I am responsible for the Spill
I noticed one of my friends just deleted his facebook account.
I made a joke about it, since I think the reason why is that he is now the representative from British Petroleum for coordinating the thousands of claims against his company.
Or I should say, our old company. I used to work with him at BP in the Exploration and Production section, which included the Horizon deepwater platform.
He was actually the one who explained to me the difference between deepwater and the shelf. The continental shelf is about 500 feet deep, which has been accessible by traditional oil drilling rigs since the early 1900's. Deepwater is considered to be 3000-7000 feet deep, and the technology to drill for oil in water that depth has only been available since the 90's. And the primary reason to drill in deepwater, despite the risk, is greed, in case you heard otherwise.
He also explained that since every "lease" in the shelf is accessible (the government owns all the rights but they lease it to the oil companies which bid on them), the entire shelf is being tapped.
However, there are huge reserves sitting under thousands of feet of ocean which only now the oil companies are pumping crude from.
Horizon is one of these deepwater wells, and my guess is that my friend, who is now a vice president, probably worked on this well, at least on the exploration side. My friend is a geophysicist, at least until he started with his business management program.
Now he is charge of handling all the claims of his fellow Louisianians and the rest of the Gulf states. I feel horrible for him.
Sometimes I wonder about my part in the Spill. I did computer support for the Deepwater exploration group, and I must have indirectly worked with Horizon. This was more than ten years ago, when I still worked for Amoco. BP eventually merged with Amoco and they had laid off the entire New Orleans office, except for a few lucky ones that could transfer to Houston.
At the time, I did not think being transferred to Houston was lucky, and now I definitely prefer being an ex-BP employee than a current one.
But I think about the work and the lifestyle I lead. When I worked for BP in New Orleans, I lived less than two miles from work. I commuted by bike almost every day, and I drove about 5000 miles a year in my car. And I was proud that I worked for an oil company.
America is the number one consumer of oil. We have the largest auto industry and we have built a wonderful system of public roads to use our cars. And I worked for one of the companies who supplied the fuel.
Now I live 35 miles away from job, and I ride to work only once a year. Despite living in one of the most environmentally conscious cities, I see plenty of waste, starting with myself.
I have never spent a minute drilling for oil, designing a well, or even performing geophysical analysis, which was my friend's original profession. But I look at my life and I wonder about my responsibility for the Spill.
More info about the Gulf:
http://www.epa.gov/gmpo/about/facts.html
I made a joke about it, since I think the reason why is that he is now the representative from British Petroleum for coordinating the thousands of claims against his company.
Or I should say, our old company. I used to work with him at BP in the Exploration and Production section, which included the Horizon deepwater platform.
He was actually the one who explained to me the difference between deepwater and the shelf. The continental shelf is about 500 feet deep, which has been accessible by traditional oil drilling rigs since the early 1900's. Deepwater is considered to be 3000-7000 feet deep, and the technology to drill for oil in water that depth has only been available since the 90's. And the primary reason to drill in deepwater, despite the risk, is greed, in case you heard otherwise.
He also explained that since every "lease" in the shelf is accessible (the government owns all the rights but they lease it to the oil companies which bid on them), the entire shelf is being tapped.
However, there are huge reserves sitting under thousands of feet of ocean which only now the oil companies are pumping crude from.
Horizon is one of these deepwater wells, and my guess is that my friend, who is now a vice president, probably worked on this well, at least on the exploration side. My friend is a geophysicist, at least until he started with his business management program.
Now he is charge of handling all the claims of his fellow Louisianians and the rest of the Gulf states. I feel horrible for him.
Sometimes I wonder about my part in the Spill. I did computer support for the Deepwater exploration group, and I must have indirectly worked with Horizon. This was more than ten years ago, when I still worked for Amoco. BP eventually merged with Amoco and they had laid off the entire New Orleans office, except for a few lucky ones that could transfer to Houston.
At the time, I did not think being transferred to Houston was lucky, and now I definitely prefer being an ex-BP employee than a current one.
But I think about the work and the lifestyle I lead. When I worked for BP in New Orleans, I lived less than two miles from work. I commuted by bike almost every day, and I drove about 5000 miles a year in my car. And I was proud that I worked for an oil company.
America is the number one consumer of oil. We have the largest auto industry and we have built a wonderful system of public roads to use our cars. And I worked for one of the companies who supplied the fuel.
Now I live 35 miles away from job, and I ride to work only once a year. Despite living in one of the most environmentally conscious cities, I see plenty of waste, starting with myself.
I have never spent a minute drilling for oil, designing a well, or even performing geophysical analysis, which was my friend's original profession. But I look at my life and I wonder about my responsibility for the Spill.
More info about the Gulf:
http://www.epa.gov/gmpo/about/facts.html
Comments
Post a Comment