Three French oil workers kidnapped off Niger Delta
Kevin Costner pitches emergency oil spill plan to Congress
Washington (AFP) Sept 22, 2010 -
Kevin Costner told US lawmakers Wednesday that clean-up operations during the BP oil disaster were a "tangled mess," as the Hollywood star urged Congress to adopt his 895-million-dollar emergency response plan.
Costner -- the on-screen hero of "Waterworld" who has a real life passion for developing oil clean-up technology -- said that 32 of his company's centrifugal oil-water separators leased by BP sat idle while the British energy giant figured out what to do with them.
"Our machines sat on a barge waiting to separate oil and water for days before some boats could even come," Costner told reporters after testifying before the House of Representatives committee on homeland security.
"It was a lack of coordination, it was a tangled mess."
The Oscar-winner had returned to Capitol Hill in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill to pitch his plan, which incorporates oil-separating machines developed by his firm, Ocean Therapy Solutions, along with a fleet of specialized boats for oil collection and eliminating use of dispersant chemicals.
During recovery operations, BP touted its "vessels of opportunity," thousands of small boats -- often private fishermen -- sent out to fight the spill, many of them with no expertise in oil containment.
"Our choices are clear," Costner told lawmakers. "We can choose to enlist a fleet of 6,000 vessels that are hampered by their lack of training and preparedness, or we can create a dedicated fleet of 190 state-of-the-art vessels."
The specialized ships and barges, Costner explained, could react quickly to a spill, skimming large amounts of oily water separating the gunk from the water while offshore, rather than inefficiently bringing the haul to land for processing.
Costner, 55, urged that the same energy and financial resources expended by the oil industry in pursuit of oil be harnessed to protect US waters and coastlines.
"Americans demand that this nightmare that continues to chase us into the 21st Century be solved with real solutions -- solutions that don't depend on dispersants, burning and public relations."
And the plan should be paid for by the oil industry, not taxpayers, he said.
"It should be their responsibility. It's their industry, their accident."
Costner noted that the Gulf of Mexico, where Deepwater Horizon was drilling when it exploded and sank in April, triggering the spill, is home to more than 5,000 production platforms and 27,000 wells.
He said his plan does not envision the BP spill as a worst-case scenario.
"Given the dangerous world that we live in, we have anticipated a situation where five Deepwater Horizons could occur simultaneously."
After spilling a record 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP's Macondo well was declared permanently dead last Sunday.
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by Staff Writers
Paris Sept 22, 2010
Pirates boarded an oil industry supply vessel off Nigeria on Wednesday and seized three French seamen, in the second hostage drama for French energy workers in West Africa in less than a week.
The men's employer, French maritime services firm Bourbon, and the French foreign ministry said they had contacted the kidnapped workers' families and were working with Nigerian authorities to secure their release.
"Everything points to it being a classic act of piracy," French Defence Minister Herve Morin told France 24 television, playing down speculation that the hostage-takers may have had a political motive.
A spokesman for the Nigerian military taskforce deployed to protect the west African giant's oil industry confirmed the attack, but said that in total four hostages were taken. There have been no reports of ransom demands.
Wednesday's drama came just six days after five French nationals working in neighbouring Niger's uranium fields were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda militants, in an unrelated attack that has already stretched French assets in the region.
The sailors were abducted when pirates equipped with several speedboats attacked the French-flagged Bourbon Alexandre, a 2,000-tonne tug and supply ship working in waters off Nigeria's restive Niger Delta region.
"The 13 other crew members have remained on board and nobody has been injured. No claim has been made at this stage," Bourbon said in a statement.
Bourbon did not say exactly where the attack took place, but said its boat had been working on a field owned by Addax Petroleum, a Swiss-based subsidiary of the Chinese energy and chemical giant Sinopec.
Addax has several offshore and onshore fields in Nigeria, but its main offshore wells lie in OML123, an oil production bloc 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the city of Calabar at the far eastern edge of the Niger Delta.
After the seaways off Somalia, the Gulf of Guinea south of Nigeria is one of the world's most notorious pirate hunting grounds, and ships working in the region's huge oil industry are often targeted by kidnap and ransom gangs.
Some of the gangs are purely criminal, while others claim to be fighting for the independence of the delta region, a swathe of mangrove forests and salt water swamp that is home to one of Africa's largest oil industries.
In most cases, hostages are released in exchange for undisclosed ransoms, and it is extremely rare for foreign workers to be hurt or killed -- although many find themselves held for weeks or months in remote villages.
"I think, from memory, that there were around 100 acts of piracy in 2009 in the Gulf of Guinea," Morin said.
"We are completely mobilised in Paris and Abuja to secure their release," foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said, adding that Paris is in close "contact with the Nigerian authorities, Bourbon officials and the families."
"I can confirm there was an attack and four people were taken. I can't confirm their nationalities," said Colonel Timothy Antigha, spokesman for the Nigerian military's Joint Task Force in the delta region.
The firm has been the target of several attacks in the past two years in the Niger Delta oil-producing area.
Nine Bourbon workers were taken hostage along with their ship in January last year and freed a few days later. In October 2008 another of its ships was seized by pirates off the Nigerian coast.
Two French crew members of a Bourbon supply ship were kidnapped by armed men in August 2008 in a bar in the port of Onne, near Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil capital. They were freed in September of the same year.
Hundreds of people, mostly oil workers, have been kidnapped in the region since 2006.
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Russia, China agree gas supply terms: Gazprom
Moscow (AFP) Sept 22, 2010
Moscow and Beijing have agreed on key supply terms for future Russian gas deliveries to China, which is seeking to secure energy resources to fuel its growing economy, Gazprom said on Wednesday.
Russian gas giant Gazprom, keen to diversify its energy clients, has been in talks with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to start sending gas to China but the two countries have yet to agr ... read more
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