Rumbo's Mumbo Jumbo... OR...We are being drilled again

[Hubert Flottz]

Where...will Rumbo send the troops who are now stationed in Germany?

What the DoD is doing now, I think, is setting up bases in the counties that provide a good location, from which to be able to guard the southern part of the old USSR and also the Balkan countries. The oil bankers and big shots, need free security guards in the countries surrounding the Caspian sea basin oil deposits, that are about to be developed into a major oil producer, by Halliburton and friends.

Halliburton/Cheney, is set to go into the Caspian basin to service new oil wells and to drill out old pumped wells and to open up again. Halliburton has the ability to reopen old pumped out oil wells, as well as servicing(fracking)new wells that will be drilled. The old Russian wells were only drilled down to the uppermost oil deposit. That upper deposit, or "shallow" Russian oil deposits, contained a fair amount of oil in it's day, but the big oil deposits are deeper and much larger than the shallow pools and therefore much more lucrative.

Opening the shallow wells back up and drilling deeper is possible now, because Halliburton has the equipment and the technology to do it. The Russians never had that ability and still don't have the right drilling gear. So they plugged and abandoned those old wells after the shallow oil had been pumped out, over the past century. Halliburton can open the old wells up and drill down deeper, to the mother load, faster than they can drill new wells. The old wells are all over the southern part of the former USSR. and could be put on line, in a short time.

Halliburton services new wells all over the US, and all over the world. The drillers can "bring in" bigger oil wells when they "Frack the wells". Fracking busts up the rock surrounding the pool they are sinking the wells into. Fracturing the rock around the oil deposit, releases oil in any pockets that are trapped in the rock around the oil pool. The oil then seeps out through the cracks they open up around the bottom of the drill casing. The Old USSR is sitting on top of a huge amount of oil, that can quickly be on the market. The Caspian basin is sitting on the untapped mother load of oil and natural gas.

The Balkans have a small amount of oil, that has been developed over the years and is supplying the Balkan countries, but those countries too consume some imported oil. The Balkan countries are important to the oil companies, because across the Balkans, is the shortest direct route from the oil wells in the Caspian sea area, to the waiting oil tankers on the Adriatic sea. From the Adriatic Sea, the oil can be transported to the western world. The reason Afghanistan is important now, is because the oil companies are building pipelines across Afghanistan, from the Caspian Basin oil fields to the waiting piping and tankers that will take the oil to the Asian countries.

The scary part is, that a pipeline through IRAN, and the oil deposits under Iran, would be a huge money maker for the oil barons too, so don't EVER rule ANYTHING out.

The Natural gas deposits in the Caspian area are huge. Halliburton has that action covered too. From pipeline construction, to the drilling and servicing of new deeper oil wells. They use the Brown&Root branch of the company, to do the pipeline work and even built the new military bases. Those bases will guard the pipelines and the oil and gas fields. Kellogg Brown&Root/Halliburton, even provides the outdated food and contaminated fuel for the troops in the areas of operation.

The taxpayers are paying for it all and they are being gang raped at the gas pumps by the oil companies in return. The taxpayers are paying for the guarding of the oil companies and Halliburton's assets and operations abroad. We're paying for ALL the smart weapons and the stupid ones. We're paying for the movement of the Army and carrier strike forces. We're paying for it in loss of respect, in ourselves and respect in the rest of the world. And we're paying for it by living in a country where the rich two percent, are rewarded huge by tax cuts, when the countries roads and schools are becoming unsafe because of a lack of federal funds. A country where the poor are doing without food, shelter, and security. The soldiers have already been and will in the future, pay too, but in lives destroyed and broken dreams, hearts, minds and bodies.

A few short years ago, we the people, still had some pride in this country's government. Today, we have only deception, insecurity, sadness and dread. We were "The Proud And, The Few", now only the fools and the robber barons can afford any pride. I support the troops, but I can't support the greedy mission and the people who planned it, with any pride at all. America was the great defender of peace and human rights, but "My, how the mighty have fallen"...

