 1 يتمنى أن يربح، ولكنه لا يحب راكبه. أما الجواد 2 فحالته اليوم سيئة، ولن يفوز. أما رقم 3 فهو يتحدى إذ أنه صمم على الفوز.
Monday, July 12, 2010
لغة الكائن الحي
الإنسان
قال تعال (وَعَلَّمَ آدَمَ الْأَسْمَاءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَلائِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنْبِئُونِي بِأَسْمَاءِ هَؤُلاءِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ) (البقرة:31)
ترى لو لم يلهم الله الأحياء بأن يتخاطبوا، وأن يلهم كل صنف لغة يتفاهمون، بها كيف تكون الحياة.. ؟ لغة الإنسان، عبارة عن ألفاظ وجمل ينادي بها على الأسماء ويشرح بها الأفعال، وأصوات تعبر عن الاستحسان والاستهجان، قهقهة للفرح، وآهة للألم والحزن وأنين ونداء للاستغاثة، وبهذه أصبح الإنسان يستطيع أن يطلب الغذاء إذا جاع، وأن يستغيث إذا ألم به مكروه... وتمكن من أن يتفاهم مع غيره بما حفظ عليه حياته... ومن أعجب ما يسرت به الحياة على الأحياء.. تفاهم الذين أصابهم العي في ألسنتهم، أو حرموا الكلام أصلا.. فهم يتفاهمون بإشارات أسرع من الألفاظ، وإذا تخاطب اثنان منهم قل من يستطيع أن يتسامعهما، بل لا يمكن لغيرهما أن يفهم كلامهما السريع الطويل.. ولم يتعلموا هذه اللغة إطلاقاً..إنما يسرت لهم كما يسرت لغيرهم الكلام من لدن حكيم خبير.
الحـيـــوان :
قال تعالى : (حَتَّى إِذَا أَتَوْا عَلَى وَادِ النَّمْلِ قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لا يَشْعُرُونَ) (النمل:18)
أثبت العلم أن للحيوان لغته الخاصة، فلكل نوع من أنواع الحيوانات لغة خاصة به، يتفاهم بها، ويتعارف مع غيره على أحوال ما حوله.. فهذه هي الدجاجة التي تصدر أصواتاً مميزة، فنرى صغارها أقبلت في سرعة تلتقط معها الحب.. وتصدر أصواتاً مخافة، فإذا بالصغار تهرول إلى العش في لحظة.
ويقول " ألن ديفو "أحد علماء الحيوان أنه وقف يوماً يراقب ثلاثة من صغار الثعلب تلعب حول أمها، وإذا بصغير منها يدخل في الغابة، ويبتعد عنها بعدا بحيث غاب عن النظر، فاستوت الأم قائمة ومدت أنفها إلى الناحية التي ذهب منها،، وبقيت على حالها هذه برهة عاد بعدها الصغير في اتجاه أمه لا يلتفت يمنة أو يسرة، كأنما كانت تجذبه بخيط لا تراه العين. ومن الدراسات المماثلة أمكن لعلماء الحيوان تعلم لغة الحيوانات.
و النحلة إذا عثرت على حقل مزهر عادت إلى الخلية وما إن تتوسطها حتى ترقص رقصاً خاصاً، فإذا بالنحل يندفع إليها، ويسير خلفها إلى حيث تهديه النحلة إلى الزهور.
و يقول اللورد" أفبري " أنه طالما أراد أن يمتحن عقل النمل، والوقوف على طريقة التفاهم بين أفراد، فمما فعله في هذا السبيل، أنه وجد يوماً نملة خارجة وحدها من جحرها، فأخذ ذبابة ولصقها على فلينة بدبوس، وألقاها في طريق النملة، فما أن عثرت عليها، حتى أخذت تعالجها بفمها وأرجلها مدة تزيد على العشرين دقيقة، تيقنت بعدها، فعادت أدراجها إلى جحرها، وبعد ثوان معدودة، خرجت النملة تتقدم نحوها و معها اثنتي عشرة نملة من أخواتها، انتهت بها إلى الذبابة ثم وقع عليها النمل، يمزقها تمزيقاً، وعاد النمل إلى جحره وكل منها تحمل جزءاً من الذبابة.. فالنملة الأولى قد رجعت إلى زميلتها ولم يكن معها شيء قط.. فكيف تم لها أن تخبر باقي النمل بأنها وجدت طعاماً سائغاً، وفريسة شهية ما لم يكن تم ذل بلغة خاصة...!!!
و يتكلم نمل الشجر في المناطق الاستوائية بلغة عجيبة، إذ يصعد إلى الشجرة ويدق دقات غير منتظمة، تقارب إشارات مورس التلغرافية، ويبلغ من قوتها أن تسمع من بعيد....!! وما صرير صرصار الغيط، الذي كثيراً ما يسمع في الليل الدافئة في الحدائق والمزارع، إلا دعوة منه لأنثاه إذا بعدت عنه. وكذلك نقيق الضفادع الذي لا يحدث إلا ليلاً.
و قد لوحظ أن أسراب الفيلة، لا تكف لحظة عن غمغمة، طالما هي تسير في رهط، فإذا تفرقت الجماعة، وسار كل فيل على حدة انقطع الصوت تماماً.. ومن
أعجب ما يؤيد لغة الفيلة، تلك الأصوات المزعجة التي تلاحظ عندما تجتمع الفيلة المحكوم عليها لتعيش وحيدة... فقد حكمت عليه الفيلة بالعزلة والوحدة...!!!
و أصوات الغراب مميزة تميزاً واضحاً.. فنعيبه أكبر على الخطر. وهو يصدره ليحذر به أبناء جنسه، بينما يصدر في مرحه ولعبه أصواتاً أخرى تقرب من
القهقهة و مما يثبت تفاهم جماعات الغربان ما تأتيه في حياتها من أمور تكاد تكون عجيبة، إذ المتداول أن الغراب من الطيور الحقيرة التي يمر عليها الإنسان دون انتباه، ويقول " اكلاند " إن الغراب يفوق الطيور الأخرى منه حجماً،و الأقوى منه، بسبب مكره الممتاز، وبالرغم من أن الغراب لص، وفيه عيوب أخرى من سفاهة ودناءة وخسة،فهو طائر مسل عندما تراقبه.. راقب جماعة من الغربان وقت نومها، تجد أنه بعد محادثة طويلة ذات ضوضاء مع جيرانها، وانتقالها من مكان إلى آخر، يستقر العجوز على فرع شجرة، ويبدأ في التأهب للنوم مبكراً، وما يكاد يفعل حتى تأتي بعض الغربان الأشقياء، تدور حوله مرة أو مرتين، ثم تحط بجواره حتى يوشك أن يفقد توازنه أو تصطدم به عمداً لزحزحته من مكانه... فيعلوا صراخه لانتهاك حرمته، وإقلاق راحته، بصوت مميز. وتتكرر هذه المحاولات وتصيح صغار الغربان بأصوات ضاحكة تعلن عن فرحها.. وليس هناك أدنى شك في أن الغربان مغرمة بالهزل، وتنظم الألعاب لنفسها. فقد قرر العلماء أنها تلعب المساكة والاستغماء...!!
و مما لوحظ في دراسة حياة الغربان أنها تحب كل الأشياء التي تبرق في الشمس. ولكل غراب مخزنه السري الخاص به الذي قد يكون ثغرة في شجرة، أو تحت سقف برج قديم، أو خلف حجر في كوبري، وقد وجد أن بأحد المخازن التي أمكن اكتشافها، من دراسي حياة الغربان قطعة من مرآة مكسورة ويد فنجان، وقطعة من صفيح وأخرى من معدن، وأشياء تافهة متنوعة كلها تتفق في أنها تتألق في الشمس.
