Mixed reports have been published recently about the current state and future potential of the UK offshore wind industry.
While one paper last week suggested offshore wind could provide all our electricity needs by 2050, another recently commissioned report is looking into the threat posed by escalating costs of the technology.
Whither the Deepwater Horizon costs?
Bloomberg has this chart suggesting $95bn has been wiped off the price of the five companies associated with the GoM oil leak:
It suggests Transocean’s decline has been steepest, but it’s the giant market cap of BP that inevitably has attracted the most attention. The company is thought to have lost about $26bn of its value thanks to the Deepwater Horizon accident, when compared against its sector.
Several equities analysts believe, based on the likely costs of the spill, that BP shares have taken a bigger hit than is warranted. But arguments are emerging against this view.
Carbon traders get gloomy(er), but new plans are afoot
Prices for European allowances may be hovering close to the relatively high level of €15, but carbon traders are ever more gloomy about the outlook for their industry, particularly post-2012, when the Kyoto protocol expires. Along with a host of senior climate officials, they’re not expecting an agreement to be struck this year in Cancun.
The International Emissions Trading Association says a survey carried out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers showed that 60 per cent of carbon traders believe there will be no agreement before 2011, and that “current uncertainty will have a significant negative impact on long-term low-carbon investment”.
Early BP report talks of ‘mistakes’ and ‘large abnormality’ prior to accident, say Congressmen
A summary of a report (plain text version) presented by BP about its preliminary investigation into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon accident has been published by two Democrat congressman.
The summary refers to a multitude of possible warning signs in the 24 hours leading up to the accident, including mention of a “fundamental mistake” in response to negative pressure test results, which were one of the areas of focus in the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee’s hearings earlier this month.
Bart Stupak and Henry Waxman, who chair the subcommittee, say the report “identifies several new warning signs of problems”. The summary specifies issues with test results in the hour preceding the explosion, and highlights questions over the responses cementing, communications, functioning and maintenance of the blowout preventer, and more.
Further reading
- Interpreting the oil plume footage
- Diving in the Gulf’s toxic soup
- Everything you wanted to know about the top kill
- BP’s ties to agency are long and complex
- 39m gallons and counting…
Energy headlines
- BP chairman takes on US critics – FT
- BP probe finds warning signs before explosion - FT
- Alyeska trans-Alaska pipeline shuts down after crude leak – Bloomberg
- US regulator in charge of drilling in bribery case - FT
- Washington a lonely place for oil group - FT
- BP’s ties to agency are long and complex
- Washington faces fire over oil leak - FT
- Leiberman: Climate bill to floor in mid-summer - The Hill
Energy Source is no longer updated but it remains open as an archive.
Insight into the financial, economic and policy aspects of energy and the environment.
