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oil pollution

Lawyers and Settlements: Plaintiffs and Defendants Locked in Asbestos Drilling Mud-Slinging

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http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/asbestos-drilling-mud/drilling-mud-asbestos-lawsuit-21-19961.html#.U88Nwt2MnX8
 
July 22, 2014, 10:15:00AM. By Gordon Gibb
 
Baton Rouge, LA: It’s been a little over a year since a group of 10 plaintiffs hooked into some drilling mud-slinging with a group of defendants, accusing them of needless exposure to asbestos while working on offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. The ten, claiming to suffer from “asbestos maladies,” filed their drilling mud lawsuit in Louisiana on June 10 of last year.

The plaintiffs accuse the various defendants of knowingly exposing them to the known carcinogen over a time span of 20 years.

Drilling mud is a product that at one time was commonly used in the process of drilling for oil – whether that is inland or offshore. The mud is designed to keep the drilling mechanisms from overheating. Given the heat-dissipating properties of asbestos, it was used as an agent in drilling mud for heat dispensation. The mud engineer would usually mix the mud that often arrived in bags as a dry powder and combine with water.

Exposure to asbestos fibers through inhalation into the lungs can cause serious health issues such as asbestosis, asbestos disease and mesothelioma. All three can seriously impact an individual’s health. As for the latter – mesothelioma – there is no cure.

Given recent advances in asbestos awareness, most drilling mud manufacturers have discontinued use of asbestos and utilize other formulations to dissipate heat in their oil drilling mud. But asbestos still creeps into the pipeline. Recently an Australian driller caught wind of a supplier delivering drilling mud that contained the dangerous substance. Drilling was immediately stopped while the suspected asbestos drilling mud was analyzed, eradicated and sites tested for asbestos contamination.

Most, if not all, would be aware by now that asbestos is dangerous stuff. The issue is the alleged failure on the part of employers to protect their workers from asbestos in decades past, when the use of asbestos was more prevalent. Defendants have claimed they didn’t know there was a drilling mud problem – a common refrain. However, there is evidence that asbestos had been tagged as a dangerous substance and a known carcinogen since the early 1900s.

The original oil drilling mud lawsuit was filed June 10 of last year in state court in Louisiana. The original filing noted that “Plaintiffs handled and were exposed to asbestos drilling mud additives frequently on a regular basis, were frequently and regularly covered in defendants’ asbestos products, and frequently and regularly breathed in defendants’ asbestos products.” About six weeks later, the lawsuit was moved to federal court, on July 22, 2013, due to provisions in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which gives the federal government jurisdiction over issues occurring around the Outer Continental Shelf.

Offshore lawsuits can get a bit complicated

In a later development, one of the defendants, Shell Oil Company, put forward a Motion to Dismiss Under Rule 12(b)(6), For Leave to Perform Jurisdictional Discovery, and For a More Definite Statement Under Rule 12(c). Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Riedlinger granted the motion in part, insofar as the defendant sought an order requiring the plaintiffs to file an amended petition clarifying the factual basis for each plaintiff’s Jones Act claim against the defendant. Plaintiffs were given until 12/6/2013 to file their amended petition. All other aspects of the defendant’s motion were denied, without prejudice by Magistrate Judge Riedlinger.

Given the offshore locations, the Jones Act comes into play, which adds further complexity to the asbestos drilling mud lawsuit. Undaunted, the plaintiffs hold that justice must prevail nonetheless. In the original lawsuit, plaintiffs claimed that “defendants had actual knowledge of the significant danger associated with their products, but they nevertheless sold raw asbestos drilling mud additives in 50-pound bags for use by oil field workers like plaintiffs in the oil and gas drilling industry from 1960s to 1980s.”
 
The defendants in the drilling mud lawsuit are Shell Oil Co., Noble Drilling Co., Union Carbide Corp., Murphy Exploration & Production Co., ENSCO Offshore Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations Inc., Nico Supply Inc., Coastal Chemical Co. and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.

Plaintiffs are seeking future lost wages and fringe benefits, past and future medical expenses and damages for pain, suffering and moral anguish, emotional distress, fear of cancer, and punitive damages.

