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Каспинфо март 2001 |
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Название: Нефть и море. Материалы на английском - II Главные Пункты: * Представители бразильской компании PetroBras заявляют, что угрозы расползания нефтяного пятна не существует, однако эксперты BirdLife International считают, что в результате разлива нефти в опасности оказались по крайней мере 2 уникальных вида птиц - очковый буревестник и атлантический желтоносый альбатрос. * Новая администрация США видит решение проблемы дефицита топлива в нефтедобыче в районе Арктического Национального Заповедника. Ведущие ученые США и Канады предупреждают политиков о губительных последствиях для уникальной арктической фауны техногенного воздействия на хрупкую экосистему Севера. * По мнению IFAW, в результате утечки нефти с затонувшего 23 июня 2000 г. у побережья Кейптауна судна TREASURE пострадали 44 % мировой популяции африканских пингвинов (более чем 76 тысяч взрослых особей и птенцов). (22.03.2001) Полный Текст Нефть и море. Материалы на английском - II Нефть, газ и экологические проблемы в мире *** http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-20-01.html Environment Giant Oil Rig Sinks Off Brazilian Coast RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, March 20, 2001 (ENS) - The world's largest oil rig, located 130 kilometers (80.7 miles) off the northeastern coast of Brazil, hit bottom today, despite salvage attempts by its owner, the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras. On Sunday, Petrobras engineers stabilized the 40 story structure by pumping 4,100 tons of nitrogen into two of the flooded compartments on the Petrobras 36 (P36) platform. But the company reported today that the rig sank into the Atlantic Ocean and is now resting on the bottom. Oil rig P36 sank slowly over the past four days. (Photos courtesy Petrobras) Unexplained explosions in one of the piles which support the rig on the seabed ripped through the platform on Thursday. Aided by United States and Dutch experts, Petrobras is trying to retrieve the bodies of eight employees missing, two are confirmed dead. There were 175 people on rig P36 at the time of the explosions. The 33,000 tonne oil platform is the world's largest. The $350 million platform is in Roncador oil field in the Campos basin, which contains an estimated two billion barrels of crude. The field accounts for 60 percent of Brazilian crude oil production. Petrobras experts and volunteers from environmental organizations are now scrambling to try to prevent a major oil spill into the Atlantic. Petrobras said there are no indications of environmental damage, but it has deployed two sets of ocean barriers around the platform. They are supported by barges equipped for oil retrieval and storage. The platform has tipped another four degrees since Sunday. The company said the vessels are sufficient to collect the entire oil inventory remaining on the platform - up to 1.5 million liters (400,000 gallons) of oil. The oil wells on the ocean floor have been capped, the company said. Petrobras said that there was "no danger" that an oil slick from the rig could reach the coastline 150 kilometers (93 miles) away. Following the sinking, BirdLife International expressed concern that the critically endangered spectacled petrel (Procellaria conspicillata) and near threatened Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross (Thelassarche chlororhynchos) which occur in the area of the sinking could be potentially at risk from any oil spill that results. The spectacled petrel is critically endangered because it is confined to one tiny island, Inaccessible Island, Tristan de Cuhna, UK Overseas Territory, when breeding and is likely to be declining because large numbers are being caught by longline fishing vessels, said Birdlife, a global network of organizations in 100 countries. Sea Shepherd International founder and president Paul Watson has flown to Brazil to work with Instituto Sea Shepherd Brasil and officials of Petrobras on sparing wildlife from contact with oil that may be released by the sunken rig. Sea Shepherd has announced the goal of creating an international coalition of oil producers and conservationists to sponsor and organize airborne teams of experts equipped with wildlife cleaning equipment that could reach any marine spill site within 12 hours. Petrobras was considered one of the world's leading experts on deepwater production and the P36 epitomized its advanced technology. It began operations last year and was pumping 80,000 barrels of oil per day, less than half its projected capacity. Petrobras has come under fire for its poor environmental and safety record. In January 2000, an underwater oil pipe at Petrobras' Reduc refinery near Rio De Janeiro broke, leaking 1.3 million liters (340,000 gallons) of crude into protected mangrove swamps in Guanabara Bay. The area is expected to take at least a decade to recover and Petrobras was fined $28 million for the incident. Ten people are believed to have died on P36. Last July, Brazil's Parana State Environmental Protection Agency fined Petrobras $110 million after more than four million liters of crude oil spewed into a tributary of the Iguacu River from a ruptured pipe at the Getulio Vargas oil refinery in Araucaria, 560 kilometers (350 miles) southwest of Sao Paulo. Weeks later, the company