و يفهم الحيوان لغة الإنسان ويستجيب لها، كما يدعو الإنسان الدجاج إلى الغذاء بصوت معروف، ويدعوا الإوز والبط بصوت مغاير ويدعو الدواب إلى الشراب بالصفير كما يستطيع الأولاد في الريف عند صيد السمك من جذبه قريباً منهم بأصوات خاصة. وكلنا نعلم أن الكلب في المنزل أن الكلب في المنزل يعرف بل ينفذ أوامر سيده، وفي أمريكا رجل أسمه "جاك ماينز " تخصص في دراسة الإوز البري، وبلغ من علمه بلغتها، أنه يستطيع أن يدعو سرباً طائراً إلى النزول، حيث يختفي وذلك بأن يخاطب الإوز بلغتها ويخبرها بوجود بركة صالحة وطعام كثير.
و قد يستطيع الإنسان أن يبادل الحيوان لغته ويتفاهم معه، فقد كتب "مورتون طمسون " في "مجلة "The American Mercury أن أخاه لويس الطالب بمدرسة الطيران كان يسمى " لويس الحصان " إذ أنه كان يكلم الخيل ويحادثها، وبدأ بذلك وهو طالب في مدرسة قرية في " سان دييجو " وكان بها خيول غير مروضة، كثيراً ما قضى معها لويس الأوقات الطويلة، يلاعبها ويروضها، ولم يقضي إجازته، بل ولا فسحته إلا إما راكباً أو مصاحباً حصاناً. وكان يراهن التلاميذ على أي حصان يفوز في سباقها.. ولم يحدث أن أخطأ مرة، ولما حاول أخوه أن يهتدي إلى سر ذلك، أجابه أن الخيل تخبرني عن حالتها في الجري، ورأيها في راكبها، وفي المضمار، وكثيراً ما وضع ذلك موضع الاختبار والامتحان، فكان يذهب إلى حلبة الخيل في أي مكان وكلما مر به حصان نظر إليه لويس نظرة متسائلة بصوت معين، فيلتفت الحصان ويلوي عنقه بهزات معينة، وهمهمة خاصة. ثم أخيراً ينطق لويس برقم الحصان الذي سيفوز. قال لأخيه يوماص : الجواد 1 يتمنى أن يربح، ولكنه لا يحب راكبه. أما الجواد 2 فحالته اليوم سيئة، ولن يفوز. أما رقم 3 فهو يتحدى إذ أنه صمم على الفوز.
Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. Announces Site Selection for Its Proposed Used Oil Re-refining Facility
Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. Announces Site Selection for Its Proposed Used Oil Re-refining Facilitya leading provider of parts cleaning and hazardous and non-hazardous waste services to small and mid-sized customers, is pleased to announce that it has selected Indianapolis, Indiana as the location for its used oil re-refining facility. As previously announced, the Company plans to construct a used oil re-refinery to convert used oil into re-refined lubricating base oil. The Company plans to build the re-refinery on recently acquired property that is located on West 10th Street, in the Town of Speedway, a division of Indianapolis, Indiana.
"Indiana is well located with good infrastructure and supports the recycling of used oil. The state of Indiana, the city of Indianapolis, as well the town of Speedway have embraced the project and committed support for the new facility through various incentives," said CEO Joe Chalhoub.
Safe Harbor Statement
All references to the "Company," "we," "our," and "us" refer to Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc., and its subsidiary, Heritage-Crystal Clean, LLC.
This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current management expectations. Generally, the words "aim," "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "should," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," "would" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements or industry results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other important factors include, among others: our ability to complete our used oil re-refinery as anticipated; the selection of the used oil re-refinery; the used oil re-refinery does not perform as anticipated; we are unable to generate sufficient funds to build and support our used oil re-refinery; our ability to comply with the extensive environmental, health and safety and employment laws and regulations that our Company is subject to; changes in environmental laws that affect our business model; competition; claims relating to our handling of hazardous substances; the limited demand for our used solvent; our dependency on key employees; our ability to effectively manage our extended network of branch locations; warranty expense and liability claims; personal injury litigation; dependency of suppliers; economic conditions including the recent recession and financial crisis, and downturns in the business cycles of automotive repair shops, industrial manufacturing business and small businesses in general; increased solvent, fuel and energy costs and volatility in the price of crude oil; the control of The Heritage Group over our Company; and the risks identified in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 5, 2010. Given these uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to update or revise them or provide reasons why actual results may differ. The information in this release should be read in light of such risks and in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included elsewhere in this release.
About Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc.
Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. provides parts cleaning and hazardous and non-hazardous waste services to small and mid-sized customers in both the manufacturing and automotive service sectors. Our service programs include parts cleaning, containerized waste management, used oil collection, and vacuum truck services. These services help our customers manage their used chemicals and liquid and solid wastes, while also helping to minimize their regulatory burdens. Our customers include businesses involved in vehicle maintenance operations, such as car dealerships, automotive repair shops, and trucking firms, as well as small manufacturers, such as metal product fabricators and printers. Heritage-Crystal Clean, Inc. is headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, and operates through 62 branches serving over 41,000 customer locations.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Devon Energy reports Alberta Oil Sands well leak
Devon Energy reports Alberta Oil Sands well leak
CALGARY (MarketWatch) -- A blowout at one of Devon Energy Inc.'s /quotes/comstock/13*!dvn/quotes/nls/dvn (DVN 63.49, -0.01, -0.02%) oil sands wells in northeastern Alberta over the weekend sprayed an oil mist into the air for nearly 36 hours, the company and regulators said Monday.
Devon employees discovered a leak in one of the producer wells at the company's 35,000 barrel-a-day Jackfish facility mid-day Saturday and managed to seal the leak by midnight Sunday, a Devon spokeswoman said.
No one was injured and regulators said there was no danger to the public. The Alberta Environment ministry and the Alberta Energy Conservation Resources Board are investigating the cause of the leak.
Jackfish is a two-year-old "in situ" oil sands project, in which pairs of wells are used to inject steam underground to soften oil sands, and then to pump back up a mixture of oil sands and steam. The project has 28 such well pairs, and the leak occurred in one of the older sections of the project, the Devon spokeswoman said.
The blowout shot an oil-steam mixture about 30 to 40 feet into the air, most of which fell back onto Devon's lease, the spokeswoman said, though some was carried off the site by the wind. She said the company was tracking where the oil went and set up containment booms downstream of a nearby creek as a preventative measure.
Jackfish is located in a relatively remote area, but is about 12 miles from the small town of Conklin, Alberta.
Devon said it doesn't yet know how much oil was released, nor the cost of repairing the well.
Devon is currently building a second Jackfish project nearby of the same size, which will be complete by the end of the year. Construction was not affected by the blowout, the spokeswoman said.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Brazil Oil Regulator Says Franco Well Could Produce 50,000 B/D
Brazil Oil Regulator Says Franco Well Could Produce 50,000 B/D
RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)--Brazil's National Oil Regulatory Agency, known as ANP, said it concluded its first formation test at the Franco well, which may have potential to produce 50,000 barrels a day.
Franco, which is the name given to the Brazilian state's 2-ANP-1-RJS well, has light oil measuring about 30 degrees API, ANP said in a statement Monday.
Initial studies by independent auditors indicate oil reserves in the deep-sea Franco well could top initial estimates of 4.5 billion barrels, according to earlier-reported ANP statements.
The ANP hired Gaffney Cline & Associates to assess reserves in the Franco and Libra areas under the subsalt layer of Brazil's Santos basin.
The Franco area is owned by the government and may be incorporated into a state plan to capitalize Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, under which the company receives the rights to produce up to 5 billion barrels of crude oil from government-held deepwater blocks in return for shares.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Deadline looms for giant oil skimmer
Deadline looms for giant oil skimmer
NEW ORLEANS — A giant Taiwanese oil skimmer faces a Thursday deadline to show progress in its efforts to help clean up the massive spill.
Frank Maisano, a spokesman for the shipping company that owns the "A Whale" skimmer, says rough seas have hampered its ability to suck up oily water from an area near the gushing well. But Maisano said the crew is making technical and tactical changes that should improve its performance.
The A Whale has been performing tests in the Gulf since last week. The Coast Guard has given the skimmer until Thursday to prove its value.
