Malaysia looks to meet global palm oil demand after Indonesia's export ban,

 but labour shortage an issue

Malaysia is the world's second-largest producer of palm oil after Indonesia.

25 Apr 2022

KUALA LUMPUR: The global demand for palm oil is likely to switch to Malaysia after Indonesia's export ban, but industry players warned that labour shortage could hamper output.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin told the media on Sunday (Apr 24) that Malaysia should be able to increase its production of palm oil with the reopening of the country’s borders.

“I am confident that Malaysia is ready and able to supply palm oil to global markets because our production is expected to rise following the reopening of its borders, which has enabled the hiring of foreign workers,” Mdm Zuraida was quoted as saying by Bernama.

In an announcement last Friday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the exports of cooking oil and crude palm oil (CPO) would be suspended starting this Thursday in a bid to stabilise prices in the country.

“The government prohibits the exports of palm oil used in cooking oil,” said Mr Widodo, who is also popularly known as Jokowi.

In recent months, cooking oil prices have soared in Indonesia amid an increase in global CPO prices, prompting the government to implement price ceilings and export restrictions.

In a separate event on Sunday, Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Wee Jeck Seng said the local palm oil production is currently being affected by the ongoing labour shortage issue, and therefore it is unlikely that Malaysia will be able to fulfil the high export demand gap left by Indonesia.

“This imbalance in demand and supply would see prices of palm oil and other competing oils soaring," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Related:


As global palm oil prices rise, cooking oil stock runs low in Indonesia’s retail outlets

Indonesian farmers support palm oil export ban

Dr Wee said as of last year, Indonesia's palm oil accounted for 59 per cent and 56 per cent of the world’s palm oil production and exports respectively, adding that Indonesian palm oil exports represented 30 per cent of total world oils and fats exports.

“As such, this drastic step taken by Indonesia will definitely have a massive impact on other countries, especially major palm oil importers such as China, India and the European Union,” he said after attending his constituency’s Muslim breaking of fast event.

The deputy minister added that the Malaysian government’s move to set price control and a ceiling price for palm cooking oil could also help protect the consumers from the effects of surging palm oil prices in the global market.

However, Dr Wee said that this also means that the government will have to bear the higher cost of cooking oil subsidies due to the increase in palm oil prices in the market to ensure that the welfare and interests of Malaysian consumers are protected.

ADVANTAGE TO MALAYSIAN PALM OIL INDUSTRY

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) said the Indonesian export ban is likely to be an advantage to the Malaysian palm oil industry.

The Star quoted MPOA chief executive officer Nageeb Wahab as saying that he envisaged the local palm oil industry would be able to reap higher export earnings this year, particularly in the next two to three months.

Related:

Malaysia's palm oil board urges countries to reconsider food versus fuel priorities

Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir said that “any policy changes by Indonesia will definitely affect Malaysia” as the latter is the second-largest producer and exporter of palm oil after Indonesia.

“The ban will definitely see most of the global palm oil demand switching to Malaysia,” he said, as quoted by the Star.

However, he also noted that Malaysia is facing an issue with palm oil supply due to the severe labour shortage and the country may not be able to absorb much of the excess global demand.

Indonesia's palm oil export ban leaves global buyers with no plan B

 People shop for cooking oil made using palm oil at a supermarket in Jakarta

Sun, April 24, 2022
By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Global edible oil consumers have no option but to pay top dollar for supplies after Indonesia's surprise palm oil export ban forced buyers to seek alternatives, already in short supply due to adverse weather and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The move by the world's biggest palm oil producer to ban exports from Thursday will lift prices of all major edible oils including palm oil, soyoil, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil, industry watchers predict. That will place extra strain on cost-sensitive consumers in Asia and Africa hit by higher fuel and food prices.

"Indonesia's decision affects not only palm oil availability, but vegetable oils worldwide," James Fry, chairman of commodities consultancy LMC International, told Reuters.

Palm oil - used in everything from cakes and frying fats to cosmetics and cleaning products - accounts for nearly 60% of global vegetable oil shipments, and top producer Indonesia accounts for around a third of all vegetable oil exports. It announced the export ban on April 22, until further notice, in a move to tackle rising domestic prices.

"This is happening when the export tonnages of all other major oils are under pressure: soybean oil due to droughts in South America; rapeseed oil due to disastrous canola crops in Canada; and sunflower oil because of Russia's war on Ukraine," Fry said.

Vegetable oil prices have already risen more than 50% in the past six months as factors from labour shortages in Malaysia to droughts in Argentina and Canada - the biggest exporters of soyoil and canola oil respectively - curtailed supplies.

GRAPHIC-Global edible oil prices scale record highs after every major oil suffers supply setbacks https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/gdpzyawzovw/GlobalVegOilsApril2022.png

Buyers were hoping a bumper sunflower crop from top exporter Ukraine would ease the tightness, but supplies from Kyiv have stopped because of what Russia calls its "special operation" in the country.

This had prompted importers to bank on palm oil being able to plug the supply gap until Indonesia's shock ban delivered a "double whammy" to buyers, said Atul Chaturvedi, president of trade body the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA).

NO ALTERNATIVE

Importers such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan will try to increase palm oil purchases from Malaysia, but the world's second-biggest palm oil producer cannot fill the gap created by Indonesia, Chaturvedi said.

Indonesia typically supplies nearly half of India's total palm oil imports, while Pakistan and Bangladesh import nearly 80% of their palm oil from Indonesia.

"Nobody can compensate for the loss of Indonesian palm oil. Every country is going to suffer," said Rasheed JanMohd, chairman of Pakistan Edible oil Refiners Association (PEORA).

GRAPHIC-Key global edible oil statistics 

https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/qmypmeaeopr/EdibleOilStats.png

In February, prices of vegetable oils jumped to a record high as sunflower oil supplies were disrupted from the Black Sea region.

The price rise raised working capital requirements for oil refiners, who were holding lower inventories than normal in anticipation of a pullback in prices, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm.

Instead, all oil prices have rallied further.

"Refiners have been caught on the wrong foot. Now they can't afford to wait for a few weeks. They have to make purchases to run plants," the dealer said.

As Indonesia has allowed loading until April 28, consuming countries will have enough supply for the first half of May, but could face shortages from the second half, said a refiner based in Dhaka.

South Asian refiners will only slowly release oil into the market as they know supplies are limited, he said.

In India, the world's biggest vegetable oil importer, palm oil prices rose by nearly 5% over the weekend as industry prices in shortages in the coming months. Prices also rose in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Gavin Maguire and Kenneth Maxwell)

Indonesia, the world's top cooking-oil exporter, says it's going to ban exports of the oil this week, and it's sent the global prices of edible oils soaring

Huileng Tan
Sun, April 24, 2022


Indonesia, a top palm-oil exporter, is planning to ban exports beginning on Thursday.


Palm oil, the world's most used vegetable oil, is used in cooking and a range of consumer products.


