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Monday, July 22, 2013

An idiot's guide to drilling for oil in quake-prone seabed

Green MP Gareth Hughes has been alerting the New Zealand public to the risks involved in oil drilling, particularly in the deep waters off our coast. With the recent significant earthquake activity through the middle of the country that saw Wellington shaken and a little broken, Gareth put together the map of the quake-affected areas along with that of proposed oil-drilling sites in what is to me and entirely sensible and responsible demonstration of real risks we face, should we allow oil drilling in those fragile environments. Here is that graphic.


In response, hard-bitten and short-on-logic National Party shill and tame blogger, Keeping Stock, declared in his over-heated post on the issue, titled, "Reason #7592 why we don't like the Greens" 
that, " this is nothing short of fear-mongering" and "Perhaps Gareth Hughes and his leader Dr Russel Norman might like to explain where the oil comes from that allows them to fly up and down the country with impunity..." and "Surely, if Green MP's were REALLY worried about the risks that drilling for oil has on the environment, they would consume less of it."

I don't know if I've ever read a more worthless, illogical or empty comment than that from any blogger before and I can only assume that he is desperate for traffic on his floundering blog. If Keeping Stock represents the depth of thought from the right-wing around oil drilling in our seas, New Zealand's marine environment is under serious threat. Infantile thinking like his needs to be challenged, revealed for what it is and overturned with rational argument, if you can be bothered, if not, summarily  dismissed.
It takes only a moment to imagine what might happen, were there a deep sea oil rig with it's proboscis buried deep into the sea bed of the Cook Strait in the event of a strong earthquake. Blinkered blue shills, however, might need an hour or two before the seriousness of the situation sinks through their skulls.



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

We couldn't disagree more! What about the Paua on the seabed? We can only pray they are having their backs scratched enough to warrant a good shilling. We are a shillfish ourselves of sorts... We come from good Wanganui stocks of inventory, and our friend Stewart at the NZ Paua Board wants to know if oil spill rhymes with shill? Our other mate Anthony agrees with us too. And as good Christians we are happy to shill anonymously like the hypocrites we are. And we're happy to comment on other right wing blogs that reveal identities of Ray or Toni public for a good shellacking all the while hiding ourselves. We will not stand behind our comments that attack others and their ideas. Nor will we ever believe an oil spill in NZ waters is anything but green scaremongering. One can only wonder...

What say you?

robertguyton said...

keepingstocks - you're a man who knows his kaimoana, that's clear.
In fact, you seem like a shellfish yourself, in many ways. You're comments put me in mind of a gritted-oyster. I expect one day you'll open up and reveal to the world just what it is that's irritating you. Me, I'm bound to honourable closed-shelledness but I take it you're not similarly bound. I'll follow your live link keepingstocks to see if you've developed your own blog any further. There's always potential to reveal any pearls of wisdom over there, so I'll keep an eye on developments.
Many people would find your comments very oblique, but you seem unperturbed by that.

Ray said...

Any proof that quakes anywhere have led to oil leaks or just another green beat up
Careful the sky is going to fall!

robertguyton said...

It's pretty self-evident, Ray, that earthquakes are a threat to the integrity of a well. I'll be there's not an oilman on earth who would say that they would not take earthquake activity into account when investing in drilling.That said, the Greens have not said that earthquakes have led to oil leaks, simple shown that the two zones overlap. Commonsense would say that the facts, as presented by gareth, should be taken into account. It seem to me only the right-wingers who are yodelling 'the sky is falling'. I'm very interested to hear if you believe there is no threat presented by earthquakes to oil rigs, especially those deep on the sea floor. Then I could judge whether you employ commonsense or not.

Ray said...

Well my sister lives very close to the Greendale fault line and while there was disruption after the quake none of the irrigation holes needed reboring which i found amazing considering the above ground movements

As I say any proof that quakes have lead to spills after all it was once self-evident that the World was flat

robertguyton said...

Ray - try this approach - do frackers and oil drillers have equipment that is purpose-designed to withstand earthquakes, or do they just say, no worries mate?
I'm genuinely interested in your response.

Unknown said...

Yes it’s true that drilling oil is the purpose of environment linking. I am very much excited to know the features over drilling tool as benefits. If someone wants to get the oil & mining drilling through Precision Gyro tool then move on that.

Unknown said...

First Liberty Energy is a good oil drilling company based in Oklahoma.

Unknown said...

If its any consulation we have similar issues in the UK, http://www.piling-equipment--ltd sell drilling equipment but also try to put the publics concerns to bay by presenting information to those that request it. Drilling into the earth has been going on for several thousand years, its right that we should be concerned but lets get our fact right. Their is an interesting article on their blog regarding Fracking.

Unknown said...

Last link in my post should have read http://www.piling-equipment-ltd.com

apologies for the error