The link is to a new article just published in the New York Times Magazine. I am biting my tongue.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;150749]The link is to a new article just published in the New York Times Magazine. I am biting my tongue.[/QUOTE]
Will need to read it soon but in the mean time, why hold your tongue? I sure as hell wouldn’t
I don’t know whether to laugh or just be absolutely stupefied at the levels of pomposity, stupidity or just plain audacity of the players involved with this tragedy. I have worked and still work for two of the main players and some of the gentleman involved and still find it amazing nobody had the stones to use Stop Work Authority and collectively pull everyone’s heads out of their asses.
A well written and complete story to say the very least and luckily there for the grace of god go i.
We were about 14 hours behind the KULUK when the proverbial shit hit the fan, thankfully our skipper had us doing round turns in Icy Straight until the shit laid down.
Obviously the right call.
It was a well written article for once. At least they didn’t call shackles “buckles.”
Pretty big pile of nonsense from these high end operators.
I thought it was a decent article even if it didn’t capture the drama of watching the casualty unfold here and on marinetraffic.com. I was amused that they noted that the smallest person airlifted off the Kulluk was 280lbs.
Skoglund and Broekhuis are they Norwegian-Americans?
[QUOTE=Kraken;150758]Skoglund and Broekhuis are they Norwegian-Americans?[/QUOTE]
You might want to hold that thought. From one squarehead to another.
Happy New Year Everyone,
The attached link is to the USCG Marine Safety Office’s REPORT OF THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE MULTIPLE RELATED MARINE CASUALTIES AND GROUNDING OF THE MODU KULLUK ON DECEMBER 31, 2012
http://www.uscg.mil/d17/SectorAnchorage/command/KULLUK%20Investigation.pdf
[QUOTE=z-drive;150755]It was a well written article for once. At least they didn’t call shackles “buckles.”
Pretty big pile of nonsense from these high end operators.[/QUOTE]
Don’t blame the press for “buckles.” It was Shell spokesman Curtis Smith who came up with “buckles.” I believe that idiot is still the Shell spokesman in Alaska. That makes me wonder whether Shell learned much from the fiasco.
[QUOTE=+A465B;150759]You might want to hold that thought. From one squarehead to another.[/QUOTE
I prefer to think they are just Coonasses pretending to be Norwegian.
Coonass square heads?
You mean like this?
[ATTACH]4136[/ATTACH]
to me, this is the most important paragraph in the whole piece
The oil giant lurched forward, seeming to regain power with every step: a joint venture in July with Inupiat villages, a September meeting about the Arctic at the White House, progress in November in a legal fight over drilling the Chukchi. The future looked promising but for one thing. In September, almost as soon as Shell had submitted its exploration plan, oil began a free fall. The price dropped from $90 a barrel that month to $80 in October and to $70 in November — the point at which unconventional oil tends to become uneconomical. Last month, the price went as low as $55 a barrel, the lowest in five years. On the two-year anniversary of the wreck of the Kulluk, the Arctic, at least for now, had stopped making any sense
so now Shell is stuck…they are in so incredibly deep with all the equipment with nowhere else to use it but to try to justify returning to the arctic with $55/bbl oil is utterly beyond reason. To spend yet another billion or more in what has already been shown to be a very high risk play when shareholders are demanding that E&P costs be cut simply cannot be rationalized even with the potential volumes of oil to be found. Even if all the oil predicted to be in the Chukchi and Beaufort is proved, there is no way in hell any company would ever be able to produce it in today’s ever growing supply from fracing shale formations and subsequent collapsing prices.
Suddenly in two years, the arctic is set back at least 2 decades but Shell’s debacle of hubris in 2012 isn’t the reason. Now it is price. What would be an interesting question to ponder is if Shell had been successful in 2012 through to today and had all the discoveries they had expected. What on earth could they do with all those reserves when you can’t afford to put any of it into production? They might be in even deeper than they already are with hundreds and hundreds of millions contracts which would have been likely signed when oil was over $100/bbl. With the way things went, Shell might have done itself a great favor in fucking up as they did so royally in 2012.
According to the article, Shell is the largest company in the world with 2012 revenue of $467 Billion. The article also explains why Shell must continue to “prove” its ever expanding reserves to support its stock price. The US Arctic is widely thought to be a huge reserve, bigger than the Gulf of Mexico. The last new oil frontier.
Oil production in the Arctic is a long term program at least 10 years away from reaching the market. Shell has the cash flow necessary to drill in 2015 to “prove” its Arctic reserves.
A short term drop in prices that is artificially engineered by the Saudis, has absolutely nothing to do with the price of oil 10 years from now. The current price dip probably won’t last more than a year or two.