The skimmer is capable of sucking up to 21 million gallons of oily water per day.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
BP Gains on Bid to Stop Gulf Oil Leak, Alaskan Sales
BP Gains on Bid to Stop Gulf Oil Leak, Alaskan Sales
BP Plc jumped the most in 20 months in London trading on speculation the company may succeed in halting the biggest oil spill in U.S. history this week as it negotiates the sale of assets in Alaska.
BP climbed 9.4 percent, the most since November 2008, to close at 398.95 pence in London. That’s 31 percent higher than the low reached June 25. The shares are still down 39 percent since the April 20 accident in the Gulf of Mexico that triggered the leak.
The producer said it may be able to cut off the flow of oil from the damaged well this week, beginning with a pressure test today. Separately, BP is in talks to sell assets to Apache Corp. for a price of less than $12 billion, people familiar with the matter said yesterday. That deal alone would put BP ahead of its target of $10 billion in asset sales to help cover spill costs.
“There’s limited material downside after the well is capped,” said Jason Kenney, an analyst at ING Wholesale Banking in Edinburgh. “You can put Alaska in a pot beside Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Vietnam assets that are being looked at.”
If the well passes the 48-hour test, BP may shut it, Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, told reporters. The relief wells BP is drilling will still be needed to permanently plug it, he said.
BP scrapped its dividend and said last month it will sell some assets to raise $10 billion for cleanup costs, fines and legal damages from the Gulf spill. The company said today it has spent $3.5 billion on the spill. It agreed to establish a $20 billion fund for damage claims with President Barack Obama last month.
The drop in BP shares has prompted speculation that it may be taken over.
Exxon Mobil Corp., based in Irving, Texas, has been told by the U.S. government it can look at a potential bid for BP, the London-based Sunday Times reported, citing unidentified people.
“If Exxon shows its hand, there would be others queuing up behind it,” ING’s Kenney said. “BP screams out as being cheap at the minute because the value of its assets is about $90 billion more than the current enterprise value.”
It is unlikely that Exxon will actually bid for BP, Kenney said. Robert Dye, a spokesman for Apache, and Max McGahan, a BP spokesman, declined to comment on the asset sales. Exxon declined to comment on its reported interest in BP.
BP fell 13 percent on June 1 after an attempt to plug the leak by injecting mud and debris from the top of well failed. Relief wells, which will intersect the damaged Macondo well near the bottom to stop the flow of oil and gas, are running ahead of schedule and may be completed this month, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said last week.
The cost of insuring BP debt against default fell for the ninth straight day, dropping 35.5 basis points to 335.5, according to CMA DataVision, the lowest since June 8.
--With assistance from Eduard Gismatullin and Abigail Moses in London. Editors: Stephen Cunningham, Will Kennedy.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Free Buffett beach show draws crowd on oil coast
GULF SHORES, Ala. — Tens of thousands of people dressed in Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats sang and danced on a broad beach Sunday at a free Jimmy Buffett concert meant to show not all the tourists are covered in oil on the Gulf Coast.
The show, which was telecast live on the CMT cable channel, came on a particularly good day: The skies were mostly clear and only a little oil was washing in on the white sand about 100 miles north of the Deepwater Horizon site. A sand-filled barrier erected by the Alabama National Guard kept members of the audience from getting near the surf just in case.
Buffett, who grew up on the Alabama coast, came on stage to a huge cheer.
"It's a little like Jazz Fest with an ocean," said Buffett, referring to the huge music festival in New Orleans. "It is a pleasure to be here on a beautiful Gulf Coast day."
Buffett's set list included favorites like "Son of a Son of a Sailor," "Come Monday" and "Margaritaville," with its line about "all of those tourists covered with oil." His biggest fans, who call themselves "Parrotheads," sang along with every word.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said the state might use its $15 million in tourism promotion money from BP to stage additional shows through the fall.
"With all the Gulf states running commercials saying, `Our beaches our beautiful,' we'll show people ours are," Riley said. "It would be something different, and a great way to get people to the coast."
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist even came to see Buffett.
"I think all the Gulf states will benefit from this," Crist said. "We're all in this together. God bless Jimmy Buffett."
The Buffett bash accomplished its goal of luring visitors to the coast despite the oil spill: Parking lots were fuller than they had been in days outside of hotels, condominiums, restaurants and souvenir stores in this beach town of 5,000 residents.
Organizers gave away 35,000 tickets, but an officials attendance count wasn't available.
The concert originally was scheduled for July 1 but had to be postponed because heavy surf from Hurricane Alex.
Buffett was born in Mississippi and grew up on the Alabama coast, and his sister owns a popular restaurant and marina on the intracoastal waterway within a few miles of the beach. Buffett played a surprise concert there on June 30 after the cancellation.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
The Latest on the Oil Spill
BP is discussing selling $10 billion worth of assets, including a stake in an Alaska field, to the Apache Corporation, which is based in Texas, a person briefed on the talks said Sunday. The potential deal was first reported by The Sunday Times of London, which also reported that the ExxonMobil Corporation was considering making a bid for BP. BP had said it planned to raise $10 billion this year by selling assets.
A Change in Command on the Scene
Adm. of the Coast Guard has announced that Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft will relieve Rear Adm. as the federal on-scene coordinator for the oil spill response on Monday. Admiral Zukunft, who has been in the region for several weeks overseeing strategic planning while preparing to assume the coordinator job, is the Coast Guard’s assistant commandant for marine safety, security and stewardship. In that role he is responsible for developing national marine safety, security and environmental protection doctrine, policy and regulations. “I commend Admiral Watson’s job as the federal on-scene coordinator, and he has been instrumental to key decisions in the oil collection process,” Admiral Allen said in a statement. “As he returns to Atlantic area to ensure the Coast Guard’s long-term ability to support this operation and others, I am confident that Admiral Zukunft will continue the efforts to ensure BP secures the well completely while operationally sustaining this historic response.”
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Baby animals in oil spill face uncertain future
FORT JACKSON, La. — The smallest victims are the biggest challenge for crews rescuing birds fouled with oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill.
There's no way to know how many chicks have been killed by the oil, or starved because their parents were rescued or died struggling in a slick.
"There are plenty of oiled babies out there," said Rebecca Dmytryk of the International Bird Rescue Research Center, one of the groups working to clean oiled animals.
The lucky ones end up in a cleaning center at Fort Jackson, a pre-Civil War historic site on the Mississippi River delta south of New Orleans.
Pelican chicks often come in cold because oil has matted down the fluffy down that's meant to keep them warm. They must be warmed quickly just to survive long enough to be cleaned. And the youngest must be taught to eat.
"They only know their parents regurgitating food into their mouths. They don't know how to pick stuff up," said Dmytryk, whose organization is working with Tri-State Bird Rescue, a company hired by BP to coordinate animal rescue and cleaning in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
That means tube feeding three times a day. Others, a bit older and accustomed to taking fish from a parent's throat, must be hand-fed until they can eat fish from a bowl.
Adults can be checked a few times a day, but babies needed two staffers' full-time attention to be sure they are eating and are warm.
Many adults and juvenile pelicans get coated with heavy oil diving for fish. That doesn't happen with the chicks, though they may wade into oily puddles or get smeared by oil from their parents' feathers.
In general, rescuers don't go into nesting colonies, said Mike Carloss, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist. He said most rescued chicks were near shorelines or were on nests so low that oil washed onto them.
Lightly oiled chicks will lose the oil when they shed their down feathers, he said. "We've seen a lot of those birds in those stages make it. A lot of them are fledging now. It gives you hope that is the right thing to do."
Nearly 60 pelican chicks and more than 600 adults were brought to Fort Jackson in June after oil washed onto a rookery on Queen Bess and other nearby islands in coastal Louisiana.
They're among more than 1,000 oiled birds and more than 100 oiled sea turtles rescued since the BP-leased rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. About three-quarters of the birds and all but a handful of turtles have been cleaned in Louisiana.
