Sunday, March 6, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Deep in the Heart of Texas
All the best to Matthew and Laura on their journey down the dusty "Highway" of life.
BP's deep Gulf comeback
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
March 4, 2011, 12:25AM
For all the talk of things returning to normal in the Gulf of Mexico, this isn't what anyone - except perhaps the folks at BP - had in mind.
Earlier this week, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management & Other Stuff issued the first deep-water drilling permit since BP's oil disaster in April. Houston-based Noble Energy is the operator of the well, which had been under way before the government's drilling ban was enacted in the weeks after the accident.
Noble Energy may be the operator, but the company only owns about 23 percent of the well. Two smaller companies, Red Willow Production and Houston Energy, own smaller stakes.
And the holder of the biggest percentage, 46.5 percent? BP.
So the architect of the worst oil disaster ever in U.S. waters gets to be the first to return to the waters it tainted.
BP is the biggest leaseholder in the Gulf, and a random sample of projects is likely to include a disproportionate amount of BP involvement. Noble, for its part, met the government's new requirements for containing a BP-style disaster, and therefore, it deserves the permit.
In announcing the new permit earlier, the name of the project's biggest investor was conspicuously absent from the BO-etc's news release.
The permit is a green light for BP to resume drilling in the deep-water Gulf - and at the head of the pack, no less.
It also completes a months-long effort by the oil company to maintain access to some of its most lucrative offshore reserves. That process began last June, when BP agreed to create a $20 billion fund for paying claims to Gulf Coast business owners harmed by its oil spill.
'Shakedown' and beyond
Under a cover of political prattle about a government "shakedown," floated by congressional Republicans and voiced by Joe Barton, R-Ennis, BP secured an implicit guarantee that it would remain in the Gulf.
Amid mounting concern last summer that BP could face a takeover or bankruptcy because of its falling stock price, the Obama administration asked for collateral to ensure the $20 billion would be around even if the company wasn't. BP's suggestion: It could pledge its future royalties from its Gulf production.
Later in the summer, when a bill was introduced in the House that would have effectively prevented BP from getting a permit for seven years because of its safety record, BP threatened that it might be unable to meet its obligations under the fund.
The message was clear: For BP to honor its promise to make things right in the Gulf, the government had to give it another bite at the apple.
Now, it has.
BP, of course, isn't the operator, though given its large ownership stake, it will be the biggest financial benefactor from the new permit.
A safer operator?
Presumably Noble Energy will be a safer operator than BP was on the Macondo pro- ject, and denying or delaying the permit simply because of BP's passive role would have unfairly punished Noble and its smaller partners.
But BP's early return to the Mississippi Canyon formation is an insult to those still suffering from the company's last foray there. I'm talking, of course, about Gulf Coast residents and business owners, but I'm also talking about the rest of the offshore industry, which has had to endure months in limbo and hundreds of millions in lost revenue because of BP's carelessness.
Many in the industry feel that BP's reputation for cutting corners dragged the entire U.S. offshore business down with it this time.
Now, with the government's blessing, it's the first to be allowed back in.
The Gulf is returning to normal, and it seems, to business as usual.
Loren Steffy is the Chronicle's business columnist. His commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Contact him at loren.steffy@chron.com. His blog is at http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Pellizotti hopes to ride Tirreno-Adriatico if cleared of doping
Italian confident after 10-hour Arbitration hearing
Franco Pellizotti is confident he can be at the start of Tirreno-Adriatico next Tuesday after a marathon hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The former Liquigas rider was in Lausanne as the UCI appealed against the decision of the Italian Tribunale Nazionale Anti-doping to clear him of doping. Pellizotti was snared by the UCI’s Biological Passport before last year’s Giro d’Italia and has not raced since.
Pellizotti has requested a rapid verdict from CAS and hopes the chief arbitrator, Anglo-Italian Romano Subiotto, will issue a verdict before Tirreno-Adriatico begins on Wednesday in Marina di Carrara. He is reported to have an agreement in place to ride with the Movistar team if he is cleared.
“I was happy when I heard the date of the hearing because it meant we’ve reached the end of the whole thing. I want to ride Tirreno: in the last few weeks I’ve been training as if I was about to start a race,” Pellizotti told Gazzetta dello Sport.
The UCI is convinced Pellizotti has committed an anti-doping violation and is fighting to defend the validity of its Biological Passport programme.
Pellizotti has always insisted he is innocent and claims his blood value variations were caused by natural factors such as altitude training.
The UCI’s team of experts included Giuseppe D’Onofrio, Olaf Schumacher, Pierre Edoard Sottas, Michael Ashenden and Martial Saugy. Pellizotti has hired skilled anti-doping lawyer Rocco Taminelli and was defended by Giuseppe Banfi and the former head of the Lausanne anti-doping laboratory Laurent Rivier.
“We clarified our position and we repeated that we want the sentence issued by the Tribunale Nazionale Anti-doping to be upheld and our legal costs repaid,” Taminelli told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“The UCI initially asked for a four-year ban. Now they’re asking for at least two.”
Gazzetta dello Sport suggested that Pellizotti may be cleared because of an error in the testing and analysis procedure, giving the example of Chinese Judoka athlete Wen Tong. She tested positive for Clenbuterol but was cleared after the International Judo Federation tested her B sample without giving her the opportunity to be present.
Whatever the final verdict, Pellizotti’s case will mark a milestone in the development of the UCI’s Biological Passport and the future use of indirect blood testing in the fight against doping.
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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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