was responsible for spilling 1,000 liters (270 gallons) of the toxic fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) near Rio de Janeiro. In 1984, 34 Petrobras workers were killed in an oil platform explosion and fire and, according to unions, 35 oil workers have been killed since 1998 at Petrobras facilities. *** World's Biggest Oil Rig Sinking, Nine Men Missing http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010316/ts/brazil_explosion_dc_4.html Friday March 16 4:58 PM ET World's Biggest Oil Rig Sinking, Nine Men Missing By Denise Luna RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - The world's biggest offshore oil rig, hit by a series of blasts that apparently killed 10 people on Thursday, may sink in 48 hours as the chances of recovery fade, the rig's Brazilian (news - web sites) owners said on Friday. The president of state oil company Petrobras (news - web sites) Henri Philippe Reichstul also told reporters the possibility of finding any of nine missing workers alive was ``very remote''. So far one person has been confirmed dead. ``Petrobras is in mourning,'' he said. If the giant 40-story rig off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state sinks and damages shutters of underwater wells, it could cause Brazil's worst environmental catastrophe, according to engineers. Three powerful blasts rocked the rig with 175 workers aboard on Thursday. The cause of the explosion is still unknown. ``The prospects of stabilizing the platform are diminishing,'' Reichstul said, adding that the company, Brazil's biggest, was doing everything possible to save the rig. Workers were pumping nitrogen into the damaged hull of the platform to keep it afloat. The accident has jeopardized Petrobras' oil production goals. The rig, insured for $500 million, is listing to one side and slowly sinking as blasts had damaged one of its support columns. Officials said on Friday it was listing around 24 degrees, or over 2 times more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. ``If the rig sinks there is the distinct possibility that some or all of the 21 pipelines could rupture,'' said Argemio Pertence, director of the Association of Engineers who worked for Petrobras for 25 years. ``It would be a catastrophe.'' He said that if it does not sink there is virtually no risk of environmental damage. No spills have been reported so far. The P-36 rig could produce up to 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day, making it the world's biggest platform, but after starting operations last year, it was only pumping out 80,000 barrels daily, or 5 percent of Brazil's total output. Mourning And Protests If the death toll climbs, the incident could also be Petrobras' worst accident since 1984 when 36 people were killed in a platform explosion and fire. One worker was in a hospital with severe burns and doctors described his condition as ``very serious'' on Friday. Petrobras lamented the incident in a statement in main newspapers: ``It was an accident of serious proportions and particularly painful as it involves the loss of human lives.'' Public outrage mounted against Petrobras, which has had two major oil spills and a series of accidents in which 81 workers died in the last three years. Oil workers at Reduc, one of the country's biggest refineries, held a two-hour protest wearing black arm bands before punching in and employees at another refinery held a moment of silence for the victims of the explosion. ``I don't know if I'll be able to go back to work,'' said a platform worker in Macae, where Petrobras' heads up offshore operations for Rio state. ``I've always known that there is a constant risk but this just makes you think again.'' Workers accuse Petrobras of outsourcing work to inexperienced workers to cut costs, thus putting employees at risk and endangering the environment. In January 2000, a Petrobras pipeline in Rio's scenic bay ruptured. The 340,000-gallon spill coated scores of marine birds and fish. The oil giant dumped more than four times as much crude into a major river six months later. LOSSES OF $50 MILLION A MONTH The rig is located in the Roncador oil field 78 miles offshore in the Campos Basin, which produces 80 percent of crude in Brazil's booming oil industry. If the immense platform, whose deck is now dipping into the water, did sink, it could still dump the 316,000 gallons of diesel and 79,000 gallons of crude stored on the rig into the open sea. Petrobras said it had five ships around the rig able to contain this potential spill. All production was halted at P-36 and Petrobras said it could lose $50 million a month with the rig out of operation. Oil imports would then rise, hurting Brazil's fragile trade balance. *** Environment Scientists Drill President Bush on Arctic Refuge WASHINGTON, DC, March 21, 2001 (ENS) - Nearly 500 distinguished U.S. and Canadian scientists have sent President George W. Bush a lesson in the environmental consequences of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In a letter to the White House Tuesday, the experts in the fields of ecology, wildlife and conservation biology, resource management and cultural anthropology called on the President to stop trying to change the law that prohibits oil extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The letter urged President Bush to "support permanent protection of the coastal plain's significant wildlife and wilderness values." The scientists said oil development on this unique coastal plain could seriously harm caribou, polar bears, muskoxen, snow geese, other wildlife and the fresh water supplies on which they depend. Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor and curator of entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. (Photo courtesy Harvard University) Signers of the letter include world famous naturalist George Schaller, and Edward O. Wilson, winner of the National Medal of Science and two Pulitzer Prizes for his books on social biology. David Klein, professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and winner of the prestigious Aldo Leopold Award leads the list of more than 50 other Alaskan scientists who added their signatures. President Bush, members of his Cabinet, and Republican legislators including those from Alaska have said that the current energy shortage in the United States makes it urgent that exploration for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge begin shortly. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's National Energy Summit on March 19 said the proposed drilling would have little impact on the refuge. Caribou feed and rest near an Arctic oil facility. (Photo courtesy Arctic Power) "Exploration would impact only about 2,000 acres out of more than 19 million. To put that in perspective, the massive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is about the same size as the entire State of South Carolina. The 2,000 acres that would be affected is less than half the size of Dulles airport," Abraham said. But the scientists explained in their letter that those particular acres are critical to the entire ecosystem. "When President Eisenhower established the Arctic National Wildlife Range," they write, "he had the foresight and wisdom to include the entire ecosystem both south and north of the Brooks Range, encompassing the biologically rich coastal plain considered essential to the integrity of this ecosystem. In 1980, Congress enlarged the range to encompass additional wildlife habitat and designated this unique area the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." The scientists say, "Five decades of biological study and scientific research have confirmed that the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge forms a vital component of the biological diversity of the refuge and merits the same kind of permanent safeguards and precautionary management as the rest of this original conservation unit." Kaktovik, located just north of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain on Barter Island, is the only village within the refuge. (Photo courtesy Norman Chance, University of Connecticut) "In contrast to the broad - greater than 150 mile - coastal plain to the west of the Arctic Refuge, the coastal plain within the refuge is much narrower - 15 to 40 miles. This unique compression of habitats concentrates the occurrence of a wide variety of wildlife and fish species, including polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves, wolverines, caribou, muskoxen, Dolly Varden [trout], Arctic grayling, snow geese, and more than 130 other species of migratory birds." According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Arctic Refuge coastal plain contains the greatest wildlife diversity of any protected area above the Arctic Circle, the scientists pointed out. But Energy Secretary Abraham says the great value of the contested area is in the oil beneath the surface. "According to estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey," he told the Energy Summitt, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge holds between 5.7 to 16 billion barrels of recoverable reserves - with a mean estimate of 10.4 billion barrels. And that assumes the use of drilling technology now nearly a decade old," he stressed. "This represents more than 300 times the amount of the oil President [Bill] Clinton released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last fall. And based on December 2000 figures, it would free us from about 54 years of oil imports from Saddam Hussein and Iraq," Abraham said, articulating one of the Bush administration's key concerns, to free the United States from the import of foreign oil. Abraham said the caribou herd near the oil production area at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska has increased since drilling began, proving that caribou and oil exploration can coexist. Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski introduces his bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator) In February, Senator Frank Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the National Energy Security Act of 2001 (S.389). The bill would open the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, provide incentives for developing coal production and give more power to states in the management of federal lands. Action on the bill will await a similar White House energy plan. "Today is the first step in ending America's dependence on other nations to power our progress," said Murkowski, introducing the bill. "Each day, more than eight million barrels of crude oil must come in from foreign shores. That is a dangerous strategy by anyone?s measure, Murkowski said. "This bill spells out a national energy strategy with a critical goal - to finally