Alaska groups sue to stop offshore drilling
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hfc96O1f3W1VbJMX1ovX8sma_nDAD9CJV9280

Scott Maddox: Drilling won't give us what proponents promise (FL)
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091215/OPINION05/912150302/1006/opinion

Captiva official urges SW Florida legislators to oppose offshore drilling
http://www.news-press.com/article/20091215/GREEN/91215044/1075/Captiva-official-urges-SW-Florida-legislators-to-oppose-offshore-drilling

Oil Rigs Close Near Australia as Cyclone Intensifies
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=adFBcceN05_4
Tropical Cyclone Laurence, Australia’s first storm of the season, is intensifying as it moves closer to the northwestern coast, triggering evacuations of offshore oil and gas rigs.
Winds with gusts as high as 165 kilometers per hour are being experienced in the Kimberley area and winds with gusts to 130 kph are expected later today further southwest, along with heavy rain.

A Hunk, A Hunk of ... Burned Oil Rig

Aftermath of the oil rig fire that broke out at the end of the 10-week-long, 9 million gallon oil spill in the Timor Sea off Northwestern Australia.

Oil spills poison the Red Sea
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/11/05/oil-spills-poison-the-red-sea/
“Egyptian tourism commercials present the Red Sea as an untouched paradise where “the sun shines 365 days a year” and the water is full of exuberant marine life. But the reality is that the beaches and marine life are being destroyed as a result of offshore oil drilling and spills.”

Huge Australian Oil Spill Raises Questions
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/04/eveningnews/main5527406.shtml
Leak from Deep-Water Rig Has Released an Estimated 9 Million Gallons of Fuel; Bad News for the "Drill, Baby Drill" Crowd?

Australia Sets Up Commission for Timor Sea Oil Spill
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a6aPROziqOwI

Shell Oil deciding on Alaska offshore drilling
http://newsminer.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Shell+Oil+deciding+on+Alaska+offshore+drilling+%20&id=4341427-Shell+Oil+deciding+on+Alaska+offshore+drilling+&instance=home_news_window

Spill Ends After 74 Days, But............

Irregular Times reports:


Of course, a good deal of oil that’s already leaked still has to come up to the surface, and the pollution resulting from the spill is spread out over tens of thousands of square miles. The environmental impact of the spill is likely to persist for decades – long enough for another spill to take place, unless a moratorium on offshore drilling is put into effect.




But hey, let’s look on the bright side. The Montara offshore drilling platform did not collapse into the sea. It just turned into a melted, oily, twisted, smoking, disgusting, useless heap.

And reportedly:

• The cleanup of the pollution from the oil spill will take 7 years to complete.


• PTTEP Australasia, the oil company responsible for the ten week long oil spill will begin drilling again in the same oil field in a matter of months.


• A PTTEP spokesperson says that his company knows what caused the oil spill, but won’t tell anyone else what that cause was.

Australian Rig on Fire Video

Hey Florida - Is This in Your Future?

Burning Rig May Sink
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=asC4plvYuEuE&pos=7
“The fire is out of control,” Jose Martins, a director of the Thai driller’s Australian unit, said today in Perth. “It looks like the rig’s going to sink,” Holly Pattenden, head of oil and gas analysis at Business Monitor International in London, said in a telephone interview.

Offshore Oil Rig Blazing in Australia
http://firegeezer.com/2009/11/02/offshore-oil-rig-blazing-in-australia/
Includes video of burning oil rig

Australian Oil Spill – Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Worse

West Atlas Rig and Montara Well Head Platform on Fire
http://www.au.pttep.com/uploads/MediaRelease83_01-11-09.pdf
Australian oil spill well on fire
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jBnSKYWjVXfddqxWb00p8eb6SqXQ
Timor Rig Ablaze as PTTEP Starts 4th Bid to Cap Leak
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKcuzHRNaXhE&pos=9
Flaming Oil Rig Award Goes to... a Flaming Oil Rig
http://oilonthebeach.blogspot.com/2009/11/flaming-oil-rig-award-goes-to-flaming.html


Florida

Wondrous claims about offshore drilling bogus
Gulf states with offshore rigs get paltry royalties

http://www.bradenton.com/442/story/1821387.html

Flaming oil rig award goes to... a flaming oil rig

Here at NTA we have been giving out the "Flaming Oil Rig" award to politicians supporting offshore drilling in particularly egregious ways. Like CA Rep. Sam Blaskesless' attempt end-run the CA State Lands Commission's denial of the PXP project in Santa Barbara.

Today, we are awarding the Flaming Oil Rig award to none other than.... A FLAMING OIL RIG.

The oil rig off the coast of Australia, which has been spilling for 71 days, burst into flames on the weekend.

