السبت، 17 يوليو 2010

BP, scientists try to make sense of well puzzle Does it work or not? BP tries to make sense of puzzling readings from busted well




NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Engineers kept vigil Saturday over the massive cap holding back oil from BP's busted Gulf well, their eyes glued to monitors in a faraway control room that displayed pressure readings, temperature gauges and underwater images.

Their round-the-clock work deciphering a puzzle of data from undersea robots and instruments at the wellhead is helping BP and the government determine whether the cap is holding tight as a critical 48-hour testing window approaches. Signs so far have been promising but inconclusive.

Saturday afternoon will mark two full days since BP stopped the oil from leaking into the Gulf and entered into the pressure-testing phase. At that point engineers could offer more definitive evidence that the cap is working, or call for more testing. At any time before then, they could also reopen the cap and allow some oil to spill into the sea again. Scientists are watching for leaks either in the well itself or the sea floor.

Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said on an evening conference call that engineers had found no indication that the well has started leaking underground.

"No news is good news, I guess that's how I'd say it," Wells said.

One mysterious development was that the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.

Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be running lower three months into the spill. Or there could be an undiscovered leak somewhere down in the well. Allen ordered further study but remained confident.

"This is generally good news," he said. But he cautioned, "We need to be careful not to do any harm or create a situation that cannot be reversed."

Inside BP's command center hundreds of miles away in Houston, engineers, scientists and technicians have been carefully monitoring reams of data around the clock, BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, told The Associated Press Friday. Other engineers watched on monitors aboard ships at sea.

"You've got a very, very focused group of people because this is very important," Suttles said.

Asked if people are nervous, knowing the whole world is watching and government officials are sitting with them to monitor their work, Suttles replied: "I wouldn't say they are nervous. I would use the word focused."

Throughout the day, no one was declaring victory -- or failure. President Barack Obama cautioned the public "not to get too far ahead of ourselves," warning of the danger of new leaks "that could be even more catastrophic."

Even if the cap passes the test, more uncertainties lie ahead: Where will the oil already spilled go? How long will it take to clean up the coast? What will happen to the region's fishermen? And will life on the Gulf Coast ever be the same again?

On Thursday, BP closed the vents on the new, tight-fitting cap and finally stopped crude from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since the April 20 oil-rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) down.

With the cap working like a giant cork to keep the oil inside the well, scientists kept watch in case the buildup of pressure underground caused new leaks in the well pipe and in the surrounding bedrock that could make the disaster even worse.

Pressure readings after 24 hours were about 6,700 pounds per square inch and rising slowly, Allen said, below the 7,500 psi that would clearly show the well was not leaking. He said pressure continued to rise between 2 and 10 psi per hour. A low pressure reading, or a falling one, could mean the oil is escaping.

But Allen said a seismic probe of the surrounding sea floor found no sign of a leak in the ground.

Benton F. Baugh, president of Radoil Inc. in Houston and a National Academy of Engineering member who specializes in underwater oil operations, warned that the pressure readings could mean that an underground blowout could occur. He said the oil coming up the well may be leaking out underground and entering a geological pocket that might not be able to hold it.

But Roger N. Anderson, a professor of marine geology and geophysics at Columbia University, said the oil pressure might be rising slowly not because of a leak, but because of some kind of blockage in the well.

"If it's rising slowly, that means the pipe's integrity's still there. It's just getting around obstacles," he said. He added that "any increase in pressure is good, not bad."

The cap is designed to prevent oil from spilling into the Gulf, either by keeping it bottled up in the well, or by capturing it and piping it to ships on the surface. It is not yet clear which way the cap will be used if it passes the pressure test.

Either way, the cap is a temporary measure until a relief well can be completed and mud and cement can be pumped into the broken well deep underground to seal it more securely than the cap. The first of the two relief wells being drilled could be done by late July or August.

In a positive sign, work on the relief wells resumed Friday. The project had been suspended earlier this week for fear that the capping of the well could interfere with it.

There was no end in sight to cleaning up somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons (356 million and 697 million liters) that the government estimates spilled into the Gulf.

In Orange Beach, Alabama, long strands of white absorbent boom strung along the shore were stained chocolate brown after a fresh wave of BB-size tar balls washed up. Charter boat captains who can't fish because of the spill patrolled the shore, looking for oil slicks. Fishing guides spent their time ferrying Coast Guard personnel. A flotilla of fishing boats operating as skimmers plied the waters across the Gulf.

