Oil Drilling Demonstration Saturday 7th June

[woe10]

To be held Simultanously in all the islands. 6.pm. Saturday 7th, against drilling for oil around The Canaries.
In Rosario at the Plaza de la Iglesia (church square)

[Spike On Q]

I'll make sure I'm there. I'll be in my petrol driven 4x4, Tuineje to Puerto return about 10 liters of fuel

No perhaps I'll stay at home and save the planet

[Captain Sensible]

I thought the same Spike - there'll be a lot of locals there, who have driven from around the island in their 4x4's

[Captain Sensible]

There are free buses going from all over the island - http://www.rtvaguacabra.com/noticias/las_empresas_de_guaguas_de_la_isla_habilitan_un_servicio_especial_gratuito_para_acudir_a_la_manifestaci_n_del_s_bado_contra_las_prospecciones_petrol_feras.html

[Can the Man]

Steve & Spike get the flags and banners out.

[Spike On Q]

Do the buses run on fossil fuel too, aren't deisel particulates particularly dangerous?

[Spike On Q]

A serious question. Who is prepared to give up their vehicles and put their money where their mouth is. OR is it just NIMBY'ism?

[woe10]

Somebody seems to be missing the point here 

It's not about locals in their 4 x 4s etc.  It's about saving the environment and beaches from any oil spills etc, Fuerteventura is a Biosphere, there's plenty of oil swilling about in other places where they don't give a damn, as long as they get rich 

[Spike On Q]

NIMBYISM then, you want the oil but not if it's extraction affects you personally? Let someone else face the risk whilst you continue to fill your tank

[Ivemovedon]

ah yes the NIMBY's...a bit like the ones who think the UK should unconditionally embrace immigration to even the lowliest and penniless....and then toddle off to live in a country that only allows in those who can prove their financial worth. We face the risk while they live the life. Priceless!! 

[Spike On Q]

What's that got to do with drilling for oil. Imagine Aberbeen or Great Yarmouth without oil and gas. How many ecological disaster can you recall on the east coast of the UK in the last 40 years of oil and gas exploration?

[Spike On Q]

If you ain't happy -  MOVE

[macb]

When I read the title, I imagined that Repsol was going to explain how oil is safely drilled for and extracted. No such luck. Someone needs to to provide a technical explanation of the techniques and safety standards presently applied in the business to the stop the nonsense being spouted about one of the most sophisticated industries on the planet. As Spike says, Scotland and Norway do not endure contaminated beaches and obliteration of their marine life so why should the Canaries.
I have worked at the cutting edge of this industry for 30 years and none of the involved installations has left environmental mayhem in their wake.  The technologies developed within the industry are extremely impressive. They are not all British Petroleum Macondo's (Who remembers the 11 dead workers?)
Oil is also an organic compound which occurs naturally and it also seeps into the sea naturally. Earthquakes and fault lines breach reservoirs - drilling off the Californian coast showed how the San Andreas fault caused most contamination there.
It is easy to stop oil production - Just stop the demand for it. No flights or transport though. Caves and candles await.
Where can you apply for a job in the new ventures to find oil off the coast. It would save me a lot of Globetrotting.

[Ivemovedon]

If you ain't happy -  MOVE

Its got nothing to do with oil, just nimby's. The irony of you accusing someone else of being a nimby was too hard to ignore.

[woe10]

Yet another thread hi-jacked by the confused sad man from Pared.

Just to make it clear, this Demonstration is not organised by me, or any other person who has recently arrived in the Canaries to escape the mess in the UK. I doubt whether even 1% of demonstrators will be British who live here, as they probably don't even know about it.
This Demonstration is organised by the Canarian people themselves, who don't want the Islands ending up looking like Aberdeen or Galverston Texas, with the filth and Industry that goes with it.
So for anybody who is interested, here it is again.

[isleswing]

On our Island (Wight), at least four wells have been sunk at different sites and times over the years.
No pollution, or environmental  disaster or disturbance or mayhem.

No oil, nor jobs.

[Brightspark]

On our Island (Wight), at least four wells have been sunk at different sites and times over the years.
No pollution, or environmental  disaster or disturbance or mayhem.

No oil, nor jobs.

amen

[Spike On Q]

You may have noticed the small left wing middle class here, generally comfortably employed as civil servants head this campaign. The out of work, seriously poor people need work and the income to live a normal life. Remember the unemployed figure, from memory - under 25s. 55%,  all 33%

[Ivemovedon]

How many out of work seriously poor people of the eight islands Canarian population do you think will seriously get jobs or any other financial gain from oil extraction off the coasts. As woe says the rich will only get richer.
Personally i'm not sure you can equate drilling in a place like Fuerteventura with somewhere like texas or Aberdeen. An ecological disater in either of the latter would be a catastrophe. Fuerteventura it could well be the end of the tourist economy, which in effect means the end full stop. However not being a nimby and being the type to drive round the corner for a pint of milk, if oils there someone will end up getting it . Now or in the near future..... So might as well be now.