Palm-oil and competing soybean-oil prices are jumping after news of the ban.

The world's top palm-oil producer announced that it would ban exports of the commodity starting on Thursday, sending the prices of edible oils soaring.

Indonesia accounts for about half of the world's supply of palm oil, the world's most widely used vegetable oil. Palm oil is used for cooking and for the production of thousands of consumer products, including biscuits, detergents, and lipsticks.

In a video statement on Friday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the move was designed to bring down domestic palm-oil prices and ensure domestic food availability in the wake of global food inflation.

"I will monitor and evaluate the implementation of this policy so availability of cooking oil in the domestic market becomes abundant and affordable," Widodo said, a Reuters translation reported.

The move comes as Indonesia has seen recent protests over the high prices of cooking oil, with retail prices gaining more than 40% so far this year, Reuters reported.

The ban is expected to be in place until further notice. Indonesian palm-oil exports were worth about $30 billion in 2021, the data provider Statista showed.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia's finance minister, told Reuters on Friday that the palm-oil ban would hurt other countries, but that it was necessary to contain the soaring domestic prices of cooking oil.

Benchmark crude palm-oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia exchange jumped as much as 7% on Monday morning. They are up over 40% year to date.

Prices for alternative vegetable oil also spiked in response to the impending ban on palm-oil exports in Indonesia. Benchmark Chicago soybean oil prices hit their highest levels since 2008, Reuters reported.

Prices of edible oil — including palm oil — have been rising because of the war in Ukraine, as the country is a large sunflower-oil exporter. "Edible oils are often interchangeable, so a shortage of one type exerts pressure on the others," Gro Intelligence, a global agriculture data-analysis firm, wrote in an April 23 note.

Gains in vegetable-oil prices are outpacing overall food-price increases, Gro Intelligence wrote in the report. US prices of a basket of common vegetable oils are up 41% on year, while food prices are up 25% on year.

"Indonesia's ban on exports is likely to further fuel global food inflation," the firm added.

https://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-urges-countries-prioritise-food-050134644.html#:~:text=Malaysia%20urges%20countries,Kapoor%2C%20Martin%20Petty)

The End of the Oil Age

Not with a bang but a whimper.

What those that deny there is a Peak Oil crisis mistakenly believe is that those who proclaim the end of the Oil Age are catastrophic hysterics. The facts which oil geolgists continue to point out is that Peak Oil is here, and its impact will change the world, not with a bang but with increasingly repetitive crisises.

The Age of Oil, which has lasted for 150 years has seen the greatest environmental change caused by humans.

J.R. McNeil in his book on the Environmental History of the 2oth Centruy; Something New Under the Sun, Norton, 2000, calculates that "humans in the 20th Century used TEN TIMES as much energy then our forebearers have over the last one thousand years."

Something New under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century
by J.R. McNeill, Penguin Books Ltd., London 2000.
How will the twentieth century be remembered? For world wars and politics? The spread of literacy and sexual equality? This ground-breaking work shows us that its most enduring legacy will in fact be the physical changes we have wrought on the planet. Humanity has undertaken a gigantic experiment on the earth, refashioning it with an intensity unprecedented in history—now there really is something new under the sun. In this landmark and award-winning book John McNeil uses a refreshing mixture of history, anecdote and science, avoiding blame or sermon, to explain how and why humans have altered their world. He takes us from London smog to dust bowls of Oklahoma, introducing fascinating characters such as conservationist Rachel Carson, pirate whaler Aristotle Onassis and the little-known scientist who invented CFCs and put lead in petrol. Above all this compelling account shows that the damage can be reversed. It is up to us to decide how long our gamble can continue. WWF review


The impact of the Age of Oil can be seen in the Climate Change Crisis we face,as the two coincide. So is it any wonder that those who benefit from the current capitalist system that created the Oil Age deny that there is any crisis? They deny there is a Climate Change Crisis and they deny there is a Peak Oil crisis, and this denial is a very real threat to our continued existance.

Peak Oil is coming for most producing countries, and so is global Climate Change which coincides with the oil crisis. These two crisises will create an even greater synergetic phenomena, that industrialized capitalism and finance capitalism will NOT be able to deal with.

The old adage; Socialism of Barbarism, will be as relevant tommorow as it was yesterday.

Today we need to take seriously the crisis the capitalist system is in globally, while it may not appear to the average consumer in the Industrialized world it is in a crisis of global and historic proportions. It is in a period of economic, geological, and environmental decadence. Capitalism cannot deal with these two major crisis because of the anarchy of the market. No matter what proponents of sustainable or "Natural Capitalism" say. Capitalism is antiethical to human and other species survival.

A planned economy under the direct control of the individuals and their communities is the historical and ONLY solution to this crisis and even then it may not be enough. Where technocracy and socialism agree is that a planned economy based on labour and energy credits not on money is the only way out of this coming calamity. And while technocracy offers a North American planning model it lacks the community council/workers councils inputs required to make this work.

Only a Libertarian socialist society based on planned economy models where communities are based on self sufficieny, free associations and mutual aid, and throught the confederated sharing of excess energy, can provide the basis for really dealing with both of these pending world shaking events.

These were and are the revolutionary ideas of the 20th century and the model espoused by Kropotkin, Thorstien Vebelen, the IWW, Howard Scott, Jane Jacobs, E.F. Schumaker and Buckminister Fuller, - OPERATING MANUAL FOR SPACESHIP EARTH

"You must choose between making money and making sense. The two are mutually exclusive."
R. Buckminster Fuller

Nope no catasrophic hysteria here, just the facts mam.

And the facts are Capitalism has hit its decline, its decadent period, where it may make technological breakthroughs, but these cannot be used because they are restricted to creating a profit for the sole reproduction of capital itself. This is antiethical to the creation of a human society and a sustainable environment.

This is the barbarism of capital; not merely a melt down in profits, nor a Great Depression, but an ecological disaster based on the reliance on oil which will lead to a renewed authoritarian state; fascism, as people sacrifice freedom for security.


The 20th century will stand out as a peculiar century because of the breath-taking acceleration of so many processes that bring ecological change. That idea permeates environmental historian J. R. McNeil's recent book Something New Under the Sun. McNeil points first to the change in scale in the practice of our traditional technologies in industry, transportation, and agriculture. At the end of the 20th century human activities had contributed to an increase of around 30% in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Our level of nitrogen fixation now matches what nature herself provides. The direct transformation of land for human use now affects 39-50% of the earth's dry surface. What this will ultimately mean ecologically, we don't fully know. McNeil further argues that the 20th century has also seen a growing and radically different range of technologies of largely unknown consequence.

For example:

In 1930 the American Nobel Prize winner for physics said that there was no risk that humanity could do real harm to anything so gigantic as the earth. In the same year the American chemical engineer Thomas Midgley invented chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs -- which we now know can destroy the earth's protective ozone layer).