Large sections of the Gulf Coast have been closed to fishing and shellfish harvesting. Many fishermen have been hired out by BP to do cleanup work.

Cade Thomas, a 38-year-old fishing guide from Pine, Louisiana, said the whole mentality of the place is different.

"It's all changed dramatically. The fishing stories aren't there," he said. "There's no stories to tell except where we went to today and how much oil we saw."

In Grand Isle, Louisiana, most of the summer rental cottages are vacant, tables at the single high-end seafood restaurant are empty, and souvenir shops are barely doing enough business to pay the bills. A hand-painted sign along the main road rechristens the tourist town "Grand Oil."

Folks are grateful the gusher has been stopped, but many say it is too late to save this summer. Thousands of tourists have gone elsewhere.

Scientists cannot say for certain what the long-term environmental effect will be. But long after the well is finally plugged, oil could still be washing up in marshes and on beaches as tar balls or patties.

There is also fear that months from now, those tar balls could move west to Corpus Christi, Texas, or travel up and around Florida to Miami or North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Capping the well was a milestone in the long catastrophe, but people shouldn't let their guards down, said Billy Nungesser, the president of Plaquemines Parish, one of the hardest hit areas along the Gulf.

"For the first day, we'll be pulling more oil out of the Gulf than is leaking in," Nungesser said Friday. "We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but that's a very long tunnel."

Weber reported from Houston. Associated Press Writers Holbrook Mohr, Vicki Smith, Shelia Byrd, Jay Reeves, Matt Sedensky, Kevin McGill, and Ramit Plushnick-Masti contributed to this report.

الجمعة، 16 يوليو 2010

Citigroup profit dips 10 percent, loan losses fall Citigroup says 2nd-quarter profit falls 10 percent even as loan losses drop



NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup said Friday its second-quarter net income dropped 10 percent to $2.7 billion even as its losses from failed loans fell. The drop in income reflects the bank's sale a year ago of the Smith Barney brokerage, which inflated its earnings at the time.

Citigroup Inc. joins JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. in reporting earnings that rose in the April-June period as loan losses fell. That's a positive sign for the economy, because it indicates that consumers are having an easier time paying their debts. But Citigroup, like the other banks, also had a decline in trading revenue because of the stock market's plunge this spring.

Citigroup was among the hardest hit banks by the financial crisis of 2008, and it was further hurt as many customers fell behind in loan payments during the recession. The bank's losses from failed loans fell 31 percent to $7.96 billion during the April-June period from $11.47 billion a year ago.

Like JPMorgan, Citigroup also removed some money from its reserves for future loan losses, which helps boost earnings. It's also an indication that the bank is becoming more confident that the worst of the defaults is over and that delinquency and default levels are likely to shrink in the coming quarters.

Citigroup removed $1.51 billion from its loss reserves during the quarter. A year earlier, the bank added $4 billion to those reserves.

The stock market's slump sent Citigroup's revenue from its securities and banking division down 11 percent from a year earlier to $6 billion. That was down 26 percent from the first quarter.

Citigroup said it earned $2.7 billion, or 9 cents per share, during the April-June period. That compares with $3 billion, or 49 cents per share, during the same quarter last year.

The year-ago period's profit was inflated because Citigroup recorded an after-tax gain of $6.7 billion during the quarter from the sale of a majority stake in Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley.

Analysts forecast the bank would earn 5 cents per share.

Total revenue fell 33 percent to $22.07 billion from $33.1 billion during the year-ago period. Citigroup's revenue fell just short of the $22.16 billion analysts had forecast.

Citigroup's stock fell 5 cents to $4.11 in pre-opening trading.

الأربعاء، 14 يوليو 2010

Fed paints weaker picture of growth and employment Fed's economic forecast paints weaker picture of growth and employment for rest of year




WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve officials have a slightly dimmer view of the economy than they did in April, reflecting worries about how the European debt crisis could affect U.S. growth and job prospects.

Fed officials said Wednesday in an updated economic forecast that they think the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, will grow between 3 percent and 3.5 percent this year. That's a downward revision from a growth range in their April forecast of 3.2 percent to 3.7 percent.

