Ecuadorean tribe will 'die fighting' to defend rainforest

Jonathan Watts in the Guardian (UK): Ecuador's Yasuni national park – seen by many as the most biodiverse place on Earth – is at risk from rising extinction rates globally and local economic pressures to exploit the oil beneath the forest Link to this video In what looks set to be one of the most one-sided struggles in the history of Amazon forest conservation, an indigenous community of about 400 villagers is preparing to resist the Ecuadorean army and one of the biggest oil companies in South America.

The Kichwa tribe on Sani Isla, who were using blowpipes two generations ago, said they are ready to fight to the death to protect their territory, which covers 70,000 hectares of pristine rainforest. Petroamazonas – the state-backed oil company – have told them it will begin prospecting on 15 January, backed by public security forces.

Community members are launching a last-ditch legal battle to stop the state-run firm assisted by a British businesswoman, who is married to the village shaman, and who was recently appointed to run the local eco lodge.

Mari Muench, who is originally from London, said the community decided at two meetings late last year to reject a financial offer from the oil firm because they were concerned about the long-term environmental impact of mining. They recently learned, however, that the chief of the village has signed a contract giving the go-ahead for the oil exploration, even though they say he was not authorised to do so.

Earlier offers of a new school, university places for village children and better healthcare were dropped in the document, which provides compensation of only $40 (£24) per hectare, according to copies that the Guardian has seen. The community secretary, Klider Gualinga, said more than 80% of the village is opposed to the oil deal, but a minority are pushing it through against their wishes and local rules....

An image from Yasuni, shot by Geoff Gallice, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Shell Arctic rig runs aground off Alaska

Tom Fowler in the Wall Street Journal:  Royal Dutch Shell PLC suffered another potential setback in its attempt to drill for oil in U.S. Arctic waters when an offshore rig ran aground after breaking free from tow ships in high seas.

The Kulluk, a drilling rig owned by Shell and operated by Noble Corp., NE +2.58% struck Sitkalidak Island, an uninhabited area about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage late Monday, according to a joint statement by Shell, Switzerland-based Noble and the U.S. Coast Guard, which were coordinating their response to the accident.

A Coast Guard helicopter on Saturday lifts crew members from Shell's Kulluk drilling unit. The rig later broke free from tow ships and ran aground. The rig has about 139,000 gallons of diesel on board, along with about 12,000 gallons of combined lubrication oil and hydraulic fluid. Coast Guard aircraft that flew over the rig Tuesday didn't spot any signs of leaking fuel. Plans were under way to get salvage crews to the rig.

Shell used the Kulluk and another rig to drill exploratory wells in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska's northern coast last year, the first such operations in U.S. Arctic waters in more than two decades.

But the ambitious drilling venture—monitored by rival companies, the U.S. government and environmental groups—has encountered problems from the outset. The drilling season started later than planned because of lingering sea ice. The other drilling rig, the Noble Discoverer, almost ran aground when its anchor slipped in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Also, an important piece of spill-response equipment was damaged during testing, leading Shell to scale back plans to drill six wells to just two wells. A Coast Guard inspection of the Noble Discoverer, conducted after the drilling season, discovered problems with the ship's propulsion and safety systems....

The Arctic Challenger with the newly redesigned and repaired Containment Dome move away from the Port of Bellingham, WA where it had been moored since returning in September 2012 after a catastrophic failure of the first iteration of their containment process. This is not the vessel mentioned in the story, apparently. Shot by TJ Guiton, Wikimedia Commons, nder the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Project to leave oil in ground under Yasuní park reaches $300 million

John Vidal in the Guardian (UK): More than $300m (£188m) has been promised to stop the exploitation of 846m barrels of oil below the Yasuní national park in Ecuador, one of the world's most biologically rich areas of rainforest, new figures show. Ecuador's idea to leave the oil in the soil under the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) area of the park and ask the world to compensate it with half its monetary value was hailed as a revolutionary, if idealistic, new conservation idea when it was first proposed in 2007.

But critics doubted whether raising the $3.6bn needed in 13 years would be possible, and accused Ecuador of holding the world, literally, over a barrel.

However, figures released by the UN Development Programme-run Yasuní-ITT initiative shows that while most wealthy governments have declined to contribute, foundations, individuals and cash-strapped regional authorities in austerity-hit Europe have pledged or given over $300m since 2011, when the fundraising drive began in earnest.

Germany has offered $50m over three years, and Chile, Colombia, Georgia and Turkey have given token amounts. In addition, 10 regions of Europe have contributed $150-250,000 each, along with corporations including Coca Cola, airlines, banks and Brazilian, US and Russian foundations. A Puerto Rican musician gave $50,000.

But while only $64m has been formally deposited, the papers show $187m has been promised by countries including Belgium, Brazil, France, Lebanon, Indonesia, Turkey, Spain and Qatar. Some is likely to come via debt swaps and "technical agreements" as well as contracts and agreements with companies....

A view in the Yasuni natinonal park, shot by Geoff Gallice, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Nanotechnology could lighten Venezuela's oil footprint

Humberto Márquez in Tierramérica: Venezuela is studying the use of nanotechnology as a means of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases caused by the oil industry.  Nanotechnology operates at the sub-microscopic scale: a nanometer is a unit of measure equal to one billionth of a meter.

“We are seeking to use nanoparticles of metallic salts, such as iron, nickel or cobalt nitrates, as catalysts in oil-related processes that produce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Sarah Briceño, a researcher at the Center for Physics at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC).

Catalysts are substances used to speed up chemical processes, “and our goal is to develop catalysts adapted to Venezuelan industry that will make it possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from activities such as oil refining and fuel consumption by motor vehicles by up to 50 percent,” Briceño told Tierramérica.

Venezuela, a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), extracts close to three million barrels of oil a day and has over two billion barrels of heavy crude oil reserves....

From NASA: This false-colour (near-infra-red, red, green) image has been processed to emphasize details on the lake’s surface. The scene shows oil slicks (the various dark patches) in the south-eastern portion of the lake. The slicks come from leaks in the various oil production and storage platforms located on Lake Maracaibo.