The 20th century has thus seen the modern landscape become an uncontrolled experiment of grand scale.

McNeil concludes: What Machiavelli said of affairs of state is doubly true of affairs of global ecology and society. It is nearly impossible to see what is happening until it is inconveniently late to do much about it. Introductory Remarks: Natural Resource Stewardship Mike Soukup, Associate Director, Natural Resource Stewardship and Science

When will we reach Peak Oil?
2008? 2010? 2020?

Coming oil crisis feared

John Vidal
Guardian Weekly
April 29 2005

One of the world's leading energy analysts called this week for an independent assessment of global oil reserves because he believes that Middle Eastern countries may have far less than officially stated and that oil prices could double to more than $100 a barrel within three years, triggering economic collapse. Matthew Simmons, an adviser to President George Bush and chairman of the Wall Street energy investment company Simmons, said that "peak oil" -- when global oil production rises to its highest point before declining irreversibly -- was rapidly approaching even as demand was increasing. "This is a new era," Mr Simmons told a conference of oil industry analysts, government officials and academics in Edinburgh. "There is a big chance that Saudi Arabia actually peaked production in 1981. We have no reliable data. Our data collection system for oil is rubbish. I suspect that if we had, we would find that we are over-producing in most of our major fields and that we should be throttling back. We may have passed that point." Mr Simmons told the meeting that it was inevitable that the price of oil would soar above $100 as supplies failed to meet demand. "Demand is pulling away from supply . . . and we have to ask whether we have the resources that we think we do. It could be catastrophic if we do not anticipate when peak oil comes." The precise arrival of peak oil is hotly debated by academics and geologists, but analysts increasingly say that official US Geological Survey estimates that it will not happen for 35 years are over-optimistic. According to the International Energy Agency, which collates data from all oil-producing countries, peak oil will arrive "sometime between 2013 and 2037", with production thereafter expected to decline by about 3% a year.

The end of oil is closer than you think

Oil production could peak next year, reports John Vidal. Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye

John Vidal
Thursday April 21, 2005
The Guardian

The one thing that international bankers don't want to hear is that the second Great Depression may be round the corner. But last week, a group of ultra-conservative Swiss financiers asked a retired English petroleum geologist living in Ireland to tell them about the beginning of the end of the oil age.

They called Colin Campbell, who helped to found the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre because he is an industry man through and through, has no financial agenda and has spent most of a lifetime on the front line of oil exploration on three continents. He was chief geologist for Amoco, a vice-president of Fina, and has worked for BP, Texaco, Shell, ChevronTexaco and Exxon in a dozen different countries.

"Don't worry about oil running out; it won't for very many years," the Oxford PhD told the bankers in a message that he will repeat to businessmen, academics and investment analysts at a conference in Edinburgh next week. "The issue is the long downward slope that opens on the other side of peak production. Oil and gas dominate our lives, and their decline will change the world in radical and unpredictable ways," he says.

Campbell reckons global peak production of conventional oil - the kind associated with gushing oil wells - is approaching fast, perhaps even next year. His calculations are based on historical and present production data, published reserves and discoveries of companies and governments, estimates of reserves lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, speeches by oil chiefs and a deep knowledge of how the industry works.

"About 944bn barrels of oil has so far been extracted, some 764bn remains extractable in known fields, or reserves, and a further 142bn of reserves are classed as 'yet-to-find', meaning what oil is expected to be discovered. If this is so, then the overall oil peak arrives next year," he says.

If he is correct, then global oil production can be expected to decline steadily at about 2-3% a year, the cost of everything from travel, heating, agriculture, trade, and anything made of plastic rises. And the scramble to control oil resources intensifies. As one US analyst said this week: "Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye."

"The first half of the oil age now closes," says Campbell. "It lasted 150 years and saw the rapid expansion of industry, transport, trade, agriculture and financial capital, allowing the population to expand six-fold. The second half now dawns, and will be marked by the decline of oil and all that depends on it, including financial capital."

So did the Swiss bankers comprehend the seriousness of the situation when he talked to them? "There is no company on the stock exchange that doesn't make a tacit assumption about the availability of energy," says Campbell. "It is almost impossible for bankers to accept it. It is so out of their mindset."


The Long Emergency
What's going to happen as we start running out of cheap gas to guzzle?

By JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER
Rolling Stone Magazine Feature

The term "global oil-production peak" means that a turning point will come when the world produces the most oil it will ever produce in a given year and, after that, yearly production will inexorably decline. It is usually represented graphically in a bell curve. The peak is the top of the curve, the halfway point of the world's all-time total endowment, meaning half the world's oil will be left. That seems like a lot of oil, and it is, but there's a big catch: It's the half that is much more difficult to extract, far more costly to get, of much poorer quality and located mostly in places where the people hate us. A substantial amount of it will never be extracted.

The United States passed its own oil peak -- about 11 million barrels a day -- in 1970, and since then production has dropped steadily. In 2004 it ran just above 5 million barrels a day (we get a tad more from natural-gas condensates). Yet we consume roughly 20 million barrels a day now. That means we have to import about two-thirds of our oil, and the ratio will continue to worsen.

The U.S. peak in 1970 brought on a portentous change in geoeconomic power. Within a few years, foreign producers, chiefly OPEC, were setting the price of oil, and this in turn led to the oil crises of the 1970s. In response, frantic development of non-OPEC oil, especially the North Sea fields of England and Norway, essentially saved the West's ass for about two decades. Since 1999, these fields have entered depletion. Meanwhile, worldwide discovery of new oil has steadily declined to insignificant levels in 2003 and 2004.

Some "cornucopians" claim that the Earth has something like a creamy nougat center of "abiotic" oil that will naturally replenish the great oil fields of the world. The facts speak differently. There has been no replacement whatsoever of oil already extracted from the fields of America or any other place.

Now we are faced with the global oil-production peak. The best estimates of when this will actually happen have been somewhere between now and 2010. In 2004, however, after demand from burgeoning China and India shot up, and revelations that Shell Oil wildly misstated its reserves, and Saudi Arabia proved incapable of goosing up its production despite promises to do so, the most knowledgeable experts revised their predictions and now concur that 2005 is apt to be the year of all-time global peak production.

It will change everything about how we live.

The End of Cheap Oil
Implications of Global Peak Oil

by Mark Anielski

Parkland Institute

In a technical paper to the US Association of Petroleum Geologists in 1956, a senior scientist at Shell Oil Company, Dr. M. King Hubbert, made a controversial prediction that US oil production would peak in the early 1970s. Shell encouraged him to quietly bury this paper, but Hubbert refused.

According to Hubbert, the US would eventually face a critical tipping point in energy security: Peak Oil — the point in time when extraction of oil from the earth reaches its highest point and then begins to decline. ‘Hubbert’s peak theory’ predicted that, with Peak Oil, prices would fluctuate wildly, resulting in economic seismic shocks, even as demand for oil and gas continued to rise. He did not say that the US was going to run out of oil, per se, but that a peak in domestic production would result in economic tremors felt around the world.

