On April 20, 2010, the Macondo well blew out, costing the lives of 11 men, and beginning a catastrophe that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spilled nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill disrupted an entire region’s economy, damaged fisheries and critical habitats, and brought vividly to light the risks of deepwater drilling for oil and gas—the latest frontier in the national energy supply. Soon after, President Barack Obama appointed a seven-member Commission to investigate the disaster, analyze its causes and effects, and recommend the actions necessary to minimize such risks in the future. The Commission’s report offers the American public and policymakers alike the fullest account available of what happened in the Gulf and why, and proposes actions—changes in company behavior, reform of government oversight, and investments in research and technology—required as industry moves forward to meet the nation’s energy needs.

The waste of oil and gas in the Gulf erodes economic resilience and increases security risks. This is the first report to offer practical recommendations that address the key challenges of governance, political commitment, and market incentives from the perspectives of member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE).

Freudenburg and Gramling argue that it is time for a new approach. BP's Oil Spill Response Plan was pure fantasy, claiming the company could handle the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill every day, even though "cleaning up" an oil spill is essentially impossible. For the future, our emphasis needs to be on true prevention, and our risk-management policies need to be based on better understandings of humans as well as hardware."--Pub. desc.

As feedstocks to refineries change, there must be an accompanying change in refinery technology. This means a movement from conventional means of refining heavy feedstocks using (typically) coking technologies to more innovative processes that will coax the last drips of liquid fuels from the feedstock. This book presents the evolution of refinery processes during the last century and as well as the means by which refinery processes will evolve during the next three-to-five decades. Chapters contain material relevant to (1) comparisons of current feedstocks with heavy oil and bio-feedstocks; (2) evolution of refineries since the 1950s, (3) properties and refinability of heavy oil and bio-feedstocks, (4) thermal processes vs. hydroprocesses, and (5) evolution of products to match the environmental market. Process innovations that have influenced refinery processing over the past three decades are presented, as well as the relevant patents that have the potential for incorporation into future refineries.• Comparison of current feedstocks with heavy oil and bio-feedstocks. • Evolution of refineries over the past three decades. • Properties and refinability of heavy oil and bio-feedstocks. • Thermal processes vs. Hydroprocesses. • Evolution of products to match the environmental market. - Investigates the engineering and plant design challenges presented by heavy oil and bio-feedstocks - Explores the legislatory and regulatory climate, including increasingly stringent environmental requirements - Examines the trade-offs of thermal processes vs. hydroprocesses