All but two of the sea turtles — a 150-pound oiled loggerhead dubbed Big Mama and an 85-pound loggerhead that was sick but free of oil — are juveniles, ranging from saucer- to dinner-plate size.
Doses of fluids, antibiotics and a mix of cod-liver oil and mayonnaise used to help break up the oil they've swallowed are administered based on the animal's weight. But the basic treatment is the same.
"The difference is it takes five people to lift Big Mama and her sister. It only takes one person to lift the little guys," said Michele Kelley, Louisiana's sea turtle and marine mammal stranding coordinator.
Baby turtles leave their sandy nests and head straight for the sea knowing everything a turtle needs to know.
Chicks need far more care.
Keeping them warm can be the biggest challenge, and tern chicks are among the hardest to keep alive because they're so small, said IBRRC staffer Mark Russell.
The birds lose body heat through their skin, and smaller animals have more skin in proportion to their size than larger creatures. Some of the tern chicks are smaller than a tennis ball.
The chicks also tend to be dehydrated and malnourished.
"If they're dehydrated, they don't want to eat because they feel sick," Russell said. And they're so small that it's hard to keep a tube down their throats to give water and liquid food.
In the week he'd been in Louisiana, he knew of two or three tern chicks that died, Russell said Friday.
Once a chick is eating on its own, staff have as little contact with it as possible.
"We don't want to be raising what is commonly referred to as a pier rat," said Wendy Fox, director of Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, the Miami rehabilitation center where the pelican chicks were moved Saturday.
The babies will be housed next to adult "role models," and eventually with adults, Fox said. Their pens also have pools deep enough to dive for fish. Pelicans take five to six months to reach independence.
At Fort Jackson, one of the youngsters perched alongside a pool and flapped its wings energetically.
"See that?" Holcomb said. "He's almost ready to learn to fly!"
The original topic : black gold lifeline
World oil prices drop
NEW YORK—World oil prices sank under $75 per barrel Monday, as traders cashed in gains and awaited a slew of economic data and the start of the US corporate earnings season.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, fell by $1.14 to end the day at $74.95 a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for August slid 1.05 cents to settle at $74.37 a barrel.
"We are worried again about the economy," said Bart Melek of BMO Capital Markets, citing concerns that US retail sales will slow down.
"Investors continue to worry about Europe fiscal position, so that helped the dollar... a stronger dollar plays against commodities."
Statistics on US retail sales are expected on Wednesday, with most analysts predicting a slightly worse snapshot of the sector.
It was the first fall in oil prices after three sessions that saw prices rise a total of six percent.
"Crude oil prices gave back some of the recent gains and retreated... as investors remained cautious and were prompted to some profit-taking ahead of the US corporate earnings season," said Sucden analyst Myrto Sokou.
Aluminum giant Alcoa unofficially kicks off the quarterly earnings season after the US stock markets close Monday. Results are expected in the coming days from Google, General Electric, Citigroup, Bank of America, Intel and JPMorgan Chase.
Oil had crept above $76 in early Asian deals on Monday as buoyant stock markets and expectations of healthy corporate earnings in the United States pushed up prices.
However, traders opted to cash in gains as the market was "getting ahead of itself," agreed Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.
"It's primarily people selling to lock in profits... Oil is getting a little too strong and over-bought and so there's selling among traders."
Shum said that prices would probably hover around $75 in the near term.
"The question is whether there is enough confidence in the market for oil prices to hold above $75," he told AFP.
"I think that given the uneven economic recovery around the world, pricing in the mid-$70 is probably a more stable value."
The original topic : black gold lifeline
‘Give subsidy to schools, hospitals, not oil firms’
The government should use its money on building schools and hospitals than subsidizing oil companies, which were making huge profits because of grant, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said.
“The profits shown by the oil companies are largely due to subsidies. We are not supposed to be subsidising the oil companies ... we should be paying for schools, education, hospitals and so on,” Mr. Ahluwalia said in an interview to CNN-IBN.
Left parties, which organised the Bharat bandh on July 5 against hike in petrol and diesel rates, had said the oil marketing companies were making huge profits, but the government was still talking about under-recoveries. The Indian Oil Corporation had said it made a profit of Rs. 10,220 crore in 2009-10.
“I think the Left has got it wrong that these companies are making huge profits. These profits reflect the fact that a large subsidy is being paid to them,” Mr. Ahluwalia said.
Tax burden
He agreed that there was significant tax burden on petrol and diesel. “You can eliminate a tax burden without recouping the revenue elsewhere. You could legitimately say don't tax petroleum, raise the same revenue by taxing everything else. Would anyone want that?” he said.
For LPG and kerosene subsidy, the government had to make up from petrol. “In the entire structure of petroleum prices, we are giving much lower prices for a large number of other items, so some built-in cross-subsidisation has to take place,” he said.
“Somebody has got to pay for it [cheaper kerosene and LPG] — either it would be paid out of general revenues or it would be paid from petrol. I think it is better if it is paid from petrol.”
In any case, the government wanted people to move away from the private transport to public transport.
A government, he said, could not be run only by those who knew how to lay roads, rebuffing Union Transport Minister Kamal Nath's charge that the Planning Commission was an “armchair adviser.”
“My view is that you cannot run a government only with people who know how to build roads. You have to give them a set of rules ...”
On July 5, Mr. Nath said the Planning Commission was oblivious to the ground realities of laying roads. “Producing a book is one thing and producing a road is another thing,” he had said at a Planning Commission programme.
While Mr. Ahluwalia agreed that “building roads is certainly different from writing guidelines, we are not an implementing body. Equally, it does not mean that you [Ministries] don't need advice. I mean accountants are not people who build roads but you cannot build roads without having decent accounts.”
Different arms of the government played different roles, he pointed out.
Mr. Ahluwalia also rebutted Mr. Nath's charge that the Commission was not allowing his Ministry to achieve the 20 km-a-day road-laying target. “I don't think that is correct,” he said. When targets were set, “you have to relate that target to the funding that is available.”
One of the principal roles of the Planning Commission was to scale down the demands of the Ministries, which were typically 100 per cent more than the money available, he said.
On Mr. Nath's remarks that the world class terminal at the Delhi airport would not have been possible, had the Planning Commission been involved in it, Mr. Ahluwalia said the Commission had a role, but was limited to selection of the operator (GMR Group).
“It was a public-private-partnership and the government's involvement was prior to the selection of the partner. It is absolutely true that once selected we didn't get involved.”
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Is Alternative Energy Worth Investing In?
Oil prices are spiralling to new records just about each day. In addition, oil is mostly produced in politically unstable parts of the world; this caused problems in the 1990's and may do so again. Consequently, we may never see oil prices come down or even stabilize.Because of escalating oil prices, many ventures are being formed to find other ways of creating energy that is friendly to the environment as well as cheap. Alternative energy is becoming the new wave to lessen the demand for oil while helping our environment.Alternative energy has always existed, but it was never taken as seriously as it is now that oil prices are so exhorbitant.Sizeable investments are being made in this up and coming industry. There are risks as with any investment, but investors feel it is better to invest in a rising star than a dead dog.
The United States is not yet fully committed to alternative energy. Most of the energy to power America has come from petroleum sources. Natural gas is second in use for power, then coal and nuclear power. Only a small portion of energy is created by alternative energy at this time.The problem is to make sure there is ample demand to make investments in alternative energy pay off. Since power plants in existance today use petroleum, gas, coal or nuclear energy, we have to ask if these sources are sufficient to continue to power our cities. But as the population grows, demand for power grows along with it.
The resources we currently use are depleting and they also cause the problem of pollution. Soon, we may not have enough power to continue using it.The need to find different ways to power are world is great, and alternative energy is the most likely solution.There are a lot of advantages to alternative energy. It is clean and safe since it uses natural sources. It does not produce pollutive gases as oil does. After an alternative power plant is constructed, the energy produced is practically free.