The drilling mud lawsuit is David Bridges, John Courtney, Jerry Freeman Sr., Wyman Fuller, James Hardy, Terry Keith, Jerry Kitchens Sr., Randy Newsome Sr., Thomas Sullivan and Willie Thompson v. Phillips 66 Co. et al., Case No. 3:13-cv-00477, in the US Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

Special thanks to Richard Charter
energy policy, offshore oil

E&E: Next Gulf lease sale includes plots along Mexico border

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Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter
Published: Monday, July 21, 2014

HOUSTON — The federal government has put the oil and gas industry on
notice to prepare for the next round of offshore lease bidding, to
cover waters off the coast of Texas.

And for the first time, the government is accepting bids on leases for
offshore oil and gas prospects along the maritime border with Mexico.

On Friday the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released details
of its planned sale of offshore leases in federal waters. The sale is
for acreages in the western Gulf of Mexico, in the federal government’s
Western Planning Area (WPA) for offshore energy development in the
Gulf.

“The decision to move forward with this lease sale follows extensive
environmental analysis, public input and consideration of the best
scientific information available,” acting Director Walter Cruickshank
said in a release.

Over 20 million acres is up for grabs in sale 238, scheduled to be held
Aug. 20 at the Superdome in New Orleans. The government’s last lease
round for the WPA was in August 2013 and netted the government a little
over $100 million.

What makes this lease different is that it stretches far south to just
north of the U.S.-Mexico maritime border. Activity was forbidden in a
buffer zone created around the international boundary pending the
completion of a treaty between the two nations clarifying how offshore
energy exploration and production would be pursued in the Gulf’s
borderland.

The U.S. and Mexico have since finalized a treaty on Gulf energy
exploration, so BOEM says it’s removing the prior restrictions in
place. The offshore energy treaty with Mexico has now entered into
force as of last Friday.

“As such, whole and partial blocks in the 1.4-nautical mile buffer area
will be offered for lease in WPA Sale 238,” the agency said in its
package of details covering the drilling rights sale.

The WPA is the least developed portion of the Gulf’s offshore drilling
industry, with most activity found off the coast of central and
southeastern Louisiana. Though it is home to substantial numbers of
shallow-water operations, new leasing in this area is focused on
deepwater and ultra-deepwater regions, in formations where companies
have found success.

The length of time that a lease can be held depends on the depth of the
water column it’s lying in. Leases for exploring deepwater prospects
that are more than 5,200 feet deep are good for 10 years. Standard
leases remain valid for five to seven years, but companies can earn
three-year extensions if they spud a well in the acreage they are
holding before that lease expires.

BOEM is almost halfway through its five-year lease sale schedule, which
is ending in 2017. After next month’s round the agency will hold six
more lease sales for Gulf of Mexico acreage: three for the Central
Planning Area, one for the Eastern Planning Area and two more for the
western Gulf off Texas.

Offshore drillers are more active in the Gulf now than they were at the
time of the 2010 Macondo well blowout and oil spill, when a drilling
moratorium was put in place. With new production coming online this
year and next, some analysts are predicting a sharp jump in Gulf oil

output starting in 2015 (EnergyWire, July 14).
Special thanks to Richard Charter
energy policy, offshore oil

Nola.com: Oil, gas production declining in Gulf of Mexico federal waters, report says

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Times-Picayune
 
By Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on July 08, 2014 at 12:40 PM
 
Oil and gas found off the coast of Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states made up almost one quarter of all fossil fuel production on federal lands in 2013, reinforcing the region’s role as a driving force in the U.S. energy industry, according to updated government data. But a closer look at the numbers shows the region’s oil and gas production has been in steady decline for much of the past decade.

A new U.S. Energy Information Administration report shows federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico in 2013 accounted for 23 percent of the 16.85 trillion British thermal units (Btu) of fossil fuels produced on land and water owned by the federal government. That was more than any other state or region aside from Wyoming, which has seen strong natural gas production in recent years.

