Showing posts with label petroleum seeps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label petroleum seeps. Show all posts
Friday, July 11, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
SOS California Invites Public to Discuss What the Oil Industry is Doing to Reduce Greenhouse Emissions, May 22
Thursday, May 22
9:15 - 10:30 am
Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center
1118 East Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara
A public forum discussing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and what the oil industry is doing to reduce them will be held at the Cabrillo Pavilion Arts Center in Santa Barbara at Thursday, May 22. The event will feature J. Scott Hornafius BA PhD (Geology) and the discussion will include the impacts of oil production and fracking in shale gas reservoirs and capturing CO2 emissions, as required by the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard legislation.
Topics to be covered:
- Oil production reduces natural hydrocarbon seepage, which cleaned the tar off the beaches in Santa Barbara over the past 40 years and reduced Santa Barbara's air pollution due to oil production from Platform Holly, but also caused a worldwide reduction in the methane concentration in the atmosphere due to oil production around the world.
- Fracking in shale gas reservoirs lowered the price of natural gas, which caused power plants in the US to switch from coal to natural gas over the past five years, resulting in a 30% decrease in the CO2 emissions from electricity generation in the US. The same CO2 emission reductions could occur worldwide if fracking were to spread outside of North America.
- Capturing CO2 fermentation emissions from corn ethanol and other biofuel plants and using the CO2 for enhanced oil recovery to make carbon negative oil will remove CO2 from the atmosphere, and provides a way for California to economically reach the goal of reducing the carbon intensity of its transportation fuels by 10% by 2020, as required by the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) legislation.
About J. Scott Hornafius
J. Scott Hornafius BA PhD (Geology) - Executive Director of Canning Petroleum Pty, Ltd has 30 years of global experience in oil and gas exploration and development. He was President and CEO of MegaEnergy, Inc., from 2000 until 2011, during which time he oversaw the land, geophysical, drilling and production operations of the company. Scott still serves as a Director of MegaEnergy and is founding shareholder of the company. MegaEnergy was a pioneer in the Marcellus Shale development in Appalachian Basin, and is currently involved in two Marcellus Shale Horizontal drilling projects in Pennsylvania. While serving as President of MegaEnergy Scott raised $15.5 million in private equity from sophisticated oil and gas investors, and was responsible for negotiating $120 million in asset sales. Prior to founding MegaEnergy, Scott had a successful career with Mobil Oil Corporation, including management and technical roles in projects involving onshore and offshore California exploration, heavy oil steam floods, horizontal drilling projects, and North Sea and Gulf of Mexico deep-water exploration programs. Scott served as Geological Manager in Papua New Guinea for Mobil Oil in 1989-1991 and was a secondee in 1997-1998 to the Licensing Branch of the Department of Trade and Industry in the British government, in which he administered the 8th Landward Round.
About SOS California
SOS California is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of natural gas and oil seep pollution upon our ocean, our beaches and air quality through education and awareness.
For further information contact Judy Rossiter, judy@soscalifornia.org
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Monday, May 12, 2014
It's Time to Educate Santa Barbara about Natural Oil Seeps!
Up until approximately 30 years ago, Santa Barbara schools would include facts about the offshore natural oil and gas seeps (located in the Santa Barbara Channel) within their curriculum. Unfortunately, today the knowledge of why we have tar on our SB beaches is not as readily available to both students and teachers. Often the offshore oil production take the blame for oil slicks in the water and tar on our white sand beaches, while the fact is actually just the opposite: offshore oil production has contributed to a cleaner marine environment in Santa Barbara.
This morning, SOS received a testimony from a concerned parent of a Santa Barbara student:
“I am a native to SB. My son came home and told me about a teacher (high school) that was almost in tears about getting tar on her feet on a SB beach and blamed the oil platforms for the problem. I had to explain to him that it's from "natural oil seeps" in the SB Channel and that long before we were here the Chumash used the tar from the beaches to repair their boats. I told him the teacher was wrong to tell the class the tar was from oil platforms. Then I did a quick search on google and found you. Your website is very helpful and educational.”
This exemplifies some of the issues in the Santa Barbara community that we at SOS California would like to address:
- The lack of information about the oil in the water/tar on the beaches due to changes in the local educational curriculum - and the world-wide phenomenon that is unique to Santa Barbara (home to the 2nd largest offshore oil & gas seeps in the world!)
- The perpetuation of myths from our children's ill-informed teachers/educational system (where is our environmental educators on this?)
Help us inform our local community about the concerns with natural oil seepage! We would like to invite any Santa Barbara local to the discussion.
- What are your experiences with tar on the beaches?
- What did you learn about it in school?
- How do you think we can change the way we educate our community about these issues?
Please SHARE your experience, it is valuable to us, you and the Santa Barbara community!
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