The sources of power for these plants is always available.All investments involve risk, and alternative energy is no exception. It is a new field and may not be successful. It seems to be clean and safe, but there is no guarantee that someday it may show some damage to the environment. Even though it is a mega million dollar industry, it is not yet fully established as the right alternative to traditional energy. At this point, fuel still seems to be the most efficient power source.Even though there may be pros and cons, the basic point is that alternatives have to be found, and alternative energy may turn out to be the best alternative.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Gulfsands Petroleum partner commences exploration drilling at Lambouka oil prospect
Gulfsands Petroleum partner commences exploration drilling at Lambouka oil prospect
Gulfsands Petroleum (LON: GPX), the oil and gas company with assets in Iraq, Syria and Gulf of Mexico, has said that operator of the Kerkouane Exploration Licence offshore Tunisia has commenced drilling operations on the Lambouka-1 well on the Lambouka prospect in the Sicily Channel.
The Miocene aged Birsa Formation and the Cretaceous aged Abiod Formation are the primary objectives for the well. ADX Energy has estimated the mean prospective resource for the Lambouka Prospect at 270 million barrels oil equivalent.
Drilling of the Lambouka-1 well - Gulfsands’ first exploration well in Tunisia - is being carried out by the Atwood Southern Cross semi-submersible drilling rig and it is expected to take approximately 35 days to drill and evaluate. The company will drill an onshore well on the Chorbane license in Q4 2010 to earn a 40% participating interest.
Back in May, ADX Energy (ASX:ADX) - when it was still called AuDAX Resources - entered into a farm out agreement with Gulfsands Petroleum over the two licenses, also known as the Sicily Channel Exploration Permits. This deal concluded the formal documentation required by AuDAX for the funding of the Lambouka -1 exploration well.
Gulfsands is acquiring a 30% participating interest in the Kerkouane Licence and the adjacent Pantelleria Permit which lies in the Sicily Channel in Italian waters. In order to earn the interest, the company will have to pay varying but “promoted” proportions of the costs of the 3D seismic programme recently acquired and of the Lambouka well.
Gulfsands has been the subject of bid-speculation since two major Indian oil producers made an unsolicited informal approach for the company, offering 315p per share. The approach was deemed, by Gulfsands, as wholly inadequate as it believed it materially undervalued the company. Later, on the 27 April 2010, the company rebuffed a second unchanged offer.Later, in early May, Oil India and Indian Oil Corp confirmed they do not intend to make an offer to acquire Gulfsands, days after the UK Takeover Panel issued a ‘put-up or shut-up’ ruling.
Gulfsands increased revenues by 57% to US$84.4 million in 2009, turning a maiden net profit of US$27.8 million compared to a loss of US$5.4 million in the previous year.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Eating gold fish
$83.50 (WLL)
Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) is currently trading 3.90% below its April 20th low of $83.50. Investors are looking to see if the shares can regain the April 20th 'Spill in the Gulf' level, which may act as long-term resistance.In the past 52-weeks, shares of Whiting Petroleum have traded between a low of $29.77 and a high of $93.22 and are now at $80.22, which is 169.50% above that low price.SmarTrend is bearish on shares of Whiting Petroleum and our subscribers were alerted to Sell on June 29, 2010 at $80.59. The stock has fallen 0.5% since the alert was issued.
Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) is currently trading 3.90% below its April 20th low of $83.50. Investors are looking to see if the shares can regain the April 20th 'Spill in the Gulf' level, which may act as long-term resistance.In the past 52-weeks, shares of Whiting Petroleum have traded between a low of $29.77 and a high of $93.22 and are now at $80.22, which is 169.50% above that low price.SmarTrend is bearish on shares of Whiting Petroleum and our subscribers were alerted to Sell on June 29, 2010 at $80.59. The stock has fallen 0.5% since the alert was issued.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
The Gulf-friendly product guide: Alternatives to petroleum-based goods
The Gulf disaster has brought into cruel relief our reliance on petroleum-based products and made it all too clear how much that reliance is costing us and our environment. Reducing our dependence on oil means burning less gas by carpooling, taking public transportation, bicycling and walking. But we consume oil in many everyday products without even knowing it and excess plastic packaging only adds to the problem. We look at how oil is used in products and how to stretch our resources farther by choosing petroleum-free products, recycling plastic waste and buying items with recycled content.
PLASTIC FOOD STORAGE CONTAINERS, PACKAGING AND CUPS
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: Almost all of the plastics found in a typical American kitchen are made from petroleum-based polymers. Several different variations of these synthetic plastics make up almost everything from milk jugs to insulation products to packaging.
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: Buy in bulk, bring your own containers and cups, or otherwise reduce your use of packaging wherever feasible. Reuse plastic food containers like yogurt cups where you can, and look for products packaged in recycled content and recyclable materials. "Bioplastics," or compostable plastics made from renewable resources may be preferable to synthetic polymers (especially if they are made from agricultural wastes such as bagasse or straw), but better still are stainless steel products or glass containers, which are long-lived and more readily recyclable than most plastics.
As for beverage containers, when on the go, consider bringing a reusable water bottle to avoid the need to purchase single-use beverage containers. If you do need to buy single-use beverages, you may be able to choose aluminum cans or glass bottles instead of plastic bottles. Recycle used beverage containers too.
PLASTIC BAGS
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: The production of plastic bags is a petroleum-intensive process, and these non-biodegradable items end up littering our landscapes and landfills.
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: The UN is calling for a global ban of plastic bags, but in the meantime it's easy to limit our consumption of plastic bags at the grocery store or anywhere else we shop. Bring reusable bags on your next shopping trip. Just be sure to wash your reusable bag intermittently. If you already have a stack of plastic bags building up at your house, reuse them wherever possible (for food storage, trashcan liners, pet waste, etc.), and also check with your local grocery store or local waste management authority to see if they take back bags for recycling.
LAUNDRY DETERGENT
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: The majority of laundry detergents are derived from petroleum, and also contain a number of other harmful chemicals.
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: Look for plant-based, biodegradable products. The Natural Products Association, which requires that 95 percent of ingredients must be derived from natural sources, now certifies cleaners and detergents. According to Seventh Generation, if the 107 million US households each replaced a single bottle of conventional detergent one using plant-based ingredients, the total oil savings could provide a year's heating and cooling for 8,500 homes.
GUM
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: Gum was originally made from natural chicle, but now its long-lasting rubbery consistency comes from petroleum-based polymers. Goodyear, the tire and rubber company, actually supplies Wrigley's gum with a large portion of its main ingredients!
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: There are still a few brands of gum that can be found in health food stores or online that use natural chicle and no petroleum products. However, if you're looking for something a little more accessible, try satisfying your minty cravings with natural herbal mints!
CRAYONS
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: Crayons are most commonly made with paraffin wax, a petroleum-derived product. Over 12 million crayons are produced every day by one factory alone in the U.S.-this amounts to 60 tons of petroleum-derived crayons daily.
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: Look for petroleum-free craft supplies like natural beeswax and soywax crayons. Options include Stubby Pencil Studio crayons, which are made from a combination of plant and vegetable waxes and pure beeswax and Prang crayons, which use a soybean-based wax.
CANDLES
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: Candles are another product that uses a paraffin-wax base, a byproduct of petroleum refining. Contaminants in paraffin, such as toluene, benzene, methyl ethyle ketone and naphthalene (substances found in paint, lacquer, and varnish removers), make it a particularly problematic choice for candles, since they may enter the air we breathe at home. The American Lung Association also notes that recent studies suggest that burning candles increases pollution by fine particles.
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: Candles made from soy wax, beeswax, and essential oils are fairly easy to come across and do not include the contaminants found in paraffin. The candles' smoke poses less of a health threat.
CANNED FOOD
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: Food additives - including sodium benzoate, FD&C red 40 and yellow 5 - put in canned goods to extend their shelf life and give them an unnaturally appealing color are yet more petrochemicals. The human body is not designed to consume petrochemicals, so there are many possible risks behind over-processed foods. New studies are linking food dye consumption to ADHD. Bisphenol-A (or BPA), a chemical commonly found in can linings, is widely known to interfere with hormone production and is therefore associated with various diseases. Many varieties of additives have already been banned (for a full list see the Center for Science in the Public Interest: www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm#banned-additives), but still more of these ingredients remain in grocery stores.