The report did not include data on oil and gas production on private lands, which makes up most production in many onshore oil and gas fields, including the Haynesville Shale in northwest Louisiana.

But production in the offshore gulf has also fallen every year since 2003. According to the report, total fossil fuel production in the region is less than half of what it was a decade ago, down 49 percent from 7.57 trillion Btu in 2003 to 3.86 trillion in 2013.

The report notes that the region has seen a sharp decline in natural gas production as older offshore fields dry out and more companies invest in newer gas finds onshore, where hydraulic fracturing has led to a boom production. Natural gas production in the offshore gulf was down 74 percent from 2003 to 2013.

The region’s oil production has declined, though less drastically. The offshore gulf produced about 447 million barrels of oil in 2013, down from a high of 584 million barrels in 2010.

Still, the region accounted for 69 percent of all the crude oil produced on all federal lands and waters last year.

Crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico could to start to recover in coming years, as companies restart major projects delayed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. The disaster killed 11 men, unleashed the worst oil disaster in U.S. history and prompted a federal ban on deepwater drilling. The ban lasted several months.

The most recent federal lease sale held in New Orleans, in March, drew more than $872.1 million in high bids on more than 1.7 million offshore acres in the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Previous sales under President Barack Obama administration’s 2012-17 leasing program have opened 60 million acres offshore and drawn $1.4 billion in bid revenues.
 
gulf of mexico clean-up, Gulf restoration, ocean pollution

Reuters: Research shows Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused lesions in fish -scientists

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By Barbara Liston
ORLANDO, Fla., July 9 Wed Jul 9, 2014 4:53pm EDT
ORLANDO, Fla., July 9 (Reuters) – Oil that matches the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been found in the bodies of sickened fish, according to a team of Florida scientists who studied the oil’s chemical composition.

“We matched up the oil in the livers and flesh with Deepwater Horizon like a fingerprint,” lead researcher Steven Murawski, a professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science in Tampa, told Reuters.

He said the findings debunk arguments that fish abnormalities could have been caused by other factors including oil in coastal runoff and oil from naturally occurring seeps in the Gulf.

BP, whose oil rig caused the spill, rejected the research, stating in an emailed response that it was “not possible to accurately identify the source of oil based on chemical traces found in fish livers or tissue.”

BP’s statement added, “vertebrates such as fish very quickly metabolize and eliminate oil compounds. Once metabolized, the sources of those compounds are no longer discernable after a period of a few days.”

Murawski disagreed with BP’s response, saying the fish in the study had been exposed recently enough that it was possible to identify the chemical signatures of oil in their bodies.

The research team included scientists from USF, the Florida Institute of Oceanography and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. The work was published in the current edition of the online journal of Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

Thousands of claims for damages against BP continue to be processed since the oil and gas producer’s Gulf rig exploded, killing 11 oil workers and spilling millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days after the April 2010 blast.

Fishermen in the northern Gulf near the blown-out well say they began noticing a spike in abnormal-looking fish, including many with unusual skin lesions, in the winter of 2010-2011.

Murawski said his team compared the chemical signatures of oil found in fish livers and flesh to the unique signature of the Louisiana sweet crude from the Deepwater well and signatures of other oil sources.

“The closest match was directly to Deepwater Horizon and had a very poor match to these other sources. So what we’ve done is eliminated some of these other potential sources,” he said.

Murawski said the team also ruled out pathogens and other oceanographic conditions. By 2012, the frequency of fish lesions declined 53 percent, he said.

 
(Reporting by Barbara Liston; Editing by David Adams and Eric Beech)
fracking

Naples Daily News: Hughes to abandon drilling in Collier County except….

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Dania Maxwell 7/11/14

NAPLES, Fla. – Opponents of oil drilling in Southwest Florida were jubilant Friday over news that the Dan A. Hughes Co. no longer will be drilling in Collier County, except at the controversial Collier Hogan well.

Collier Resources Co. said Friday that it and the Dan A. Hughes Co. had agreed to terminate their oil drilling leasing relationship, which covers about 115,000 acres in the county.