The consequences of global Peak Oil would indeed be catastrophic. It would herald the end of cheap oil at a time when global demand for oil is growing, driven by the voracious energy appetite of China and other developing countries. Unfortunately, most people, especially our politicians, seem oblivious to this looming crisis or are extremely reluctant to talk about it.

All signs seem to suggest that this issue will soon demand a greater degree of public attention. A group of oil analysts led by petroleum geologist Colin Campbell — the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) — has predicted that global oil production will peak in 2005. Important oil producers like UK and Norway have already experienced Peak Oil - in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Saudi Arabia’s production is expected to peak in 2008 followed by Kuwait in 2015 and Iraq in 2017. Canada’s own Peak Oil event occurred in 1973, and our natural gas production peaked in 2001,without much notice.

Of course, because there will always be disagreement among geologists on petroleum statistics, no one knows precisely when global oil and gas production will peak. Even if you are a technological optimist, there is no getting around the basic problem of rising demand and lagging production capacity. Based on the figures I have researched, global oil production in 2001, at 76 million barrels per day (bbd), outstripped global production of 74 million bbd in 2004. And in 2004, global oil consumption reached 80 million bbd, growing by 2.2 million bbd over 2003 levels, the highest growth in demand since 1978. Of this amount, the US alone consumed 25% of the world’s total oil production

Oil industry executives are also worried. Harry L. Longwell, executive Vice-President of Exxon-Mobil warned: “The catch is that while [global] demand increases, existing production declines… we expect that by 2010 about half the daily volume needed to meet projected demand is not on production today.” In a speech in the autumn of 1999, Vice-President Dick Cheney warned that, "By 2010, we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. Exxon-Mobil will have to secure over a billion and a half barrels of new oil equivalent reserves every year just to replace existing production.” Putting this in the context of Alberta, oilsands production is predicted to reach a maximum of 1.56 million bbd by 2012, which is only 3% of the additional global daily demand predicted by Cheney.

According to Colin Campbell, the world is running at full production capacity. With global Peak Oil looming, he predicts that global oil and gas prices will fluctuate wildly, fall back once or twice and then reach sustained price highs.

What about Alberta? Why should we care, living in debt-free and oil-rich province? First, few people noticed that Alberta’s peak in conventional crude oil occurred in 1973 and natural gas production peaked in 2001. Fortunately, in the oilsands, Alberta has arguably the world’s largest reserves of non-conventional oil, with an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven reserves (although official international statistics report 174 billion barrels). This means that Alberta’s official reserves exceed Saudi Arabia’s.

While Alberta’s impressive reserves would last 500 years at a predicted maximum production of 2.0 million bbd (a volume quadruple today’s production), they would only supply the entire projected world 2012 oil consumption demands (95 million bbd) for less than 9 years or supply 10% of current US consumption of 20 million bbd.

The problem for Alberta is not only the limited reserves of oilsands, but the growing scarcity of natural gas needed to power its extraction. Most importantly, Alberta’s natural gas production peaked in 2001, without anyone noticing. Oilsands production is highly energy intensive and relies mostly on natural gas. It takes the energy of about one barrel of oil (from natural gas) to produce 4 barrels of synthetic crude oil. At current production volumes and remaining gas reserves, Canada has less than 10 years of natural production remaining.

Another serious problem for Alberta is water. Oilsands production requires huge amounts of water: each barrel of oil produced from oilsands requires about six barrels of water. For each barrel of oil produced, about one barrel of water is permanently lost from the hydrological cycle. Alberta’s oilsands producers are currently licensed to use 26% of the province’s groundwater, in addition to surface water from rivers and lakes.

Combining the impacts of dwindling natural gas supplies in the face of growing domestic and US demand and growing demand for surface and groundwater supplies, Alberta’s oil paradise may not be as rosy as it first appears.

1. But what about the consequences of global peak oil in 2005 for Alberta? I predict the following:
2. Dramatic oil and natural price shocks resulting in budgeting challenges for Alberta;
3. Greater pressure by US (in competitive conflict with China) to secure even more oil from the oilsands and natural gas;
4. Growing demand from China for Alberta’s oil and gas, including Canadian resource companies;
5. US and industry pressure to maintain an already favorable royalty regime for oilsands; and
6. Greater global conflict for each remaining barrel of oil, especially in areas such as the Middle East.

In spite of this gloomy global peak oil scenario there is an opportunity for Alberta to take a leadership role by investing today in greater energy efficiency and conservation, and by promoting the transition to a renewable energy future in our homes, businesses and communities. At stake is nothing less than the economic well-being of the world.

In a post-debt, we have a responsibility to the children of Alberta and the world to show leadership by investing prudently in the frugal use of our resources and gushing resource revenues.

Author: Mark Anielski is a well-being economist and Adjunct Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship at the School of Business, University of Alberta and Adjunct Professor of Sustainability Economics at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Washington. Part of this paper is from his presentation to the Council of Canadians on Energy and Canada-US Relations on November 30, 2004 at the University of Calgary.

Crude oil is selling for over $100 per barrel, but 200 years ago it was a plentiful resource used in medicine and cosmetics. Here are 15 surprising facts about the history of oil and gas.

Dominick Reuter

Sun, May 22, 2022

The first century of the oil industry was a wild and unregulated time, with fortunes made and lost almost overnight.Library of Congress

• For the past century, crude oil has been the lifeblood of the global economy.

• Before that, the oil industry was marked by wild swings in the usefulness and market value of the resource.

• Here are 15 surprising facts about the history of oil, according to Daniel Yergin's 1991 book "The Prize."

Commonly called "rock oil," crude oil was found in many places around the world seeping out of the ground or floating on the surface of ponds or streams.

A natural oil seep.USGS

Source: Yergin, p. 19

Indigenous peoples in North America and Asia commonly used "rock oil" for both medicinal and cosmetic purposes, including treating headaches, toothaches, upset stomachs, and even straightening eyelashes.

Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 19

People would typically collect the oil using rags or blankets to soak it up and wring it out into a container.

An oil tank in Pennsylvania.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 19

One 19th century banker, when asked for funding for the novel idea of drilling for oil, famously scoffed at the idea: "Oil coming out of the ground, pumping oil out of the earth as you pump water? Nonsense! You're crazy."

Pumping oil in western Pennsylvania.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 26

Soon, pumped oil was worth half as much as the whiskey barrels that were repurposed to hold it. To this day, the 42-gallon whiskey barrel remains the unit of measure for the industry, even when no actual barrels are used.

Woodford oil well with whiskey barrels in 1861.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 28

Drillers set off the first-ever gusher in April 1861, sending 3,000 barrels per day up into the air before an explosion and fire killed 19 people and burned for three days.

