Oil Storm: "Americans didn't realize how fragile their existence was"

[Rose Siding]

"America's lifeline has been severed"

Those are lines from the promo of a docudrama that ran on FX in June. Did anyone else watch that?

The program raced to an eventual "happy ending" after a deal for oil made with Russia falls through -China outbid us. Labor, and a better government than the one we have now, comes to the rescue, but the synopsis is becoming hauntingly familiar-

http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/oilstorm/main.html

[nonconformist]

1. I watched it. I'd love to watch it again.

I wish some kind soul with the ability would make a torrent available. I'm sure the interest is quite high right now.

[QuettaKid]

2. I want to know how the producers of

the program must feel about now!!

[slackmaster]

3. Terrible movie with bad special effects

Reality is far more interesting and informative.

[krkaufman]

6. It was a docu-drama, so "special F/X quality" is not the best way to judge

It was a docu-drama, speculating what might happen if a powerful hurricane demolished our Gulf oil production. Special effects were not a priority.

From the standpoint that it should have startled both people and the government into pondering the fragility of our oil predicament, it was very good. From the standpoint that they nailed the "hurricane" cause on the head, it was very successful. From the standpoint that the actual gov't and public readiness for such a disaster appears to have approached nil, the movie's success is less.

edit: p.s. They didn't have the budget that would have been required had they enlisted Michael Bay as director.

[krkaufman]

5. I expect they will be showing it again soon.

If not, I'll see if I can make my copy available to you, once I get back home.

If you have a ReplayTV DVR w/ IVS (Internet show sharing), you can find a copy through Poopli.

[krkaufman]

4. Yep, watched it.

A hurricane, Julia, hit the Gulf, taking out a large portion of our Gulf oil production and some refining capacity -- just like Katrina. The movie then expanded the scenario by postulating a tanker collision in Houston, due to overload from redirected traffic, further handicapping our oil production capabilities.

I forget exactly how it was weaved-in, but I believe Islamic fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia then took hostages in a Saudi shopping mall (serving Western customers) after Saudi Arabia had pledged to increase oil production to partly make-up for the lost GoM supplies. This led to us sending troops into Saudi Arabia, followed by a suicide bombing (I think) taking out a large number of our military (including the newly enlisted son of one of the 2 focal families).

The ending and rapid recovery was somewhat improbable, in my opinion, as though a few tankers of oil from Russia would alleviate the shortage in the timeframe portrayed.

[boise1]

7. The show completely ignored the real problem

As we have already seen, Katrina has had an impact on oil and gas, and will continue to for some time. But even if Russia (or Venezuela) bail us out this time, Peak Oil is not going to go away. A finite resource is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to find and extract, and the quality of what is left is largely 'sour' (high sulphur) crude.