Total has said the leak was caused by a corrosive reaction between calcium bromide used to complete the well and grease in the pipework, which under high pressure cracked the piping.
Last Wednesday, every single Norwegian became a millionaire – without having to lift a lillefinger. They owe the windfall to their coastline, and a huge dollop of good sense. Since 1990, Norway has been squirreling away its cash from North Sea oil and gas into a rainy-day fund. It's now big enough to see Noah through all 40 of those drizzly days and nights. Last week, the balance hit a million krone for everyone in Norway. Norwegians can't take a hammer to the piggy bank, amassed strictly to provide for future generations. And converted into pounds, the 5.11 trillion krone becomes a mere £100,000 for every man, woman and child. Still, the oljefondet (the government pension fund of Norway) owns over 1% of the world's stocks, a big chunk of Regent Street and some of the most prime property in Paris: a pretty decent whipround for just five million people.
Wish it could have been you with a hundred-grand bonus? Here's the really nauseating part: it should have been. Britain had its share of North Sea oil, described by one PM as "God's gift" to the economy. We pumped hundreds of billions out of the water off the coast of Scotland. Only unlike the Norwegians, we've got almost nothing to show for it. Our oil cash was magicked into tax cuts for the well-off, then micturated against the walls of a thousand pricey car dealerships and estate agents.
All this was kick-started by Margaret Thatcher, the woman who David Cameron claims saved the country. The party she led still touts itself as the bunch you can trust with the nation's money. But that isn't the evidence from the North Sea. That debacle shows the Conservatives as being as profligate as sailors on shore leave.
ROCKMAN wrote:was the UK exporting oil during peak NS production or was it all going to local consumption?
The production costs have also gone up considerably.ROCKMAN wrote: IOW the N Sea production is creating $20+ TRILLION more revenue per year now then when production peaked 14 years ago. Assuming the British govt's royalty share is about the same now as then they have a greater opportunity then ever before to store some nuts away for the future.
dorlomin wrote:ROCKMAN wrote:was the UK exporting oil during peak NS production or was it all going to local consumption?
Yes we were exporting
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