An oil rig in Titusville, Pennsylvania.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 30

When the Civil War disrupted the supply of camphene illuminating oil from the South, a market for kerosene derived from Pennsylvania oil emerged. The Union also began exporting crude oil to Europe's growing market.

Pennsylvania oil rigs.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 30

After the war, the rush to produce outpaced demand so much that a price crash in the 1870s made oil cheaper than drinking water for households in the oil regions.

Oil refining in Erie, Pennsylvania.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 42

Kerosene was the dominant petroleum product prior to 1905, while gasoline was a small byproduct that was often poured off into rivers. Gasoline sold for as low as 2 cents a gallon in 1892.

The interior of the Pennsylvania Oil Exchange.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 14

That began to change in 1905 with the invention of the automobile, which led gasoline sales to overtake kerosene sales by 1911.

Ford Model T assembly line.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 95

In the early years of the automobile, gasoline was sold at hardware stores and general stores by shopkeepers who kept it in unbranded cans under the counter or outside behind the store. Some entrepreneurs even attempted to deliver via gasoline wagons, which had a tendency to explode.

General store.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 209

World War I ushered in the modern oil era, when combustion engines demonstrated their reliability and superior versatility over coal- and horse-powered modes of transportation.

A German car towing a plane in WWI.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, ch. 9

By 1920, the concept of a service station had taken root, with roughly 12,000 drive-in gas stations in 1921, rocketing up to more than 140,000 in 1929.

1920s gas station.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 209

By 1929, once-dominant kerosene was basically negligible, due to the heightened demand for gasoline and fuel oil, which represented 85% of oil consumption.

Hartford Oil and Gas Co. workers.Library of Congress

The 1920s also forged the bond that would tether politics and oil prices for the next century. One Wisconsin Senator railed against corporate price manipulation, warning that if it were to continue "the people of this country must be prepared, before long, to pay at least $1 a gallon for gasoline."

Oil rigs in Oklahoma.Library of Congress

Source: Yergin, p. 211

Read the original article on Business Insider

#ECOCIDE

UPDATED

Ship's anchor among possible causes of California oil spill

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Officials are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing a major leak of crude into waters off Southern California.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline said Monday that divers have examined more than 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) of pipe and are focusing on “one area of significant interest.”

Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said during a news conference that a ship's anchor striking the pipeline is “one of the distinct possibilities” for the cause of the leak.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said that cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area.

“We’re looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but that’s in the assessment phase right now,” said Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Jeannie Shaye of Coast Guard.

The leak reported Saturday has fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or months.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

___

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The company that operates the pipeline suspected in one of California's largest oil spills has been cited 72 times for safety and environmental violations that were severe enough that drilling had to be curtailed or stopped to fix the problem, regulatory records show.

In all, Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity, and a separate incident when crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

Beta, which is a subsidiary of Houston-based Amplify Energy, is under scrutiny after a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline sent 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean waters, fouling the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.

Environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only four oily birds had been found so far. One suffered chronic injuries and had to be euthanized, he said.

“It’s much better than we had feared,” he said at a news conference Monday.

Ziccardi said he’s “cautiously optimistic,” but it’s too soon to know the extent of the spill’s effect on wildlife. In other offshore oil spills, the largest number of oiled birds have been collected two to five days after the incident, he said.

Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to be coming from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles (6.44 kilometers) from the platform.

Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new “side track” projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.

“We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want,” Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity “up to 20,000 barrels a day.”

Investors shared Willsher’s optimism, sending the company's stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged more than 40% in morning trading Monday.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta field and others in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.

Some residents, business owners and environmentalists questioned whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain the spill. People who live and work in the area said they noticed an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum smell Friday evening.

Booms were deployed on the ocean surface Sunday to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland.

But it was not until Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard said an oil slick had been spotted and a unified command established to respond. And it took until Saturday night for the company to shut down the pipeline.

Rick Torgerson, owner of Blue Star Yacht Charter, said on Friday evening “people were emailing, and the neighbors were asking, ‘Do you smell that?’” By Saturday morning, boats were returning to the marina with their hulls covered in oil, he said.

Garry Brown, president of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper, decried a lack of initial coordination among the Coast Guard and local officials in dealing with the spreading oil slick.

“By the time it comes to the beach, it’s done tremendous damage. Our frustration is, it could have been averted if there was a quick response,” said Brown, who lives in Huntington Beach.

Some of the oil washed up on the shores of Orange County. The city and state beaches at Huntington Beach were closed, and late Sunday the city of Laguna Beach, just to the south, said its beaches also were closed.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the beaches of the community nicknamed “Surf City” could remain closed for weeks or even months. The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky black globules.

“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said. “We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.”

Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher said the pipeline and the company's three platforms were shut down Saturday night. The 17.5-mile (28.16-kilometer) pipeline that is 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) below the surface was suctioned out so no more oil would spill while the location of the leak was being investigated.

Crews led by the Coast Guard-deployed skimmers laid some 3,700 feet (1,128 meters) of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop more oil from seeping into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre (10-hectare) wetland officials said.

The oil will likely continue to wash up on the shore for several days and could affect Newport Beach and other nearby communities, officials said.

The spill comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of crude. Fish and about 3,400 birds were killed.

In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara sent 143,000 gallons (541,313 liters) of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach.

The area affected by the latest spill is home to threatened and endangered species, including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, D.C., Bernard Condon in New York, Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.

Amy Taxin And Christopher Weber, The Associated Press

Company suspected in oil spill had dozens of violations

By AMY TAXIN and CHRISTOPHER WEBER

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The company whose pipeline is suspected in one of the largest oil spills in recent California history has been cited 72 times for safety and environmental violations that were severe enough that drilling had to be curtailed or stopped to fix the problem, regulatory records show.

In all, Beta Operating Co. has been cited 125 times since 1980, according to a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. The online database provides only the total number of violations, not the details for each incident.

The company was fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents. Two were from 2014, when a worker who was not wearing proper protective equipment was shocked with 98,000 volts of electricity, and a separate incident when crude oil was released through a boom where a safety device had been improperly bypassed.

Beta, which is a subsidiary of Houston-based Amplify Energy, is under scrutiny after a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline sent 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean waters, fouling the sands of famed Huntington Beach and other coastal communities. The spill could keep beaches closed for weeks or longer.

1 of 16

An aerial photo shows the closed beach after oil washed up on Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Environmentalists had feared the oil might devastate birds and marine life in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a veterinarian and director of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, said only three oily birds had been found so far.

“At this point we’re cautiously optimistic related to the number of animals that may be affected,” he said Monday at a news conference.

Amplify operates three oil platforms about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) off the coast of California, all installed between 1980 and 1984. The company also operates a 16-inch pipeline that carries oil from a processing platform to an onshore storage facility in Long Beach. The company has said the oil appears to be coming from a rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles (6.44 kilometers) from the platform.

Before the spill, Amplify had high hopes for the Beta oil field and was pouring millions of dollars into upgrades and new “side track” projects that would tap into oil by drilling laterally.