The damaged West Atlas rig, situated 125 miles off the coast of West Australia, caught fire on Sunday during the latest attempt (at least the 4th) to plug the leak which covered an area of at least 5,800 square miles in the ocean.

Read more....

Aussie Oil Spill - Third Try is Not the Charm

PTTEP Australasia, the company that promised that its offshore oil drilling rig in the Timor Sea was constructed with state of the art technology that made an oil spill nearly impossible, has now for two months been unable to stop a leak that has coated the Timor Sea with a massive toxic slick. Dolphins, penguins and sea birds have been filmed swimming through the oil slick. Indonesian fishermen are reporting huge losses of income.



As this article states: "How can anyone watch this environmental disaster and still promote expanded offshore drilling along the shores of the United States of America?"

Australia Oil Spill: 25 DAYS & COUNTING

Following the daily count here....

Truth from the Sky: Timor Oil Spill Now Covers 5800 square miles

SkyTruth is doing an amazing job of helping us all understand the impact of the gigantic oil drill in the Timor Sea north of Australia. Check out their blog.

This is their most recent post:

SkyTruth just downloaded and processed a MODIS satellite image from NASA that was taken on September 3, 2009. It shows the area in the Timor Sea affected by oil slicks and sheen from the Montara / West Atlas blowout and oil spill that began on August 21 is now over 5,800 square miles in size. That's more than double what it was just four days earlier, on August 30. And it's as big as Connecticut and Rhode Island put together:

Visit their blog for updates on this spill and the potential impacts of a spill like this in Florida.

Is your state next?

Modern drilling equipment is so advanced, safe and effective that... oops, nevermind.

Editorial: Oil spills still a threat
http://www.pnj.com/article/20090904/OPINION/909040309/Editorial--Oil-spills-still-a-threat

One of the arguments made by those who favor offshore drilling for oil near Florida's coastline is that modern drilling equipment is so advanced, safe and effective that oil spills from rigs are virtually a thing of the past, so there's no real risk to Florida's beaches.

Oops.

A drilling company today is fighting a spreading oil slick - it had covered about 1,800 square nautical miles of surface by earlier this week - in the Timor Sea near Australia. The rig responsible for the leak is reported to be one of the most modern in the world.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the incident "appalling" and promised a federal investigation.

"Appalling" might turn out to be an understatement.

According to news reports, ships carrying equipment to fight the slick are expected on site today, more than a week after the leak began. And a rig that will drill a relief well into the fractured well and pump in mud to cap it off and stop the flow of leaking oil and gas isn't expected to leave Singapore until Tuesday ... and it will take four weeks to reach the leaking rig.

Oil company officials said they couldn't even estimate how much oil has leaked into the sea.
But the news get worse. Officials said it could take four weeks to drill the new well and cap off the old one, meaning the oil spill could span two months before it can be plugged.

More than a week after the accident happened officials were vague about the exact cause, saying a blowout occured about 11,500 feet below the ocean floor, which helps explain why it will take so long to drill to the problem area.

Meanwhile, in July an oil pipeline off Louisiana leaked 1,500 barrels of oil into the Gulf, creating a slick that covered 90 square miles, according to U.S. Coast Guard records.

No doubt today's drilling and production rigs are more advanced than in the past. But it still takes only a single spill to spread disaster across Florida's beaches.

You can keep with with the Timor Sea Drilling Spill on SkyTruths's blog here.

Why is offshore oil drilling Not The Answer? Read this from John at skytruth.org:

Offshore Drilling: Nobody’s Perfect
http://blog.skytruth.org/2009/08/offshore-drilling-nobodys-perfect.html

More on the Australian Oil Spill:

Oil and Gas Spew from Drilling Rig in Timor Sea
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2009/2009-08-24-02.asp

Workers evacuated after offshore drilling rig leaks oil
http://www.drillingexploration.com.au/article/workers-evacuated-after-offshore-drilling-rig-leaks-oil/495472.aspx

Australian Oil Spill - Lessons Learned

As you may be aware, a new offshore oil and natural gas well off the coast of Australia blew out last Friday and may continue spewing petroleum products into the ocean for up to two months. This very unfortunate incident illustrates two important points:

1. Spills are nearly always larger than first reports indicate. In this case, the initial newspaper accounts estimated that about 40 barrels of oil were discharged. Two days later, the size of the plume was said to be over 15 kilometers long, ships were advised to stay more than 20 nautical miles away from the rig, and it was estimated that the well is likely to pour oil into the Timor Sea for nearly two months before it can be stopped.

2. Offshore oil drilling is NOT SAFE! The oil industry and the "drill baby drill" crowd continually tell us about all the technological advancements that have occurred since the disastrous 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. They tell us that can't happen again and that we don't need to worry about oil on our beaches. Well, we just had another oil rig blow out. I wonder if the folks in Florida and the politicians that are supporting new drilling off Florida's coast are having second thoughts?