[Hubert Flottz]

1. Conspiracy theory?

Caspian Basin Alert

Pipeline Politics

There are four main proposed pipeline routes from the Caspian Basin region--each with their unique geographical and political problems. This page focuses on the political aspects of this multifaceted problem. For most of human history, this region has been a highly contested area. This was true in ancient times and it is true in present times. With the industrialized world's increasing dependence on oil and the discovery of vast reserves in the Caspian Sea, political tension has only intensified.

http://www.uwec.edu/grossmzc/caspianpipes.html

Caspian Basin & Central Asian Oil & Gas Report


Throughout the 1990s, the region of the Caspian Basin and Central Asia has been dubbed the "Second Persian Gulf," suggesting that the oil reserves and potential are of substantial amounts. While this hyperbole may not be true, it is the case that this region is still being explored with new finds occurring on a regular basis.
This report will assess the known and estimated oil and gas supply of the countries in the region and look at what sort of potential the Caspian and Central Asian states have. Equally important are the obstacles to getting the oil and gas to market: cross-border pipelines, political instability, and economic fragility in the region. This report will examine these aspects as well, especially the legal and political problems that potential that investors will face. The oil and gas export states of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan are viable markets for investors willing to maneuver through the maze of regulations they require. The transit states of Georgia and Uzbekistan have their share of issues. Lastly, the peripheral states of Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan - although not oil and gas exporters themselves, play significant roles in regional economic and political matters and should thus be afforded some attention.

While the region in question may not have the same impact on the energy market that, say, the Persian Gulf has, there is no doubt that the Caspian Basin and Central Asia will play an important role in the future of that sector. And as new fields are still being discovered and explored, the potential for profit remains high.

http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?partnerid=885830502&productid=826902

Azerbaijan

http://www.first-exchange.com/fsu/azer/index.html

Baku, Azerbaijan -- Oil and water don't mix.

Framed in that old adage is a specter that haunts an immense oil strike in the Caspian basin of Cen tral Asia and the industries worldwide that it is expected to fuel in the next century.

The seas that separate the region's black gold from U.S., European and Asian markets are among the most unpredictable on Earth. Below their waves, warn environmentalists, a disaster is waiting to happen.

``The ecological crisis that faces us is monumental,'' said Gurban Aliyev, a Baku geologist who serves as a consultant to many western oil firms. ``Everyone knows that something has to be done about it. But it is not at all clear what that something should be.''

The nightmare scenario has two settings: Catastrophic oil spills on densely populated shores; and a mysterious rise in the Caspian Sea level that could eventually overwhelm oil facilities, with drastic consequences for Central Asian nations and the global economy.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/09/19/MN36239.DTL

Table 4. Oil Export Routes and Options in the Caspian Sea Region

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspgrph.html

[vickitulsa]

2. This is a brilliant post, by someone who knows the oil industry.

I am an Okie who worked in Big Oil for many years -- even
worked on the construction of the TransAlaska Pipeline in
'74-'75.  Most people have no clue to how the "energy
industry" really works, though many are distrustful and
wary of them, with good reason.

Fractionation can bring back in many wells that have been
plugged, and Russia does indeed have beaucoup massive oil
deposits down deep.  If the U.S. companies provide the
infrastructure and technology that the Russians have never
had, huge oil reserves could be tapped and put into the
pipeline, literally.

I think any U.S. companies, whether it's Halliburton or
Bechtel or whoever, should really think twice before trying to
hoodwink Putin into letting his old enemy (us) prop up our
fossil fuel based economy quickly and cheaply with Russian oil
just because we have the know-how to get it out of the ground.
 Never forget that Putin is a former head of the KGB -- and if
anyone thinks the KGB no longer exists, they should think
again.  Change a name, lie some more, carry on the work,
that's how it is.

OTOH, as long ago as 1995, I was working for an exploration
company headquartered in Tulsa whose owner was young, rich,
and savvy, and he was making frequent trips to Russia to
assess the potential for mining the fossil fuel reserves
there.  In one sense, it's all about infrastructure, and
that's where Russia can't yet "do for itself" and
may need American companies to get things moving.  But once an
initial contract for the oil produced has expired, do we think
the Russian government will allow US to benefit from the
continuing flow of oil or natural gas from regions in their
control?