“We have the opportunity to keep going for as long as we want,” Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher said in an August conference call with investors. He added there was capacity “up to 20,000 barrels a day.”

MORE ON CALIFORNIA OIL SPILL
– Oil spill laps at "heartbeat" of California beach community

Investors shared Willsher’s optimism, sending the company’s stock up more than sevenfold since the beginning of the year to $5.75 at the close of trading on Friday. The stock plunged more than 40% in morning trading Monday.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and emerged a few months later. It had been using cash generated by the Beta field and others in Oklahoma and Texas to pay down $235 million in debt.

Some residents, business owners and environmentalists questioned whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain the spill. People who live and work in the area said they noticed an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum smell Friday evening.

Booms were deployed on the ocean surface Sunday to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland.

But it was not until Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard said an oil slick had been spotted and a unified command established to respond. And it took until Saturday night for the company to shut down the pipeline.

Rick Torgerson, owner of Blue Star Yacht Charter, said on Friday evening “people were emailing, and the neighbors were asking, ‘Do you smell that?’” By Saturday morning, boats were returning to the marina with their hulls covered in oil, he said.

Garry Brown, president of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper, decried a lack of initial coordination among the Coast Guard and local officials in dealing with the spreading oil slick.

“By the time it comes to the beach, it’s done tremendous damage. Our frustration is, it could have been averted if there was a quick response,” said Brown, who lives in Huntington Beach.

Some of the oil washed up on the shores of Orange County. The city and state beaches at Huntington Beach were closed, and late Sunday the city of Laguna Beach, just to the south, said its beaches also were closed.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the beaches of the community nicknamed “Surf City” could remain closed for weeks or even months. The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky black globules.

“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said. “We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.”

Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher said the pipeline and the company’s three platforms were shut down Saturday night. The 17.5-mile (28.16-kilometer) pipeline that is 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) below the surface was suctioned out so no more oil would spill while the location of the leak was being investigated.

      SEAGULLS EAT POISIONED FISH

Crews led by the Coast Guard-deployed skimmers laid some 3,700 feet (1,128 meters) of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop more oil from seeping into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre (10-hectare) wetland officials said.

The oil will likely continue to wash up on the shore for several days and could affect Newport Beach and other nearby communities, officials said.

The spill comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of crude. Fish and about 3,400 birds were killed.

In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara sent 143,000 gallons (541,313 liters) of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach.

The area affected by the latest spill is home to threatened and endangered species, including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, D.C., Bernard Condon in New York, Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.

California spill came 52 years after historic oil disaster

By CHRISTINA LARSON

In this Feb. 7, 1969, file photo, workers collect oil-soaked straw from the beach at Santa Barbara, Calif., following a leak from an off-shore well that covered area beaches. The oil spill more than a generation ago helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself. (AP Photo/File)

The weekend oil leak along the Southern California coast happened not far from the site of the catastrophe more than a generation ago that helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself: the 1969 Santa Barbara spill.

That still ranks in the top tier of human-caused disasters in the United States and is the nation’s third-largest oil spill, behind only the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 1989 Exxon Valdez calamities.

During a 10-day period in early 1969, between about 3.5 million and 4.2 million gallons of crude spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel after a blowout six miles offshore on a Union Oil drilling platform. The disaster area was about 115 miles from the site of the 126,000-gallon spill over the weekend that fouled Huntington Beach, a celebrated surfing spot.

The Union Oil rig had been controversial since its inception, but local California communities hadn’t been given any voice in decisions about drilling in federal waters. And corners were cut during the construction process: Regulations called for protective steel casing to extend at least 300 feet below the ocean floor, but the company obtained a waiver allowing it to install only 239 feet of casing.

In the aftermath of the spill, thousands of oil-coated birds perished and photos of the carnage on beaches were widely circulated in newspapers and magazines.

President Richard Nixon visited the site in March 1969 and told reporters, “It is sad that it was necessary that Santa Barbara should be the example that had to bring it to the attention of the American people.”

That example — of communities left out of crucial decisions and corners cut to save time or money for large companies — garnered national attention and caused outrage. It added momentum to the movement to organize the first Earth Day the next year.

Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson, an early environmentalist, visited the Santa Barbara oil spill site and later said it inspired him to organize “a nationwide teach-in on the environment.”

The oil spill was not the only U.S. environmental crisis in the 1960s. The links between rampant overuse of the pesticide DDT and damaged ecosystems — including the dwindling population of bald eagles — were the subject of Rachel Carson’s seminal 1962 book, “ Silent Spring.”

A raft of far-reaching federal environmental legislation was enacted in the early 1970s, including the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970) and the passage of the Clean Air Act (1970) and Clean Water Act (1972).

 

In this Feb. 6, 1969, file photo, state forestry conservation crews gather up oil-soaked straw on a beach in Santa Barbara, Calif. The oil spill more than a generation ago helped give rise to the modern environmental movement itself. (AP Photo/Wally Fong, File)

Response time questioned in Southern California oil spill

By AMY TAXIN and CHRISTOPHER WEBER

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Cleanup contractors unload collected oil in plastic bags trying to stop further oil crude incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Some residents, business owners and environmentalists questioned whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches there closed for weeks or longer.

Booms were deployed on the ocean surface Sunday to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland.

People who live and work in the area said they noticed an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum smell Friday evening.

But it wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard said an oil slick had been spotted and a unified command established to respond. And it took until Saturday night for the company that operates the pipeline believed responsible for the leak to shut down operations.

Rick Torgerson, owner of Blue Star Yacht Charter said on Friday evening “people were emailing, and the neighbors were asking, ‘do you smell that?’” By Saturday morning boats were returning to the marina with their hulls covered in oil, he said.

Garry Brown, president of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper, decried a lack of initial coordination among the Coast Guard and local officials in dealing with the spreading oil slick.

“By the time it comes to the beach, it’s done tremendous damage. Our frustration is, it could have been averted if there was a quick response,” said Brown, who lives in Huntington Beach.

An estimated 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude leaked into the water and some washed up on the shores of Orange County. The city and state beaches at Huntington Beach were closed, and late Sunday the city of Laguna Beach, just to the south, said its beaches also were shuttered.

MORE ON CALIFORNIA OIL SPILL
– Oil spill laps at "heartbeat" of California beach community

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the beaches of the community nicknamed “Surf City” could remain closed for weeks or even months. The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky black globules.

“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said. “We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.”

Some birds and fish were caught in the muck and died, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said. But by early afternoon Saturday the U.S. Coast Guard said so far there was just one ruddy duck that was covered in oil and receiving veterinary care. “Other reports of oiled wildlife are being investigated,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The leaking pipeline connects to an oil production platform named Elly, which in turn is connected by a walkway to a drilling platform named Ellen. Those two platforms and another nearby platform are in federal waters and owned by Amplify Energy Corp.