[nacnud]

Had to think long and hard to see if I would post on this subject, but I was born and bred in Torry in Aberdeen worked in the Oil Industry in the early days and today I have one of my Companies worrking down in Offshore in Block 17 in Angola so in one way have a vested interest. But I have seen what oil has done to my Home town and what it does further down the African coast and yes Mi segunda hogar is in Fuerteventura. To believe oil exploration creates local jobs the answer is yes but not nearly as many as you would think, most jobs in the oil Industry are specialised and it is not an industry that works to train locals will fly in from every corner of the World people specialised in a particular section, in fact the Rig I was on in Angola catering was done by a French Company and uses french speaking senagalise not Angolans, workers were Dutch,Americans , French ,South Afrians, Philipinos etc.
We need oil yes but we are not desperate, and its no more immoral to use the Argument with regard to Fracking in the UK it is the actual  cost to the Area concerned. Aberdeen has some of the Highest House prices still outside London meaning so many locals cant afford to buy. The Fishing fleet is long gone and some of the booming Industries in Aberdeen are very up market Bars restaurants and Prostitution. To  everything there is a price to pay and what you are promised and what you get are never the same thing.
So do I think the locals should object should we as Foriegners living here object, on careful consideration the answer for me is yes, is this NIMBY'ism not from me it is a thought out consideration of facts and experience I will suport this.
On a final note to Macb yes I do think of people who have died in this Industry especially friends and relations who died on Piper Alpha 167 ppl and relatives who died on the Chincook chopper in the Brent field 45ppl and just to mention Alexander Keiling 128 ppl The Seacrest 91 ppl Ocean Ranger 84ppl as other major Oil Drilling deaths.

[Spike On Q]

I use Exodus as an example. No Fuerte residents got jobs in the specialist areas but hundreds benefited from peripheral jobs created by the present of the film company and its personnel. Agreed short term but with oil and gas this is long term and must provide 100s of support jobs for local residents to benefit in retail, catering, transport, etc. etc. (Good debate for a change)

[appy ammer]

From what I've seen the island is looking lovely and the airport as busy as I have ever seen it. Leave the oil where it is at the moment and concentrate on the things we do best.

[Spike On Q]

Sadly unless you move forward you will get left behind. Our economy should never be a one horse race - the Island must diversify to survive. Our unemployment rates are just unacceptable and any new opportunity to generate jobs and income grasped with both hands

[Magoo]

Until someone comes up with a way of producing Jet-A from goat's milk or stray cats, Fuerteventura's tourist industry is handcuffed to exploiting oil reserves

[isleswing]

I really do wish the protesters well and hope they can get their voices heard.

Some thoughts on drilling, though.

This is exploratory drilling, and even after all the research, hydrographic surveys etc etc etc, most holes turn out dry.

I rather think that, during exploratory drilling, the rigs will be provisioned and serviced from their main base, rather than locally.

IF they were successful, and started production, most supply ships would still be coming from HQ, and oil would be shipped direct from the rigs.

The site is roughly equidistant between the Islands and the African coast, so they'd prefer to source their supplies, labour etc from there, or southern europe, rather than the Islands with their poor infrastructure, who would have to import everything from the same places, anyway.

There's probably very little benefit to the Islands either way.

There's also been enough disaster and horror films made about drilling into volcanic regions to give JanD nightmares. (or, at least, something to talk about)

btw - I also thought the title referred to a Demonstration of Drilling Techniques !!
I'd have paid good money to watch them try to move a deepwater drill rig in to Rosario Harbour 

[isleswing]

Sadly unless you move forward you will get left behind. Our economy should never be a one horse race - the Island must diversify to survive. Our unemployment rates are just unacceptable and any new opportunity to generate jobs and income grasped with both hands

Shouldn't that analogy be 'One trick pony'?

'One horse race' implies guaranteed success, whereas 'One trick pony' is like having all one's eggs in one basket, which the Island already has.

[Spike On Q]

Thank you IS. Who's the one with the long face!

(Were you on the IOW in the 70s, I worked on The Ryde Queen)

[Captain Sensible]

News and photos from last night's protest:
http://www.rtvaguacabra.com/noticias/fuerteventura_vive_la_mayor_manifestaci_n_de_su_historia_contra_las_prospecciones_petrol_feras_en_sus_aguas.html

[Spike On Q]

Population of Fuerteventura. - 100,000 plus.  Turnout a couple of hundred middle class champagne socialists!

[spongebob squarepants]

Population of Fuerteventura. - 100,000 plus.  Turnout a couple of hundred middle class champagne socialists!

Significantly more than a couple of hundred I'd say.