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: Wherever possible, buy fresh, organic produce and limit purchases of canned food. Frozen food in recyclable cardboard as well as foods packaged in glass also make a suitable alternative to cans.
LIP BALM
- THE PETROLEUM PROBLEM: Most lip balm brands use a petroleum jelly base, which may provide short-term comfort but is easy to ingest, which can cause stomach upset and diarrhea.
- THE GULF-FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE: Beeswax- and Shea butter-based lip balms have no known negative health effects.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
More on Oil and Natural Gas Transport
The Incredible JourneyAmerican life revolves around travel. Travel to jobs, shopping areas, and vacation destinations. Trips around the block, trips around the country. Most of these trips—made by aircraft, train, bus, motorcycle, or automobile (especially automobile)—are powered by petroleum products. But as we fuel our cars at the gas station, we rarely stop to think of the incredible journey now completed by those gallons of gasoline as they course through the pump and into our cars, SUVs, and minivans. No matter where the petroleum originated, its journey from the well to the refinery (then on to terminals, bulk plants, and end users) likely included a giant tanker ship, pipelines, barges, railroad tank cars, and tanker trucks.
Many different entities can be responsible for transporting oil products. These include the producer, refiner, pipeline, or a downstream distributor like a terminal operator or independent marketer. Or a common carrier can do it while having no other connection to the oil business than shipping product from one location to another. But that product is a vital one for powering our transportation system, not to mention industry, commercial businesses, schools, and the homes of American citizens—providing the high level of freedom we’ve all come to expect.
The oil and natural gas industry is committed to transporting oil safely, protecting the environment at all times. Petroleum products move over great distances with unprecedented safety and minimal environmental impact, thanks to the latest technology and preventative measures for building and operating tankers safely, and training tanker captains and crew.
Two Hulls Are Better than OneAll day all night—every day, every night—a worldwide fleet of oil tankers silently move petroleum products toward refineries in the U.S. We don’t often hear about them, we usually don’t see them, but these tankers impact our lives in amazing ways as they help to provide a steady, seamless flow of oil that literally powers our lives. Part of their silence results from the many industry safeguards; the only time we hear about oil tankers is when they spill oil, and they rarely do that these days because of design improvements made in the past 15 years. In fact, the performance record of tankers regarding spills has been outstanding.The massive oil spill in Alaska in 1989 not only affected the shoreline and seascape of Alaska, it also changed the fundamentals of oil tanker design and use. In a conventionally designed oil tanker, the outer hull serves as the inner wall of the cargo tank. Compromise one, and you compromise the other. Most oil spills result when a single hull is punctured by grounding.
The U.S. Coast Guard concluded that if the tanker had been designed with a double hull, its spill would have been reduced by between 25 and 60 percent. Another contributing factor involved the fatigue of the third mate maneuvering his ship near Prince William Sound on the night shift. The National Transportation Safety Board listed fatigue as a primary cause of the mishap, and recommended that steps be taken to prevent fatigue in those working within the transportation industry, including changes in regulations related to hours of service, development of methods to combat fatigue, and educational requirements.
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 addressed transportation of oil by sea-going tanker. This law ordered the gradual replacement of the single-hulled Alaskan oil tanker fleet with new inner- and outer-hulled tankers. About 6 to 10 feet of space separates the two hulls. This tanker design literally doubles the protection to our environment while continuing to silently and speedily move oil from place to place.
The double-hulled design of the modern tanker fleet clearly works. Consider the October 31, 1997 incident in which a Conoco double-hulled tanker, the Guardian, was rammed by a barge as it carried more than a half-million barrels of crude oil off Louisiana. Although the barge ripped a 400-square-foot horizontal gash in the steel outer hull of the Guardian, not one drop of oil made it into the water, thanks to the ship’s double-hulled construction.
Over the past decade, According to the U.S. Coast Guard, less than 200 barrels (about 8,400 gallons) were spilled out of over 3.2 billion barrels of oil delivered by tankers to the U.S. in 1999. The total volume of oil spilled from tankers in the U.S. has remained below 7,000 barrels annually from 1991 to 1999. This good news will get even better as new double-hulled tankers replace older ships every year. In fact, all tankers operating in U.S. ports will have double hulls by the year 2015.
Planning to Respond to SpillsThe most effective method of preventing oil spills during transportation is the double-hulled tanker invented in the 1980s and put into wide use beginning in 1990. Likewise, monitoring and maintenance technologies for pipelines have also led to much better prevention of spills and releases. But what happens if oil spills despite industry’s state-of-the-art prevention efforts? Spills can happen on land from a pipeline, truck, or railroad tanker car. Or they can happen on the sea in a supertanker carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil at one time. In either case, spills today are controlled and cleaned up swiftly, comprehensively, and safely.In the 21st century, contingency planning for oil spills involves a variety of organizations within the spill response community, including:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Coast Guard’s National Response Center
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Special Programs Administration and Office of Pipeline Safety
The Minerals Management Service (MMS)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration
Oil companies
Wildlife organizations
State environmental agencies
Local governmental bodies
How do these organizations prepare to deal with oil spills? Practice, practice, practice. The National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP), a voluntary program, ensures that federal requirements for spill response management are maintained. PREP involves exercises within individual organizations, and a variety of joint exercises among organizations, that ensure a constant state of readiness within the spill response community. These exercises run the gamut from simple to complex, and are initiated by the spill response plan holder of each individual tanker or facility when a certain spill amount is exceeded. The exercises include:
Qualified Individual Notification Exercise to make sure that the key people in response plans can be reached, especially during non-business hours.
Emergency Procedures Exercise to ensure that key individuals are prepared to take the initial steps necessary to contain oil spills.
Spill Management Team Tabletop Exercise to test the spill response plan.
Emergency Deployment Exercise to test both the response personnel and equipment.
Internal Unannounced Exercise (in one of the above four formats) to test the readiness of personnel in simulated emergency conditions.
Government-Initiated Unannounced Exercise to give the agency (the Coast Guard, EPA, or MMS) with primary responsibility over an industry the opportunity to evaluate the state of spill response readiness.
Triennial Exercise of the Entire Response Team to test all components of the spill response plan (notification, mobilization, team conduct, equipment, containment of the discharge, protection of sensitive areas, etc.).
Area Exercise to involve the entire response community in a geographical area and test the coordination of government and industry.
The nation’s spill cooperative networks also include wildlife specialists who are essential to the rescue of birds and marine mammals in spill situations. The handling of such wildlife involves complex processes and hundreds of hours of training. Depending on the industry and area, wildlife contingency planning could include the rescue and rehabilitation of birds, walruses, harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters, fur seals, and other species.
Spill prevention takes many forms, including the Coast Guard’s innovative Prevention Through People Program. Prevention Through People approaches marine safety and environmental protection by looking at the root cause of most accidents: the human element. The program involves best practices, studies, and lessons learned, speaker’s packages, and a variety of other tools all designed to optimize human actions and therefore minimize spills on the water.
The War Against SpillsOf course, the best spill is one that never happens in the first place. But for those occasions when a spill does occur, spill response contingency planning, preparedness, and exercises are proving to avert potential environmental damage.
The moment that word reaches the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Response Center concerning a waterborne oil spill, all the planning and all the drills result in instant action. The Coast Guard’s National Strike Force Coordination Center activates the Atlantic Strike Team, Pacific Strike Team, or Gulf Strike Team to pinpoint, contain, and minimize the spill in U.S. waters.