Elly began operating in 1980 in an area called the Beta Field. Oil pulled from beneath the ocean and processed by Elly is taken by the pipeline to Long Beach.

Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher said the pipeline and three platforms were shutdown Saturday night. The 17.5-mile (28.16-kilometer) pipeline that is 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) below the surface was suctioned out so no more oil would spill while the location of the leak was being investigated.

Crews led by the Coast Guard-deployed skimmers laid some 3,700 feet (1,128 meters) of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop more oil from seeping into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre (10-hectare) wetland officials said.

A petroleum stench permeated the air throughout the area. “You get the taste in the mouth just from the vapors in the air,” Foley said.

The oil will likely continue to wash up on the shore for several days and affect Newport Beach and other nearby communities, officials said.

The closure included all of Huntington Beach, from the city’s north edge about 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) south to the Santa Ana River jetty. The shutdown came amid summerlike weather that would have brought big crowds to the wide strand for volleyball, swimming and surfing. Yellow caution tape was strung between lifeguard towers to keep people away.

Officials canceled the final day of the annual Pacific Air Show that typically draws tens of thousands of spectators to the city of about 200,000 residents south of Los Angeles. The show featured flyovers by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

Huntington Beach resident David Rapchun said he’s worried about the impact of the spill on the beaches where he grew up as well as the local economy.

“For the amount of oil these things produce I don’t think it’s worth the risk,” Rapchun said. He questioned whether drilling for oil was a wise idea along some of Southern California’s most scenic beaches, noting the loss of the final day of the air show could deal a blow to the local economy.

“We need oil, but there’s always a question: Do we need it there?” he said.

The spill comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of crude. Fish and about 3,400 birds were killed.

In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara sent 143,000 gallons (541,313 liters) of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach.

The area affected by the latest spill is home to threatened and endangered species, including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales.

“The coastal areas off of Southern California are just really rich for wildlife, a key biodiversity hot spot,” said Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program.

The effects of an oil spill are wide-ranging, environmentalists said. Birds that get oil on their feathers can’t fly, can’t clean themselves and can’t monitor their own temperatures, Sakashita said. Whales, dolphins and other sea creatures can have trouble breathing or die after swimming through oil or breathing in toxic fumes, she said.

“The oil spill just shows how dirty and dangerous oil drilling is and oil that gets into the water. It’s impossible to clean it up so it ends up washing up on our beaches and people come into contact with it and wildlife comes in contact with it,” she said. “It has long-lasting effects on the breeding and reproduction of animals. It’s really sad to see this broad swatch oiled.”


___

Associated Press reporters Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix and Julie Walker in New York contributed.

126,000-gallon oil spill leaves dead wildlife on Southern California coast

More than 126,000 gallons of oil have spilled off the coast of Huntington Beach, Calif., creating "toxicity" in the area and leaving dead wildlife washed up on the beach. 

Photo by Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley/Twitter


Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A major oil spill has dumped about 126,000 gallons of post-production crude off the coast of Southern California, officials said Sunday as cleanup crews raced to prevent further environmental degradation.

Authorities said during a press conference that the pipeline breach occurred about 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach in Orange County on Saturday.



Local and federal agencies have been deployed to the Southern California coast to initiate cleanup operations.

Photo courtesy of City of Huntington Beach/Facebook


Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told reporters that oil has already infiltrated many of its wetlands, including the Talbert Wetlands, and they are doing "everything they can" to prevent further contamination.

In a statement late Sunday, Foley said the presence of oil in Hunting Beach has become "slightly more acute" as they have seen an increasing amount wash ashore.

"There has been a significant amount of ecological impact, including loss of birds and fish, which have been reported as washing up on shore," Foley said.

A total of 3,150 gallons of oily water has been removed, she said, adding that nine boats and three shoreline assessment teams have been dispatched for oil spill recovery operations along with 3,700 feet of boom deployed.

A health advisory has also been issued encouraging residents who may have come into contact with contaminated materials to seek medical attention.



Officials have urged residents to stay away from the beaches and those who may have come into contact with contaminated materials to seek medical attention. 

Photo courtesy of City of Huntington Beach/Twitter

"Even when an oil sheen may not be visible, dispersed and dissolved oil contaminates may exist in the water," Orange County Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chau said in a statement.

The City of Huntington Beach said in a statement that the spill measures approximately 5.8 nautical miles stretching from the Huntington Beach Pier to Newport Beach, forcing a closure of the ocean from the Pier to the Santa Ana River jetty.

"The spill has significantly affected Huntington Beach, with substantial ecological impacts occurring at the beach and at the Huntington Beach Wetlands," the city said. "In response, Huntington Beach Fire and Marine Safety personnel have been deployed throughout the day to implement environmental containment efforts."

On Sunday night, the city said via Facebook that federal, state and regional agencies have deployed cleanup crews and skimming boats to remove oil from the environment.

The U.S. Coast Guard said an oil sheen off the coast was first reported at 9:10 a.m. on Saturday morning.

The pipeline is owned by Houston-based oil and gas company Amplify Energy, President and CEO Martyn Willsher said during the news conference.

"We are fully committed to being out here until this incident is fully concluded," Willsher said.



Some 3,700 feet of boom have been deployed to prevent oil from further impacting wetlands. Photo courtesy of City of Huntington Beach/Twitter


As of early Sunday morning, city officials said the leak had not yet been stopped but preliminary patching to repair the oil spill site has been completed as the U.S. Coast Guard will continue to respond to the incident.

The city also urged individuals to avoid the beach due to the "toxicity created by the spill" and city leadership canceled the Pacific Airshow, which was scheduled for Sunday to facilitate clean-up efforts.

Earlier Sunday, Foley tweeted that oil had washed up onto the beachfront along with dead birds and fish.




Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said Coast Guard information indicates the spill may have been the result of an oil release from an offshore oil production off the coast.

Republican Rep. Michelle Steel sent a letter Sunday to President Joe Biden urging him to authorize a major disaster declaration for her Orange County community.

"Your approval of this request is imperative for a swift recovery and the support of assistance efforts for all Californians," she wrote. "Dead fish and birds are already being reported on beaches and shorelines."

The oil spill forced the city of Huntington Beach to cancel the Pacific Airshow scheduled for Sunday.

No exact cause for the spill has been determined and the Coast Guard is conducting an investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted two investigators have been dispatched to investigate.

Northern California Environmentalists Respond to Massive Huntington Beach Oil Spill

KQED News Staff and Wires
Oct 3

Oil is washed up on Huntington State Beach after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform on October 3, 2021 in Huntington Beach, California. The spill forced the closure of the popular Great Pacific Airshow with authorities urging people to avoid beaches in the vicinity. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)


One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches that could end up closed for months as crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.

Divers are trying to determine where and why the leak occurred, but the flow of oil was stopped late Saturday from the pipeline that runs under the ocean off Huntington Beach, according to the head of the company that operates the line.