My money is on the inevitable resumption of oil acquisition in
a region the U.S. owns:  namely, Alaska.  The recent
skyrocketing of gasoline prices at the pump will result in
fast-tracking of legislation opening drilling in ANWR.  I am
not necessarily against this, as I saw just how
environmentally safe building a massive oil pipeline can be
back in '74.  But the TransAlaska project was delayed for
YEARS by environmentalists, from 1968 to 1973 -- when the oil
embargo by OPEC and prices at the pump higher than they are
now (when adjusted for inflation) made Americans willing to
allow legislators to push through the TransAlaska project in a
heartbeat.  

ANWR can be protected, and I think its massive crude oil
reserves can be very helpful to ease the price burden of
Americans paying for gas.  But we have to remember that it
will still take some time to get that oil flowing.  Huge
construction projects can't be completed in a year.  However,
so much of the pipeline and pumping infrastructure  is already
in place in Alaska in the form of the Alyeska pipeline.  And
the technology for locating and drilling in the right areas to
tap into more than an estimated 10 to 15 billion barrels of
oil KNOWN to be in ANWR is making a project there very
appealing even to environmentalists.  They know as well as
anyone that the TAPS project did not cause grave harm to
pristine Alaska, because they had guard dogs onsite in many
forms and the construction was monitored so heavily you
wouldn't believe it.  We couldn't even wake up a hibernating
BEAR in order to survey centerline north of Delta Camp because
she was protected!

Actually, a helicopter that came to pick up the survey crew,
showshoes and all, DID wake up that bear, and she ran out her
cave a few hundred feet onto the permafrost, which pleased the
oilmen, but then she turned right around and ran back *into*
her cave and went back to sleep!  We could not disturb her and
construction was held up for several more weeks waiting for
her to wake up and stay up.  There was even an article in the
Wall Street Journal on this story, taken from my report in our
pipeline newsletter, The Campfollower.  

We had inspectors onsite every day making sure every oil spill
even as tiny as a quart was properly cleaned up with absorbent
pads, and the terrain restored to better-than-new.  There were
state inspectors and federal inspectors, in addition to
Bechtel's own inspectors and the environmental guys.  About
four or five different approvals had to be given to begin any
new section of surveying and construction, even of something
as small as a tool shed, and okaying any cleanups done.  It
was amazing.  One of my jobs was making sure all approvals
were in place BEFORE further work was done, and
Bechtel/Alyeska was diligent about these steps.  They knew
they'd better be -- the fines for mistakes were potentially
crippling!

Sorry, I got carried away thinking about this.  There are
times when I actually MISS working in the industry because I
learned so much and had some great adventures that way.  :D

Of course, you can imagine that I understand how Cheney and
Bush think better than the average person who is not an
insider in Big Oil, too... and it often makes me feel ill to
think of what powerful positions those two are in, and what an
"oil-based administration" we have in office at the
White House right now.

I was watching a program about the Gulf War on the History
Channel yesterday, and saw GWHB on tape admitting, "Well,
no, I can't say that oil was *not* a consideration at all in
our decision to go throw Saddam out of Kuwait."  Yeah
right!  "Can't say" that indeed!  ;)

[annabanana]

3. Thanks for your perspective!

and welcome to DU
:toast:

[Hubert Flottz]

4. Thank you for your kind words and welcome to DU.

Practically all my relatives on my mothers side were all either pipeliners, or worked at compressor stations on the big natural gas pipelines that run through here.(West Virginia) I had one cousin who retired from Halliburton about ten years ago and two of his sons sill work for them and have for several years. One of his sons runs a little power tong business too. I learned to weld on an old Lincoln Pipeliner that belonged to my great uncle. I still think a Pipeliner is the finest welder Gawd ever created.