The Fed's latest forecast sees the unemployment rate, now at 9.5 percent, possibly staying at that figure or in the best case falling to 9.2 percent. In the April forecast, the Fed had a slightly lower bottom number of 9.1 percent.

The Fed said in the minutes of its June 22-23 meeting that its lower economic projections reflected "economic developments abroad" -- a reference to the debt crisis that began in Greece and threatened to spread to other European countries.

While reducing the forecast for growth and employment, the Fed also saw less of a threat from inflation.

The Fed predicted that a key inflation gauge that's tied to consumer spending would show prices rising 1 percent to 1.1 percent this year. That's down from an April forecast that consumer prices would increase by 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent.

The absence of inflationary pressures gives the Fed leeway to keep interest rates low to try to bolster growth as the economy recovers from the deepest recession since the 1930s.

The new forecast was compiled at the last meeting of the Fed's interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee on June 22-23. At that meeting, the FOMC, which is composed of Fed board members and the 12 Fed regional bank presidents, kept a key rate at a record low of 0 to 0.25 percent, where it's been since December 2008.

The Fed's new forecast made only minor changes to its outlook for growth, unemployment and inflation. But those changes underscored a view that economic prospects were slightly weaker.

The factors the Fed cited were household and business uncertainty, weak real estate markets, a tough job market, waning fiscal stimulus and still-tight lending by banks.

The Fed in April had said only a minority of Fed officials thought it would take more than five or six years to reach the Fed's goals for maximum employment with low inflation. But in the new minutes, the Fed changed that to say that "most" expected it to take "no more than five or six years."

Beyond this year, the Fed forecast growth in 2011 to be in a range between 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent. The upper limit of that range was reduced from 4.5 percent in the April forecast.

The expectation for the unemployment rate next year was also nudged higher to a range of 8.3 percent to 8.7 percent. That was up from a range of 8.1 percent to 8.5 percent in April.

To obtain its forecast ranges, the Fed excludes the three highest and three lowest forecasts of Fed officials for each economic variable.

الجمعة، 9 يوليو 2010

أوباما يقول ان الاقتصاد الامريكي يسير في الاتجاه الصحيح

وكالة رويترز للأنباءالجمعة 9 يوليو 2010 2:22 م

دافع الرئيس الامريكي باراك أوباما عن أسلوب تعامله مع الاقتصاد الامريكي وانتقد الجمهوريين يوم الخميس باعتبارهم " يلجأون لاساليب شعبية ولكن غير فعالة" في اطار جولة يقوم بها للدعاية للديمقراطيين في انتخابات التجديد النصفي المقررة في نوفمبر تشرين الثاني.

وتعرض أوباما لانتقادات بسبب انقاذ بنوك وشركات سيارات وخطة تحفيز اقتصادي تكلفت 787 مليار دولار يثور الجدل حول نتائجها. ويتعرض لضغوط في عام الانتخابات لخفض معدل البطالة البالغ 9.5 بالمئة لكنه قال انه على ثقة أن الولايات المتحدة ستخرج من الازمة الاقتصادية.

وقال أوباما في مصنع للسيارات الكهربائية في كانساس سيتي "مازال أمامنا طريق طويل." وتابع "لكن الواضح تماما هو أننا نتحرك في الطريق الصحيح."

ويجمع أوباما المال لحملات مرشحين ديمقراطيين لمجلس الشيوخ هما روبين كارناهان من ميسوري وهاري ريد من نيفادا زعيم الاغلبية في مجلس الشيوخ.

وأشاد أوباما بريد لدفعه اصلاحات قد لا تحظى بالشعبية لكنها تمثل ما كان يتعين عمله.

وقال أمام حشد في لاس فيجاس "على مدى العامين الماضيين كان هاري يتعامل مع سياسة عمل لا شيء التي تتبعها القيادة الجمهورية في مجلس الشيوخ."

وفي احتشادين سابقين يخصان كارناهان كتم أوباما انتقاداته للجمهوريين المنتظر أن يفوزوا بمقاعد في مجلس الشيوخ على حساب الديمقراطيين في انتخابات نوفمبر التي يعتبرها البعض استفتاء على أداء أوباما في العامين الاولين من فترة ولايته.