At least 126,000 gallons of crude spilled into the waters off Orange County starting late Friday or early Saturday when boaters began reporting a sheen in the water, officials said.

Some in the wider Bay Area, like the UC Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network, are already responding. They sent field teams down to Huntington Beach to help wildlife that have been coated in the crude oil. They are also assessing how many volunteers they need to send for support.

"All of our teams have 'go bags' where items are packed and ready to go," said Eunah Preston, a spokesperson for the UC Davis-based wildlife network. "There's no hesitation, really."

While the amount of crude that's spilled has raised the eyebrows of experts, Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said that'll be the last of it.

“I don’t expect it to be more. That’s the capacity of the entire pipeline,” Willsher said. He said the pipeline was suctioned out and dozens of nearby oil platforms operated by Amplify were shut down

.

Cleanup workers attempt to contain oil which seeped into Talbert Marsh, which is home to around 90 bird species, after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform on October 3, 2021 in Huntington Beach, California. The spill forced the closure of the popular Great Pacific Airshow with authorities urging people to avoid beaches in the vicinity. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

It was one of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history, shoring up black oil on the strand in Huntington Beach, the town known as Surf City USA. Crews scrambled to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.

Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the city's famous beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months.

“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said.

The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky, black globules.
"I believe we are seeing a much better oil spill response due to the time we took after the Cosco Busan spill to really understand what went wrong."Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper

Some birds and fish were caught in the muck and killed, said Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley. But the U.S. Coast Guard said there was a report of just one duck that was covered in oil and receiving veterinary care. “Other reports of oiled wildlife are being investigated,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Coordination between various branches of government that deal with oil spills have improved over the past decade, according to Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental advocacy group.

Oil spill-oriented-reforms sprung from the sluggish response to San Francisco's Cosco Busan spill of 2007, when the Cosco Busan container ship struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, ripping a hole in the boat's hull.

A 90 foot gash is visible on the side of the freighter ship Cosco Busan as it sits anchored in the San Francisco Bay November 13, 2007 in San Francisco, California. 

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

More than 53,000 gallons of oil spilled into San Francisco Bay and sat there — for hours — with little initial effort to contain it.

Choksi-Chugh was in a boat herself with an SF Baykeeper crew, measuring the distance of the spill. Their crew ended up urging the government to revise its estimation of the spill's size to be larger than it was initially reported.

At first, reports said Cosco Busan spilled 400 gallons, but "we found out about eight hours later it was a 53,000-gallon oil spill," Choksi-Chugh said.

The lackadaisical response in San Francisco's waters led to an overhaul of state oil-spill responses, though some of the changes didn't go as far as advocates had hoped, according to SF Baykeeper.

In the aftermath, oil-spill response plans were developed for the Bay Area and other localities, and communication was streamlined between some agencies. Activists also called for increased investment in quickly training and onboarding volunteers to help clean beaches and save wildlife.

"I believe we are seeing a much better oil spill response due to the time we took after the Cosco Busan spill to really understand what went wrong," Choksi-Chugh said. "When you come up with two hundred different ways that oil spill response went wrong back in 2007, you better believe there's going to be improvements."

Oil booms lay on the beach at Crissy Field November 12, 2007 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Much of that cleanup was underway nearly immediately in Huntingon Beach over the weekend.

Crews led by the Coast Guard deployed skimmers and some 3,700 feet of floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further incursion into areas including Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre wetland in Huntington Beach, officials said.

A petroleum stench permeated the air throughout the area.

“You get the taste in the mouth just from the vapors in the air,” Supervisor Foley said.

The oil will likely continue to approach the Orange County coast, including Newport Beach to the south, over the next few days, officials said.

The oil slick originated from a pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly, Foley said on Twitter. Elly is connected by walkway to another platform, Ellen, located just over 8.5 miles off Long Beach, according to the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said people in Northern California should be concerned about Southern California spills because "we are all one coast." Wildlife experts have noted that migratory animals people spot even from the Bay Area, like whales, often swim up from Southern California.

"I'm horrified, of course," Huffman said.

Cosco Busan was somewhat different because the oil came from a ship, versus a pipeline, but "whether it's a ship, whether it's a pipeline, whether it's inland, or coastal, the bottom line is these accidents happen all the time," and that the United States' dependence on oil is "no way to power an economy, and we don't have to do it anymore." He said this should be "a wake-up call" for a transition to clean and safer energy.

Cleanup workers (R) attempt to contain oil which seeped into Talbert Marsh, which is home to around 90 bird species, after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform on October 3, 2021 in Huntington Beach, California. The spill forced the closure of the popular Great Pacific Airshow with authorities urging people to avoid beaches in the vicinity. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The Huntington Beach spill comes three decades after a massive oil leak hit the same stretch of Orange County coast. On Feb. 7, 1990, the oil tanker American Trader ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, spilling nearly 417,000 gallons of crude. Fish and about 3,400 birds were killed.

In 2015, a ruptured pipeline north of Santa Barbara sent 143,000 gallons of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach.

At a news conference Saturday night, Orange County officials expressed concern about the environmental impacts of the spill and hoped crews could stop the oil before it flowed into sensitive wetlands.

“We’ve been working with our federal, state and county partners to mitigate the impact that could be a potential ecological disaster,” Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said.

The area is home to threatened and endangered species — including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales — a fishing industry and migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway.

“The coastal areas off of Southern California are just really rich for wildlife, a key biodiversity hot spot,” said Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program.

The effects of an oil spill are wide-ranging, environmentalists said. Birds that get oil on their feathers can’t fly, can’t clean themselves and can’t monitor their own temperatures, Sakashita said. Whales, dolphins and other sea creatures can have trouble breathing or die after swimming through oil or breathing in toxic fumes, she said.

A bird spreads its wings as it stands in the water at the Berkeley Marina November 27, 2007 in Berkeley, California. Almost three weeks after the freighter ship Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge and spilled58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay, nearly 2,150 birds have died and more continue to be found with oil-soaked feathers. Biologists are estimating that more than 20,000 birds may have died as a result of the spill but have not been found yet. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Sakashita keenly remembers the Cosco Busan oil spill near the Bay Bridge, and then havoc it wreaked from beaches and shallow pools to the deepest reaches of San Francisco Bay. She was among the staff that advocated for improving oversight of oil in California after that Bay Area spill.

This new spill down in southern California is "about twice that size" of the Cosco Busan spill, Sakashita noted.

"A lot of us remember going out and seeing the oil washing up on the shores and just feeling so helpless about what can be done to clean up a spill like that in the Bay, and that same thing is really devastating off of Huntington Beach right now," she said. "It's definitely a horrific reminder that oil and gas and all of the fossil fuels that are being so heavily used right now are just dirty and dangerous, and we need to shift off of that."

KQED's Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Annelise Finney in the Bay Area contributed to this report, as did Associated Press reporters Amy Taxin, Christopher Weber, Felicia Fonseca, and Julie Walker.