At current prices, OPEC members, Nigeria and Venezuela will face economic collapse, civil war, and greatly diminished oil output within a year. Its already ongoing in Libya (Africa’s second largest oil producer). The only thing preventing a collapse in Iraq is US airpower and massive foreign aid. The US can let Iraq collapse within a month or two anytime we want to, and we should. ISIS is good at fighting, but, let’s see how good they are at governing Iraq and maintaining oil output without Western financing and technical help. The Russians cannot last more than two years at current oil prices without massive civil unrest and economic collapse. The Saudi’s are basically bribing their tribes with oil money handouts not to overthrow the House of Saud. The Saudi’s cannot withstand current oil prices more than three years without serious risk of the Monarchy literally losing their heads to warring tribesmen.
In two or three years the price of oil will be back over $100/bbl.
If it can get the permits, Shell would be crazy not to drill in 2015. They have enough cash to spend another few billion on Arctic drilling this year. Its also a good time to hire the world’s best contractors with the best equipment at deeply discounted prices.
It was great reading a article that seems to be much more in-depth than the usual hysteria ridden bs. Even though the fuel tank vents were ‘low’ (I believe there is a spec on their height) there was no explanation as to why enough fuel got in there to overwhelm the centrifuge which no doubt spends a fair amount of time on recirc for the day tanks. I wonder if anyone checked the balls in those vents to see if they were free and working? Furthermore, when the first engine shut down we have to assume the eow figured he had racors full of fish?, yet they manage to get 3 more engines filled with water also? wtf? someone could of gone out there and double bagged those vents couldn’t they? and vent the tanks another way. I for now question the reactions of the engine room upon discovering water in the fuel. (for eng: one engine was prob off line so the lines on/at the eng. should be full of good fuel…I just think at that time they could of hove to on one eng. and gotten this bs in hand)
I can’t believe the engineer on the Alert caught the emergency tow bridle with a hand held grappling hook and then tied the wires together. That would be some really small wire.
Tying a bowline in 2-1/2" wire, shit i heard they give you a wallet that says “bad motherfucker” when you sit for your chief limited now. 
It was a good read, 90% of the maritime world will never have an ass kicking story like those guys. Yeah something doesnt add up from moment one with water in the tanks, someone should have caught it before they contaminated every engine and available tank, it went south for these poor bastards quick.
I still would like to know how the vents are configured. Individual vent per tank, or a common vent via an overflow tank?
[QUOTE=tugsailor;150770]According to the article, Shell is the largest company in the world with 2012 revenue of $467 Billion. The article also explains why Shell must continue to “prove” its ever expanding reserves to support its stock price. The US Arctic is widely thought to be a huge reserve, bigger than the Gulf of Mexico. The last new oil frontier.
Oil production in the Arctic is a long term program at least 10 years away from reaching the market. Shell has the cash flow necessary to drill in 2015 to “prove” its Arctic reserves.
A short term drop in prices that is artificially engineered by the Saudis, has absolutely nothing to do with the price of oil 10 years from now. The current price dip probably won’t last more than a year or two.
At current prices, OPEC members, Nigeria and Venezuela will face economic collapse, civil war, and greatly diminished oil output within a year. Its already ongoing in Libya (Africa’s second largest oil producer). The only thing preventing a collapse in Iraq is US airpower and massive foreign aid. The US can let Iraq collapse within a month or two anytime we want to, and we should. ISIS is good at fighting, but, let’s see how good they are at governing Iraq and maintaining oil output without Western financing and technical help. The Russians cannot last more than two years at current oil prices without massive civil unrest and economic collapse. The Saudi’s are basically bribing their tribes with oil money handouts not to overthrow the House of Saud. The Saudi’s cannot withstand current oil prices more than three years without serious risk of the Monarchy literally losing their heads to warring tribesmen.
In two or three years the price of oil will be back over $100/bbl.
If it can get the permits, Shell would be crazy not to drill in 2015. They have enough cash to spend another few billion on Arctic drilling this year. Its also a good time to hire the world’s best contractors with the best equipment at deeply discounted prices.[/QUOTE]
all fine, but there are always shareholders to be made happy and spending untold more billions on an endeavor which is still fraught with political and operational perils for reserves which cannot be produced anywhere close to $100/bbl (I wonder what the cost per bbl would be in today’s dollars to actually put in production from the Chukchi Sea? I bet it would be closer to $200/bbl than $100…) Remember that Shell already overstated proven reserves and you can’t use reserves that are too difficult or expensive to produce in your balance sheet.
remember that there are ZERO facilities in place near the Chukchi Sea to install production or to export anything. All that much be built first to the tune of who knows how many billions of dollars and years of work for a future which may or may not be filled with the same surplus of oil we are living in today. Lots and lots of its to take into account of here…
[QUOTE=z-drive;150774]I still would like to know how the vents are configured. Individual vent per tank, or a common vent via an overflow tank?[/QUOTE]
Vented through the overflow tanks.