reduce to 50 percent the amount of oil we import." But in response, Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat and Representatives Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and Nancy Johnson, a Connecticut Republican, introduced companion bills into the House (HR.770) and Senate (S.411) that would designate the coastal plain of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. If passed, the refuge would be off limits to oil drilling. Tracks of a wolf in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Photo courtesy Norman Chance, University of Connecticut) The scientists' letter to the White House points out that Arctic ecosystems are "characterized by many complex interactions, and changes to one component may have secondary but significant effects on other parts of this fragile ecosystem." "Based on our collective experience and understanding of the cumulative effects of oil and gas exploration and development on Alaska's North Slope, we do not believe these impacts have been adequately considered for the Arctic Refuge, and mitigation without adequate data on this complex ecosystem is unlikely," they write. The scientists reminded President Bush that nearly the entire Arctic Coast of Alaska north of the Brooks Range is available for oil and gas exploration or development. "The 110 mile long coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge encompasses 1.5 million acres of key wildlife habitat vital to the integrity of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," they conclude. *** E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE ********************************************************************** TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATIONAL EDITORS: Devastating South African Oil Spill Spreads, Affecting 76,000 African Penguins CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 29 -/E-Wire/-- Forty-four percent of the world population of African penguins (Spheniscus demersus) -- totaling more than 76,000 adults and chicks -- have now been affected by a devastating oil spill following the 23 June sinking of the freighter Treasure, six miles off the coast of Cape Town, said the International Fund for Animal Welfare (www.ifaw.org) today. Since Sunday, rescuers have focused on saving the seabirds of Robben Island, the island first affected by the spill. To date, nearly 10,000 seabirds have been evacuated from the island, which is home to an African penguin population of 14,000 adults and 6,000 chicks, as well as more than 150 pairs of Bank Cormorants. The environmental impact of this disaster has been worsened by shifting winds and water currents that have spread the massive oil spill. Oil now encircles the nearby Dassen Island, a 12-square-kilometer nature reserve and home to more than 56,000 African penguin adults and chicks. Clean-up efforts to remove the 100 tons of spilled oil and the nearly 1,300 tons of remaining cargo oil from the sunken Treasure are not due to begin until late tonight or tomorrow morning said local officials on Thursday morning. In the meantime, officials estimate that 250 liters of oil seeped from the ship last night. "This is the world's biggest oil spill disaster to ever affect coastal birds," said IFAW Emergency Relief Director Sarah Scarth. "The massive, round-the-clock efforts of rescuers is the only hope for these thousands of oil-stricken birds." IFAW's oiled wildlife team, representing the world's leading experts in the field, was activated late last week when the oil spill took place. This team includes representatives of Wildcare of South Africa, the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) in California, Tri-State Bird Rescue of the US, and Britain's Earthkind. The IFAW rescue team is working with local officials and members of the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) to set up and manage safety pens, washing areas, pools and electrical heating elements that will be used for the mass rehabilitation of the oiled birds. As rescue efforts intensify on Dassen Island, the decision has been made by local officials to fully evacuate the 56,000 African penguins from the island. This will be carried out with the assistance of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF), though no date has been given for the massive operation. In the meantime, officials have installed a kilometer-stretch of fencing to contain the threatened African penguins and keep them from the oil-slicked water. A further three-kilometer stretch of fencing is due to arrive Thursday afternoon, while a total 12 kilometers of fencing is required to encircle the island and provide immediate protection for the penguins. IFAW has estimated that the cost of de-oiling and rehabilitating these penguins will cost over $284,000 over the coming six to eight weeks. This figure is set to rise once the full impact of the oil spill is realized. If you would like to assist with this massive rescue operation, please send your donation to: International Fund for Animal Welfare, African Penguin Rescue, 411 Main Street, Yarmouth Port, MA 02675 USA. SOURCE International Fund for Animal Welfare -0- 06/29/2000 /EDITORS' ADVISORY: High-quality digital images taken today available upon request/ /CONTACT: Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell of IFAW, 508-744-2076; or Mobile: 508-737-1584/ /Web site: http://www.ifaw.org/ |