Editorial Comment

	Vol. 224 No. 5
THOMAS R. WRIGHT, JR.,  PUBLISHER

These numbers don’t lie. In the past few months, we have discussed the sources of oil spills to 1) show that the E&P industry has a good environmental track record or 2) to chastise an industry spokeswoman who recklessly used statistics to advance her particular opinion (see World Oil, April, page 7, and March, page 15, respectively. However, in both cases, opinions were based on what amounts to hearsay information. In other words, we cited statistics people pulled from an authoritative report, but failed to confirm their context, thus adding to the confusion. To remedy this, we’ve gone back to the original source of the statistics that are presented below. Now, you may draw your own conclusions.

Nancy N. Rabalais, professor, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Chauvin, and member, Committee on Oil in the Sea of the National Academy of Science, presented some telling figures while releasing the report, Oil In The Sea III. She began by noting that sources of petroleum input to the sea can be categorized into four groups: natural seeps, extraction (E&P), transportation and consumption. The accompanying charts summarize the data.

Natural seeps contribute 47 MMgal of crude oil to North American waters, and 180 MMgal globally, each year. These seeps are responsible for over 60% of the petroleum entering North American waters and 48% of petroleum entering the world’s oceans. 

Oil and gas exploration or production activities introduce an estimated 880 Mgal of petroleum to North American waters, and 11 MMgal worldwide, each year. These releases make up 1% of petroleum spilled in North America and 3% spilled worldwide. Transportation of crude, including refining and distribution, spills an estimated 2.7 MMgal of petroleum to North American waters, and 44 MMgal worldwide, or 3.5% and 11.7%, respectively.

What may surprise people most is that releases that occur during the consumption of petroleum, whether by individual car and boat owners, non-tanker vessels or runoff from paved urban areas, contribute vastly more petroleum to the environment than all oil industry activities combined. On average, 27 MMgal of petroleum enter North American waters, and 140 MMgal enter worldwide, each year from these diffuse sources. These “consumer” spills represent 35% of petroleum entering North American waters and 37% entering global waters. On the basis of human activities alone (ignoring natural seeps), consumer-associated releases make up nearly 70% of the oil introduced to the world’s oceans and nearly 85% of that entering North American waters.

French scandal suggests anti-war motive. Speculation that the French government was opposed to the war with Iraq because the war may jeopardize prior agreements between French oil company TotalFinaElf and Iraq to develop oil fields there has taken new life after a report by Associated Press writer Verena Von Derschau.

It seems that the former number two man at Elf (before the merger) has testified that a large part of some $50 million withdrawn from the French oil giant’s accounts went toward financing French political parties. The amount cited by Alfred Sirven was far more than the $5 million that former president Loik Le Floch-Prigent had said went to political parties during his years at the helm, from 1989 to 1993. Sirven’s testimony was the latest in a corruption trial that has rattled France’s elite and drawn in President Jacques Chirac’s former party.

French prosecutors allege Elf paid and received enormous commissions. Sirven did not provide details, or explain what happened to the rest of more than $150 million that allegedly went missing in the early 1990s. In what must be the most hilarious statement of the century, Sirven testified, “I was alone. I had no financial director. So there was some disorder in these accounts.”

In her Tampa Tribune article, Von Derschau says Sirven conceded that some money went into his own pockets while a large part of the $50 million went to French political parties – both left and right. Testimony also stated that African leaders with whom Elf did business were among the beneficiaries of lucrative commissions.

Sirven fled Europe in 1996, going first to the Caribbean then to the Philippines to escape French justice. He was arrested in the Philippines in 2001. Sirven received a three-year sentence in an earlier Elf-related trial and risks 10 years if found guilty for his alleged role in the embezzling.

He’s back. Not long after I took ownership of this page, we surveyed some of our readers to obtain their opinions of our editorial quality, article topic relevance, etc. We do this regularly to make sure we’re providing what you want. When asked what they would like to see us do, several readers emphatically said to bring back R.W. Scott’s editorials. Additionally, a very tiny minority (likely of the more liberal persuasion) said they were happy to see Bob go. For those of you new to the industry, Bob worked for World Oil/Gulf Publishing for 40 years and produced this page for close to 30 years. 

If you were a Bob Scott junkie and still miss his pearls of wisdom, a remedy is available. Orsa Press has just published Spouting Off, a collection of Bob’s more memorable columns, complete with irreverent references to Billy Jeff and Ozone and those ever-present “environmental wackos.” If you read this book, you may even find out why he was called a communist and “farther right than Adolph Hitler” – for the same column. Orsa Press is at P. O. Box 2569, Alvin Texas 77512.