Recently in Human health and environmental impacts Category

Local Chinese media reports have been speculating in recent days that Beijing is expected to include exploration of gas hydrates in the 12th five-year plan's energy development section, which is expected to be announced by the end of March.

According to a report by the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey published in early 2011, an expedition team conducted drilling in 11 areas containing gas hydrates in the northern part of the South China Sea. It assessed that the area contains an estimated 19.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves.

Hardly a day goes by when some new emergency or crisis besetting some aspect of the natural gas industry doesn't make headlines.

The industry has been barraged by stories alleging potential environmental disasters -- hydrofracking fluids polluting groundwater or disposal drilling causing earthquakes -- and reporting real disasters, such as interstate and local distribution company pipelines blowing apart, causing death and destruction.

Platts nuclear group, led by Tom Harrison and William Freebairn, published a story early Monday Japan time on just what is and might be happening with the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan. We are publishing it for Barrel readers below.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Here's the scenario: a major oil spill happens early in an election year. Congress holds hearings, but takes no action before the election or during the lame duck session. The next year, a new Congress puts aside party differences to pass landmark oil spill legislation based on the lessons learned from the disaster.

This is the story of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which gained overwhelming support in the 101st Congress the year after the Exxon Valdez oil spill and was signed into law by George H.W. Bush. Will a similar spirit of bipartisanship seize the newly-minted 112th Congress when it convenes next year? Not likely.

There is widespread agreement that confusion hampered the response effort in the early days and weeks after the April 20 blowout of BP's Macondo well. There was confusion over whether there was an oil spill at all and then just how large; confusion over how quickly the gushing well would be capped; and confusion over just who was in charge, BP or the government.

The scale and scope of the confusion is well documented by a report produced by the staff of the National Oil Spill Commission, appointed by President Obama to investigate the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and recommend ways to avoid a repeat. The document, entitled "Decision Making Within the Unified Command," details some of the problems encountered by government responders in the early days and suggests ways to clarify roles in the future.

Seen as the fringe and "out there" wing of the energy world, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas-USA shows signs of finding its inner nerd as its sets its sights on making a bigger policy footprint.

This year the group held its sixth annual conference within spittin' distance of the Capitol in Washington, DC. Recent past conferences have been in California, Colorado and  Texas.

BP now holds the record for oil spills in two of the major producing regions of the US - Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It was fined $20 million for the Prudhoe spill, which may seem like pocket change when the fines and economic damages for the Gulf spill are finally totaled. Actually, for a company like BP, $20-milion is pocket change.

Last week, BP agreed to pay $50.6 million in penalties for violations relating to a fatal exposition at its Texas City, Texas refinery.  What links Texas City and Prudhoe is company mismanagement, negligence and violations of safety and health standards. The book is still open on the causes of the Gulf spill, but don't bet against a similar indictment.

The success of oil producing companies in Nigeria in ramping up production over the past year can be seen in the rise in the country's crude exports to the US, which averaged 945,000 b/d in the first quarter of this year compared with just 606,000 b/d in the same quarter of 2009.

Nigeria's crude production has been steadily rising since an amnesty last year brought a sustained period of peace to the oil-producing Niger Delta region, allowing foreign oil companies to repair damaged oil infrastructure and increase production.

The startling headlines regarding China's urban population growth this past weekend will likely lead to yet another microscopic analysis of the Asian economic powerhouse.

China's population is already the world's largest at 1.3 billion, according to Li Bin, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

How can China meet its energy-efficiency targets as it faces the huge demand growth expected to meet the requirements of 700 million urbanites by 2015?

An even bigger question is, can China cope with its seemingly unending thirst for fossil fuels?