balkan analysis
December 24, 2010
By Vlad Popovici*
2010 was an eventful year for the energy sector in Southeast Europe. It is therefore impossible to objectively rank all the incidents, accidents, energy wars and new energy strategies of the year. And it is no easier to see and rank what could be in store for 2011. These disclaimers aside, we can still give it a try and discuss what we see as some of the most consequential events during 2010 that have impacted and/or could impact the Balkans’ energy sector in the future.
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Not all of the incidents or events discussed below have happened in the Balkans, but their impact has been and will continue to be significant for the region’s energy sector. In the same context, we have no intention of ranking them in any way; therefore, we will approach them chronologically.
2010 Part 1: Macondo – the Deepwater Nightmare
What happened? On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the semi-submersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, at the time completing an exploratory well (the MC252 or Macondo prospect) in the deepwater Mississippi Canyon of the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 rig workers. The subsequent fire on the rig could not be put out, and the rig sank on April 22, while crude oil started to gush from the broken riser pipe.
During the next three months BP, the company that was the majority-owner of the Macondo prospect, tried to stop the oil flow from the damaged well using different technical solutions. The effort was supported by the entire oil industry in the region and took place under the constant monitoring of the different local, state and federal authorities in the US.
Macondo was finally capped and the uncontrolled oil flow stopped during the summer months. The Macondo tragedy is undoubtedly the largest offshore oil spill from a single source in history – an estimated 4.9 million barrels flooded into the Gulf of Mexico waters before the well was capped.
Already compared by some observers to other milestone tragedies such as Chernobyl, it highly likely that the Macondo deepwater oil spill will prove a turning point in the evolution and regulation of an industry that was already struggling to improve its public image, but that is still vital for the global economy. Not to mention the legal wrangling, lawsuits and class actions around the spill that, according to an article in the September issue of Offshore magazine, could go on until 2035!...more...
What happened? On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the semi-submersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, at the time completing an exploratory well (the MC252 or Macondo prospect) in the deepwater Mississippi Canyon of the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 rig workers. The subsequent fire on the rig could not be put out, and the rig sank on April 22, while crude oil started to gush from the broken riser pipe.
During the next three months BP, the company that was the majority-owner of the Macondo prospect, tried to stop the oil flow from the damaged well using different technical solutions. The effort was supported by the entire oil industry in the region and took place under the constant monitoring of the different local, state and federal authorities in the US.
Macondo was finally capped and the uncontrolled oil flow stopped during the summer months. The Macondo tragedy is undoubtedly the largest offshore oil spill from a single source in history – an estimated 4.9 million barrels flooded into the Gulf of Mexico waters before the well was capped.
Already compared by some observers to other milestone tragedies such as Chernobyl, it highly likely that the Macondo deepwater oil spill will prove a turning point in the evolution and regulation of an industry that was already struggling to improve its public image, but that is still vital for the global economy. Not to mention the legal wrangling, lawsuits and class actions around the spill that, according to an article in the September issue of Offshore magazine, could go on until 2035!...more...
*Vlad Popovici is a professional analyst and consultant on the energy sector who has published widely on various international business and economics topics since 1996, in various global electronic and print media, in English, German, Romanian and Russian. His current focus is energy policy, renewable energy resources, energy infrastructure projects, and energy geopolitics.
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