The U.S. Coast Guard Field Operations Guide serves as the bible for spill response. It includes information on all the major objectives of a typical spill incident:
Ensure the Safety of Citizens and Response Personnel
Control the Source of the Spill
Manage a Coordinated Response Effort
Maximize Protection of Environmentally Sensitive Areas
Contain and Recover Spilled Material
Recover and Rehabilitate Injured Wildlife
Remove Oil from Impacted Areas
Minimize Economic Impacts
Keep Stakeholders and Public Informed of Response Activities
Upon notification, Coast Guard strike teams deploy spill response vessels that are kept in a 24-hour state of readiness all along the coastal United States. These boats carry booms and skimmers to limit the spread of oil on the water. At the same time, a command post is established by the EPA On-Scene Coordinator, local officials are notified of the spill, and helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft fly to the area to track the movement of oil and determine the spill trajectory. It’s critical at this point to identify resources at risk, including shorelines, drinking water supplies, wildlife, or other environmentally sensitive areas.
First and foremost at the site, the spill must be contained at its source. In the case of a tanker, this means that the breached hull must be sealed. As crews work on the tanker, Coast Guard response vessels, working in concert with the plan holder’s Oil Spill Response Organization (OSRO), deploy containment booms, skim oil from the surface of the water, and apply gelling agents. Time-sensitive technologies may be deemed appropriate for use, including the spraying of dispersants by air, or in-situ burning of oil on the water’s surface.
Wildlife response also kicks in. Hotlines are established, and wildlife response teams hurry to the area to set up triage units for the handling of birds and other affected wildlife. Back at the spill area, scare tactics such as propane air horns, helium balloons, and floating dummies keep birds and other wildlife away from the contaminants.
At the perimeters of the spill, the Coast Guard deploys marker buoys that warn ships and pleasure boats away. Oil-only adsorbents and universal absorbents lift and hold oil for surface collection. If the spill reaches shore, cleanup teams will be waiting to remove the oil.
This level of environmental protection happens because of the tremendous commitment made to practice each and every action that makes up effective spill. In this way, oil continues to flow safely and abundantly to America without damage to the environment.
Keeping It in the PipelineToday, more than 200,000 miles of oil pipeline criss-cross the continental United States. Thanks to pipelines, oil is always on the move, providing America with a stable and reliable source of fuel. This massive infrastructure, as critical to our way of life as highways, electrical power lines, or cellular telephone towers, has been built underground not only for aesthetic considerations but also for environmental, cost, and security reasons.
The most dramatic use of pipelines can be seen in Alaska, where the pipes sit above ground and run for 800 miles from Alaska’s North Slope to the ice-free port of Valdez. Completed in 1977, the pipeline took more than two years and $8 billion to build—the largest privately funded construction project of its time. The Alaska oil pipeline has its own spill contingency plan, as does the port of Valdez.
Who oversees safety issues for the remainder of the nation’s oil pipelines? Federal pipeline statutes provide for exclusive federal authority to regulate interstate pipelines. The Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety can authorize a State to act as its agent to inspect interstate pipelines, but retains responsibility for enforcement of pipeline regulations. Most States have supported the concept of common stewardship in pipeline safety. The resulting federal/state partnership allows leveraging of resources to deliver a cost-effective program, with one of the best safety records in transportation. In fact, line pipe has experienced initial losses of about one gallon per million barrel miles over the 1995-2000 period. In household terms this is less than one teaspoon of oil spilled per 1,000 barrel miles of oil transported (1).
The pipeline industry has developed a strong spill prevention ethic, and works aggressively to make sure that all pipeline operators have access to best practices and guidelines on spill and response planning and implementation.
Environmental safety is also assured through advanced pipeline technology that communicates information about the integrity of pipelines along the system from refineries to distribution points, while keeping a variety of fuels moving. Planes fly over pipelines looking for unauthorized digging or earth-moving that could damage underground lines, or for evidence of small leaks. In addition, computerized controls permit strategic shutdown should a line break occur.
Controllers also rely on high-tech sentinels to inspect pipelines from the inside. These computerized sensors, which resemble giant bullets, have the unlikely name of smart pigs and travel through pipelines detecting thinning caused by corrosion or damage caused by unauthorized excavation too near the pipeline. Such weaknesses could lead to broken lines in the future. The most sophisticated smart pigs contain magnetic flux or ultrasonic sensors that identify corrosion, dents, and gouges on the interior of a pipeline. Some smart pigs can change size, which facilitates their movement through different-sized pipelines and past gate valves. All pipelines built today are required to accommodate smart pigs.
To maintain a focus on pipeline safety, the API Pipeline Awards Program acknowledges pipeline companies who demonstrate a clear focus on worker safety, environmental protection, and pipeline system performance.
Americans rely on the oil and natural gas transportation infrastructure—without even knowing it—to keep tankers, pipelines, railcars, and tank trucks operating safely, cleanly, quietly, while protecting our environment 1 To equalize comparisons, one barrel transported one mile equals a "barrel-mile."
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Steps to prospecting for oil
Steps to prospecting for oil
Step 1 - Prospecting -- (Geologist = Scientist)
Prospecting" is the process the geologist goes through to locate a place to drill a well. Most petroleum geologists work in an office, where they have access to well logs, core records, drilling records, and other data that they need to work. They construct maps and cross-sections to help them locate the best places to drill wells.
The geologist is interested in anything that happens in his area, particularly news of new discoveries by other companies, success producing hydrocarbons from a previously-untested zone, and any drilling activity that is close to his leased acreage. If he sees a promising new area, he will recommend to his Land Department that they attempt to lease the acreage.
He studies his maps and cross-sections and runs computer simulations that help him select the next best location to drill. He is always thinking about the next drilling location! This is the primary job of the Petroleum Geologist. The geologist will want to know what type of trap he is dealing with, and the composition of the sedimentary rocks he will be drilling through. He wants to estimate the porosity of his prospective "pay zone", and know whether or not he can expect to encounter very high pressure in the hole. If seismic is involved in the prospect, he will consult with the geophysicist and get his opinion of the prospect.
When he has finally found the correct spot, he spends much time cross-checking to ensure that he has not missed anything. He wants to make sure that he is not "surprised" later by finding out that his location was drilled by another company 30 years ago (and was dry), discovering that his company has no legal right to drill on the location (lease problems), that the well has been drilled in the wrong place (it happens!), or that faulting or other geologic conditions (or plain old human error) will not spoil his prospect.
Step 2 - Packaging -- (Geologist = Artist/Designer)
The geologist has huge amounts of data available that he has used to define and select his prospect. Now, he must condense this data into a set of presentation materials that can be shown to non-geologists in the oil business. These people may include managers, investors, bankers, engineers, or others who will help to approve and get financing for the drilling deal.
If the geologist works for an oil company, these people will usually be fellow employees of the business. If he works for himself (as an "Independent" geologist), various people unrelated to each other may be involved. In any case, his objective is to condense his work into a form that be easily and quickly understood by many people from different backgrounds.
For this task, he may prepare sets of simplified maps and cross-sections, often highly-colored and attractive to the eye. He may package his deal using Powerpoint, or other presentation software. But the objective is to produce a set of useful reference materials he can present and demonstrate to others involved in the project. Creativity, design sense, and art skills are very important during this phase. He also needs to anticipate all questions, and be prepared to answer every one of them. He must be very sure of himself and his facts before he moves to the next step.
Step 3 - Selling the Deal -- (Geologist = Salesman)
Now the geologist must step into a role that is sometimes foreign and often uncomfortable for him ... selling his prospect. This is because geologists are scientists, with scientific backgrounds and schooling. They are used to talking to other scientists. But now the geologist must sell the deal to other people who are not geology experts or scientists.
He is looking to convince others that his prospect is worth drilling, that investors will get a good return on their money, and that the financing they provide for the deal will be money well-spent. Don't forget that even an inexpensive test well can cost more than a million dollars, and some exploration tests may easily run into tens of millions! So the geologist wants to be sure of his facts, and everyone else involved must believe that the well has a reasonable chance of being successful.