When I was a boy, one of my uncles was a tool pusher on old time spud rigs and I'd go out to the locations and spend the nights sometimes, listening to all the drillers war stories.

The only oil and gas field work I've ever done, was servicing wellheads and painting them and blowin' drip valves on small connector pipelines. We would blow drip gas all over the woods back then and never even worry about the damage it was doing. I honed my driving skills when I was a boy in the drilling company's old power wagon, out running the ridges and working the drip lines. Had the close calls with the copperheads and hornet nests. Boy, what fun.

Good to have you on DU...We need all the help we can get!!!

[vickitulsa]

5. Appreciate the welcomes. I'm enjoying it here.

You mentioned close calls with copperheads and hornet nests ... some of my favorite adventures during my "pipeliner years" were encounters with wildlife, though some of them were a little scary, I freely admit. :) The one about the bear sleeping on the centerline was choice, but it was not my own experience, just one I heard about immediately afterward from the mouths of some very excited surveyors. The time I had to stop dead in the road in my company pickup and wait out a large bull elk who didn't think I had any right of way at all on the Old Richardson Highway headed to Fairbanks was sort of magical. You don't hit a full grown elk with your truck or the truck will lose! He just turned his head and looked at me, sitting there idling in minus-60-degree weather with the heater blowing on high, and munched a mouthful of ... whatever. I could almost imagine his thoughts. "So you think you can handle this survival climate as well as I can, huh?" ;)

Truth was, I knew damn well I couldn't handle that climate as well as its wildlife that is so well adapted to the extreme temperatures. Arctic foxes that are red in the summer but whose coats turn pure white in winter to camouflage them in the snow, grizzlies who have learned to invade the humans' encampments to gather discarded foodstuffs from the trash barrels behind cafes, wild animals of so many species that have never seen humans before you walk up on them and they don't even know they should be concerned about you... there's just no end to the joys of observing arctic wildlife! Even the caribou and musk oxen are fascinating.

I would love to sit down over a brew and swap pipeliner stories with ya sometime. I even remember quite a few that were told to me by veteran pipeliners -- some of whom had come straight to Alaska from Saudi Arabia. Talk about an abrupt shift in environment!

[Hubert Flottz]

6. I worked with an elderly man once who had worked the Middle...

East on pipelines and refineries and he was, without a doubt, the best welder and pipe fitter I've ever worked around. This guy had worked a lot in South America too. We were working in a fab shop together for a local drilling outfit, building sleds out of worn out drill pipe, to load casing and drill pipe on and drag around on the locations with a dozer. They were always bending and ripping pieces of pipe out of the sleds, when they pulled and pushed them around. So we fixed more stuff than we built.

We made pipe gates and just anything they needed made, to take out in the field and tear it up. That old guy could lay out and cut free handed, any kind of pipe saddle you can think of and all he ever did was mark the longest length he needed, with one little mark with his soap stone, and burn them out and they were about always almost air tight fits. The easiest fitter to weld behind that I've ever worked around.

When he'd weld the fits up himself, it looked like someone had welded it with a machine of some kind. He was so steady handed burning, or welding, it was like he never had a nerve in his body. He'd run P-5 in any position and his welds always looked like a row of dimes. The beads he ran with low hydrogen rods, didn't even have ripples on the cover passes. I learned more about welding and fitting pipe from that old guy, than anyone else I've ever worked around since. He taught me the ropes about Bullshittin' too.

He told some tall tales about the Middle East and some real zingers about South America. He always said that in South America, every time he got a good crew of men together that could really work, the people around there ate them and that he had a hell of a time keeping a good crew together. Now this old dude could bullshit you, almost as slick as he could burn and weld, so I don't know if he was lying or not.

That guy always said, that after I'd been welding, for as long as he had, I'd be able to weld and burn like he did. I was just out of high school then and as green as a goard. I started welding about 40 years ago and I still can't weld and cut as slick as "old man Tom" yet. I've welded around welders and fitters from about every craft, on construction jobs and in fab shops and that old union pipeliner was the very best craftsman I ever saw work.