HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Vern]

"About 2,800 letters sent to Padre Island National Seashore did not change park officials' assessment that drilling five new natural gas wells will have no significant long-term impact on the environment.

BNP Petroleum Corp. could start drilling the wells after the park service's regional director in Colorado signs an official environmental assessment, which could happen as early as Jan. 14, said Darrell Echols, chief of science and resources management at the seashore. "


Full story
http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_811_3446676,00.html

[sambo]

If they start drilling will that close off a certain area of PINS? Or are they going to build that road behind the dunes like once was mentioned. Regardlass of what happens, I donot see anything good comeing from the destroying of PINS natural habbitat
thanks for the info
Keep on fishing

sambo

[Guest]

The news article concentrates on a cluster of 5 new wells to be drilled at the same location as a previous one, the Dunn-Peach #1 well. Like that one, the 5 would be accessed using the beach for approximately 6.9 miles, then by picking up an existing caliche road behind the dunes. What the article doesn't mention, but the PINS Environmental Assessment on which the comments were received did, was that 2 wells already approved by the PINS may also be drilled this winter and spring, and that BNP and PINS are also considering drilling another well somewhere near the Dunn-Peach cluster in the same time frame. To get to the previously okayed Lemon and Lemon Seed wells, the rig trucks would drive the beach to approx. MP 12.5, then cross the dunes at a new gap to be excavated and proceed about 0.2 mile along a new caliche road to be constructed.

The article also states that the Dunn-Murdock # 1 well at Yarborough Pass will be plugged, so expect associated traffic from that activity on the beach as far south as MP 15.

Do you begin to see why I said PINS should have seriously considered letting BNP connect and extend the roads behind the dunes, as it first proposed, instead of perpetually exposing tourists, kids, fishermen and turtles to the rig traffic? My beef is that PINS didn't give the back dune alternative the mandatory "hard look," and let the public compare its trade-offs with those of the beach route, before dismissing it. I'll agree that the drilling is necessary and in the public interest, but each time PINS fails to give the back dune route the hard look it deserves in an environmental assessment, I'm giving PINS a hard time.

[Big John]

I'll have to agree with Johnny here - the back roads alternative would have been better.

Not only would it reduce exposure to traffic on the beach, but that additional heavy vehice (size) traffic further loosens the sand, making the driving that much more difficult for the rest of us.

Give them a hard time Johnny - you're in the right.
_________________
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke and hungry the rest of his life!

John Sullivan
Native Corpus Christian
Currently Displaced in San Antonio

[cjlandry]

Even I agree with you guys on this one. Those big rigs constantly coming and going with drill pipe, casing, chemicals, etc. tend to screw up paved roads, they make the caliche roads difficult to drive on without dragging the transmission pan, and I'm sure they're even worse on sand. I wouldn't want to go behind them on sand with anything less than a good 4WD.
_________________
Chad Landry

"Whiskey for my men, and beer for my horses"

[rabbit]

Sounds like the waste of a good 4 wheel drive.
_________________
Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[Bluffer]

Sign of the times, we live in a ever increasing populated world & with our current lifestyle of "on demand" comfort its enevatable & gotta have resources from somewhere. The EPA regs of today protect the enviorment compared to drilling disasters back in the 50-60's.
In another year you'll never know they were even there. Lighten up, we can't be totally dependant on the ragheads!
_________________
Fish hard, fish the Bluff. Surrounded by water!
-A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem-

[cjlandry]

Last week they were reporting that China plans to start buying oil from Canada, our #1 supplier. So the demand for the product is increasing. Either the supply needs to increase or the prices are about to go up big-time.

And I'm supposed to go to China sometime this month or next to start up an all AC drilling rig. Their drilling activities are increasing over there too.
_________________
Chad Landry

"Whiskey for my men, and beer for my horses"

[moose]

Being a petroleum geologist, this hits home in a hard way.

CJ - your cystal ball aint lying. But the truth is the supply is not going to increase at all, it's decreasing and fast. It is all we can do to find new reserves to replace the last field that just went dry.

We all will feel the effects of our energy needs. But all we can do is adapt to the changes and live with them just like all of the other critters out there who are affected too.