If he works for an oil company, the geologist will meet with the landman, who will ensure the company has the legal right to drill the well. He will consult with the engineer, who will determine the (nearly) exact cost of drilling the well, and recognize any special drilling problems that might develop. Marketing personnel will ensure that the company has a market (buyer) for the oil, or a pipeline for the gas. Managers, responsible for ensuring that the company's drilling budget is spent wisely, will also approve the well. If outside financing will be used, the geologist will go over the prospect with representatives of the bank or other individuals or partnerships putting up the money.
When he's done, the geologist will have "sold" his prospect to anywhere from a few to several dozen people.
Step 4 - Drilling -- (Geologist = Supervisor)
Next comes the part that every geologist enjoys the most! Drilling the well! It has now been several months since the geologist started working on his idea...which then became his prospect. Now the surface owners have been paid, permits acquired, the money raised, roads and drilling location built, pipe and supplies ordered, and the company has engaged a drilling contractor who owns the drilling rig, and will drill the well in the manner specified. The contractor will often select the type of drill bits to be used that his experience tells him will work best, hire a crew, and make other decisions concerning the drilling.
Drilling a well is a very complex procedure involving many people where nearly everything must go right, and there is no room for error. Dangerous and powerful machinery, bad weather, and mechanical failures must be faced daily. The work goes on for weeks to months, 24 hours a day, nonstop. A slip-up at any point can ruin the expensive hole, cost a fortune, get people killed, or all three.
The geologist will closely monitor all aspects of the drilling as it takes place. He will hire a mud logger to "sit" the well day and night, study the well cuttings, report shows of oil and gas, and keep track of other things on the location. The geologist will monitor the formation tops as they are encountered and discuss the progress of the drilling with the investors. The geologist will decide where and when to takes cores or DST's. When the hole has been drilled, the geologist will select a logging company and the proper logging tools to evaluate the hole. Finally, when the well is logged, he will examine the logs and recommend that the well be either completed or plugged.
Step 5 - Completion -- (Geologist = Advisor)
The job of completing the well is mainly in the hands of the petroleum engineer. He will decide what type of casing to run, what type and method of cementing will be used, and design and implement the completion procedure itself (which may involve perforating, breakdowns, acid jobs, or fracs), However, he will depend on the geologist at this time to advise him at each step of the way. To start, the geologist will give the engineer a list of formation tops and tell the engineer which zones will be tested.
The geologist is usually the person most familiar with the area and the practices of other oil companies. He may suggest a certain style or method of perforation, or offer advice on cementing techniques. He may be familiar with the most successful fracturing or breakdown procedures in the area. He will relay this information to the petroleum engineer, who will usually be thankful for the help! Working as a team, the geologist and petroleum engineer will get the well completed and put it to work making money for the company.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Uses Of Petroleum
Petroleum products are used widely in our everyday lives. They are used to power automobiles produce containers and to keep us warm. Petroleum, or crude oil is liquid composed of various organic chemicals. It is found in large quantities below the surface of Earth and is used as a fuel and as a raw material in the chemical industry. The word petroleum comes from the two Latin words "petro" and "leum" "petro" meaning rock and "leum" meaning oil. The chemical composition of all petroleum is principally hydrocarbons which are a family of organic compounds, composed entirely of carbon and hydrogen. Petroleum is formed under Earth's surface by the decomposition of organisms.The remains of tiny organisms that live in the sea are trapped with the sands and silts that settle to the bottom in sea basins. These deposits become the source rocks for the generation of crude oil. The process began many millions of years ago with the development of abundant life, and it continues to this day. The sediments grow thicker and sink into the seafloor under their own weight. As additional deposits pile up, the pressure on the ones below increases several thousand times, and the temperature rises by several hundred degrees. The mud and sand harden into shale and sandstone and the remains of the dead organisms are transformed into crude oil and natural gas. Surface deposits of crude oil have been known to humans for thousands of years. In the areas where they occurred, they were long used for limited purposes, such as caulking boats, waterproofing cloth, and fueling torches. By the time the Renaissance began in the 14th century, some surface deposits were being distilled to obtain lubricants and medicinal products, but the real exploitation of crude oil did not begin until the 19th centuryThe Industrial Revolution had by then brought about a search for new fuels, and the social changes it effected had produced a need for good, cheap oil for lamps; people wished to be...
The original topic : black gold lifeline
The original topic : black gold lifeline
Components Lifeline
Crude oil varies greatly in appearance depending on its composition. It is usually black or dark brown (although it may be yellowish or even greenish). In the reservoir it is usually found in association with natural gas, which being lighter forms a gas cap over the petroleum, and saline water which, being heavier than most forms of crude oil, generally sinks beneath it. Crude oil may also be found in semi-solid form mixed with sand and water, as in the Athabasca oil sands in Canada, where it is usually referred to as crude bitumen. In Canada, bitumen is considered a sticky, tar-like form of crude oil which is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow. Venezuela also has large amounts of oil in the Orinoco oil sands, although the hydrocarbons trapped in them are more fluid than in Canada and are usually called extra heavy oil. These oil sands resources are called unconventional oil to distinguish them from oil which can be extracted using traditional oil well methods. Between them, Canada and Venezuela contain an estimated 3.6 trillion barrels (570×10^9 m3) of bitumen and extra-heavy oil, about twice the volume of the world's reserves of conventional oil. Petroleum is used mostly, by volume, for producing fuel oil and gasoline (petrol), both important "primary energy" sources. 84% by volume of the hydrocarbons present in petroleum is converted into energy-rich fuels (petroleum-based fuels), including gasoline, diesel, jet, heating, and other fuel oils, and liquefied petroleum gas. The lighter grades of crude oil produce the best yields of these products, but as the world's reserves of light and medium oil are depleted, oil refineries are increasingly having to process heavy oil and bitumen, and use more complex and expensive methods to produce the products required. Because heavier crude oils have too much carbon and not enough hydrogen, these processes generally involve removing carbon from or adding hydrogen to the molecules, and using fluid catalytic cracking to convert the longer, more complex molecules in the oil to the shorter, simpler ones in the fuels.Due to its high energy density, easy transportability and relative abundance, oil has become the world's most important source of energy since the mid-1950s. Petroleum is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics; the 16% not used for energy production is converted into these other materials. Petroleum is found in porous rock formations in the upper strata of some areas of the Earth's crust. There is also petroleum in oil sands (tar sands). Known reserves of petroleum are typically estimated at around 190 km3 (1.2 trillion (short scale) barrels) without oil sands, or 595 km3 (3.74 trillion barrels) with oil sands. Consumption is currently around 84 million barrels (13.4×10^6 m3) per day, or 4.9 km3 per year.
The original topic : black gold lifeline
About Oil
Oil reserves are the quantities of crude oil estimated to be commercially recoverable by application of development projects to known accumulations from a given date forward under defined conditions.
To qualify as a reserve, they must be discovered, commercially recoverable, and still remaining. Reserves are further categorized by the level of certainty associated with the estimates.
This is contrasted with contingent resources, which are those quantities of petroleum estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations, but the applied project(s) are not yet considered mature enough for commercial development because of one or more contingencies.
The total estimated amount of oil in an oil reservoir, including both producible and non-producible oil, is called oil in place. However, because of reservoir characteristics and limitations in petroleum extraction technologies, only a fraction of this oil can be brought to the surface, and it is only this producible fraction that is considered to be reserves. The ratio of producible oil reserves to total oil in place for a given field is often referred to as the recovery factor. Recovery factors vary greatly among oil fields. The recovery factor of any particular field may change over time based on operating history and in response to changes in technology and economics. The recovery factor may also rise over time if additional investment is made in enhanced oil recovery techniques such as gas injection, water-flooding , or microbial enhanced oil recovery.Because the geology of the subsurface cannot be examined directly, indirect techniques must be used to estimate the size and recoverability of the resource. While new technologies have increased the accuracy of these techniques, significant uncertainties still remain. In general, most early estimates of the reserves of an oil field are conservative and tend to grow with time. This phenomenon is called reserves growth.
Many oil producing nations do not reveal their reservoir engineering field data, and instead provide unaudited claims for their oil reserves. The numbers disclosed by some national governments are suspected of being manipulated for political reasons.
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