Grim reminder to look for alternative energy sources

G Panicker, Business Times 6 May 10;

NOBODY knows when British Petroleum's (BP) oil well will stop leaking after the underwater explosion that killed 11 began releasing about 5,000 barrels of oil per day. Conventional approaches have failed in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Innovative attempts to disperse oil deep under water are being made. BP's workers are also building a containment dome, a giant structure that the company plans to lower into place over one of the three leaks to catch the escaping oil and allow it to be pumped to the surface. Relief wells beside the leaking pipes to reduce pressure are being drilled. That will take time. In the meantime, bad weather is hampering relief work.

As everyone gropes for the answers, an environmental disaster worse than the infamous Exxon Valdez saga is brewing. A giant slick is floating to America's shores from its origin 65km off Louisiana. Bad weather and stormy seas frustrate the bid to check the slick.

The spill renews the poser: Are we on the right track in securing our energy needs from the deep? If not, drilling companies are not the only ones to be blamed. Oil companies, desperate for reserves, have been shut out from traditional oil sources by state energy companies, where the environmental risk can be managed better.

But because of oil politics, the reserve-rich nations have forced companies to go far out into the sea and plumb depths as deep as 12,000 metres in their search for oil. An environmental challenge on land has been shifted to the oceans with even greater consequences and greater uncertainty as the attempted remedial measures show.

But oil demand is not going away anytime soon. So is the risk from potential disasters as our energy needs keep growing. We can try to minimise a collective crisis if producers and consumers cooperate to exploit reserves with manageable risk first. But it is unlikely the resources hoarders share such lofty goals.

The risk of disasters is real as new frontiers open up, among other places in Brazil and West Africa. Russia and Norway have settled on offshore border in Barents Sea, which may hold as much as 10 billion barrels of oil. China is contesting Japan's attempt to exploit the sea dividing them. US President Barack Obama has allowed drilling in certain parts of the Atlantic and Alaska, but has imposed a moratorium after the latest rig disaster. It was an oil slick off Santa Barbara in 1969 that led to a moratorium in offshore oil exploration initially.

But companies will learn from the current disaster and push boundaries. We need oil and companies will point at the history of offshore drilling without major incidents. Ironically, it is southern states of the United States that supported offshore exploration that are now most worried.

Washington has pressed its vast resources into the fight. The US can afford to throw a billion dollars at it. So what happens when things go wrong offshore of a poor nation?

For those of us who were horrified by a wayward Indonesian mine that drilled until it hit a geological formation that spewed mud and buried villages, it is still a scary but a distant story.

But we are inextricably bound to such risks by our huge need for fossil fuels. As companies venture out farther, the probability of human error and mechanical failure is taken for granted until a rude shock is delivered.

Our voracious need should not be an excuse to look at other energy options. The way out is alternative energy. Energy as well as other companies must invest in them more actively. Consumers and shareholders should encourage companies to become bolder in their search for alternatives.

Consumers should show tolerance for a higher price and support improved energy efficiency. Energy has costs - in terms of price at the pump and in terms of environmental damage. The true cost of oil is not what one pays at the pump.

We are on the cusp of new technologies. Nuclear, which can offer alternative energy at a competitive price, is of course not without risk.

We still can use more sun and wind power and drive cars powered by electricity or renewable fuels such as diesel from algae. We have technologies to use wave power and to tap the power of the flowing water. We may soon have an opportunity to produce our energy from fuel cells. But the faster adoption of such technologies will depend on proactive corporate and consumer attitude and governmental push.

Only by doing so, we can limit disasters to our drinking water supplies and shoreline from Gulf-like colossal tragedies. At the very least, the world must start moving truly beyond petroleum.

The writer is with BT's foreign desk