[Guest]

CJ & Moose, I just commented on the Cheniere LNG Draft Environmental Impact Statement and am well into reviewing the Vista del Sol LNG DEIS. Both give the latest forecasts on natural gas supply and demand in this country, and they ain't pretty. Besides spurring the LNG import industry in this country, the demand is causing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revisit plans to pipe gas from the North Slope of Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta of Canada, something I worked on for the FERC back in the mid-'70s. Dummies should have constucted the gas pipeline from Prudhoe Bay back when they built the oil pipeline, but gas was only selling for 30 cents an mcf back then, and it was all that the administation could do just to keep them from flaring the stuff. Now that the same gas is worth 20 times as much....

Much as I hate the thought of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to petroleum development, if Congress finally passes a bill to do that, I pray it's learned from the mistake at Prudhoe and requires the developers to build the gathering and main transportation systems for the gas at the same time they export the oil. If they're going to drill in our wildernesses, parks, and refuges, the developers had better wring every penny they can out of the ground, 'cause it'll take a chunk of their gross to do it right the first time and to mitigate the damage that can't be avoided. They'll pass the costs along to us anyway, but it'll be cheaper than screwing up the environment and expecting a state or federal agency like EPA or Interior to clean up afterward.

[Crhfish]

Does the Park get to keep any of the royalties from the sale of gas? Anybody know?
_________________
Catch, Release, Catch, Release

[Bryanccfshr]

The Mineral rights owners get such royalties. The park is obligated to allow these owners access to those minerals. My wife is a realtor and could better explain the laws that protect owners of such rights(something about domain). You rarely can buy property that doesn't have easements or mineral right obligations in Texas anymore.
It's a fact of life. A few years ago I was pretty updet over the Geological surveys going on in the upper Laguna Madre. I would be wading in Nighthawk and feel the thumps as the charges were set off. Quite stressfull for me( the charges in the water made you want to jump out if you weren't expecting the ground to "move"), but the fish didn't seem to mind as I was catching reds and trout even when the airboats were setting off charges within 100 yds of me. Strange day.

Many of our fishing spots were origianlly a result of oilfield activity. Shamrock cove and the area around Bluff landing and Humble Channel are good examples of Areas that were touched by oil & gas. The Nueces bay is an example of the old days. In this day of scrutinization, and PR a company will go out of it's way to dot all I's and cross the T's. Other than seeing a little more truck traffic in the first 15 miles It is going to be of little overall impact. It is not virgin ground to activity . We are fortunate that the place is a national park. It would not be long before the place was developed if it were not.

[Big John]

You're correct Brian in saying that you can't buy land anymore in TX without some restrictions, such as the owners keeping mineral rights. The biggest growing one is water rights in Texas and throughout the Southwest. There have been many would be farmers or ranchers buy land in recent years without reading or understanding that they may not have enough water to properly irrigate, and the water rights owners have sold or leased rights to pump the water to neighboring ranches or farms. I leanred in Law School that there are some really complicated laws on this.

The scariest thing is not how much oil will cost in 20 yrs, but how much water will cost.
_________________
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke and hungry the rest of his life!

John Sullivan
Native Corpus Christian
Currently Displaced in San Antonio

[Bryanccfshr]

"The scariest thing is not how much oil will cost in 20 yrs, but how much water will cost."

Unfortunately I must agree. Eventually we are going to write a check that our land can't cash with the exploding development throughout the country.

[moose]

Is PINS going to see any royalties for the gas and oil produced below the sand?

NO. They will be compesated for surface damages, but the royalties will be paid to the mineral owners. This happens all of the time. We drilled a well south of Ft. Worth on a location where the surface owner did not own the mineral rights. The owner of the household was furious that a well was going to be in their backyard, but there was nothing they could do about it except to accept the check to compensate the damages of trucks and location facilities.

Johhny here's what will really chap your hide. We are currently drilling 5 wells at a time in the eastern parts of Montana. The play is extraordinary. We found the largest oil field that has been discovered in 30 years. By the time it is all said and done, we'll have produced 300,000,000 barrels of Oil. The play was directed at the oil, but there is also a gas leg production. The infrastructures are not in place in the area to sell the gas. So everyday we have to flare off the gas (burn it). At $5 per MCF we are loosing approx $10,000 PER DAY PER WELL (theres 60 of them). Do the math. But someone higher up in the management deemed it too costly to lay pipelines just to get the "small" amount of gas. One of these days when we're really hurting for energy it will be mandatory to collect all usable products from the ground. But for now - all the big wigs want is most money for the cheapest possible price.