“That’s tremendous,” said Don Loritz, vice president of the citizens group Preserve our Paradise, which filed an administrative challenge to another well the Hughes Co. planned to drill near Golden Gate Estates.

That well no longer will be drilled, even though Hughes already had received approval from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

It was fiercely opposed by nearby residents and environmentalists, who worried about hydrogen sulfide leaks, drinking water pollution, noise, traffic and threats to the endangered Florida panther.

“I’m pretty damned happy right now,” said Matthew Schwartz, who also had filed an administrative challenge to the Golden Gates Estates-area well.

His challenge was combined with that of Preserve Our Paradise and nearby resident Thomas Mosher. Their petitions were heard in February by state Administrative Judge D.R. Alexander, who recommended to the DEP that the permit be allowed.

Now that the Golden Gate Estates area well has been halted, prime panther habitat will be protected, Schwartz said. But other threats to wildlife remain, he added, because more than 335,000 acres in Southwest Florida have been leased to other drillers for seismic testing.

While celebrating the agreement, some drilling opponents remained skeptical.

“I feel there may be something else going on that hasn’t been revealed,” Mosher said.

Attorney Ralf Brookes, who represented both Preserve our Paradise and Mosher in the administrative hearings, said fracking remains a concern in Southwest Florida, considering reports that the Collier Hogan well is producing good quality oil.

If that attracts other drillers, “it could change the landscape of the county,” he said.

The Hughes Co. performed an unauthorized injection technique on the Collier Hogan well in late 2013 to enhance oil production.

That resulted in a consent order with the DEP that called for, among other items, groundwater testing to see if any pollutants were introduced into the area’s aquifers.

The Collier Hogan well permit is being challenged by some environmental groups, including the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Jennifer Hecker, the Conservancy’s director of natural resources, said while it is positive news that the Hughes Co. won’t be pursuing more drilling in the county, “we have to make sure we’re not swapping one bad operator or project for another.”

Collier Resources announced the lease termination agreement in a letter to Collier County commissioners, who are pursuing their own administrative challenge to the Collier Hogan well. They are asking for a revocation of the consent order and the well’s permit.

While applauding the agreement for Hughes to not pursue any new drilling, Commissioner Georgia Hiller criticized both state lawmakers and the DEP for not providing better oversight.

“But for the DEP’s failure to have already made a determination whether this type of drilling is safe or unsafe and but for the failure of our state Legislature to make that same determination, we would not be in this situation today,” she said.

DEP spokeswoman Tiffany Cowie said neither the Hughes Co. nor Collier Resources notified the DEP of their agreement.

“We learned about it through the media,” she said.

In a statement, DEP said it would still hold the Hughes Co. accountable for meeting nine demands it made with a July 15 deadline before considering consequences, which include pulling the permit on the Collier Hogan well.

“There are still many existing demands we have of Dan A. Hughes in order for them to continue their operations at the Collier-Hogan site,” DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard said in the statement. “We will be prepared to take action after the July 15 deadline, in accordance with what they have chosen to do or not to do.”

DEP’s demands included attending a meeting of the Collier commissioners on July 8, which the Hughes Co. skipped, as well as holding a media tour on July 15.

Hughes Co. spokesman David Blackmon said the scheduled media tour of the Collier Hogan well on July 15 has been postponed.

However, he released a statement regarding the lease’s relinquishment which said the company would cease oil and gas exploration in Southwest Florida.

“We make this announcement with the knowledge that our activities in the region have caused no harm to the environment and have been fully compliant with Florida law,” the statement said.

Hughes Co. also said it would work with DEP on details related to ongoing operations and fulfilling provisions of the consent order at the Collier Hogan well.

“Respect for the law is our core operating principle,” the company said.

Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida is planning to meet with county officials, environmental groups and the media on Monday to discuss expanded drilling near the Everglades and whether it poses water quality issues the Environmental Protection Agency should consider.

“The Colliers’ decision (Friday) is only part of a broader picture,” Nelson spokesman Ryan Brown said.

__Staff Writer Greg Stanley contributed to this story

Special thanks to Ralf Brookes