Argentina is Basically Trying to Starve the Falklanders Out

[Thanas]

Of course it is their fault. They are the employer, they paid for it knowing the technical specifications of the rig in question.

[Sea Skimmer]

Hang on, wasn't that an American Rig, crewed by Americans, owned by an American Company, that just happened to be working for BP at the time.
Transocean, the owners
Deepwater Horizon
So a total of 7 BP employees on the Rig caused it. Rather than than the lack of auto shutdown systems on the diesel generators.
"Had the engines been fitted with automatic combustion inlet shutdown valves, Pyroban kits, or executive gas detection systems that shutdown generator room HVAC systems automatically, the diesel engine ignition source could have been mitigated by breaking the fire triangle."

But they're not mandatory in US, so no one fits them. Apperently it's still BP's fault for the deepwater horizon spill

Yeah it still is because BP made the call not to test the concrete well seal in the first place, thus allowing the blowout to occur. If they'd done the test they would have had enough time to pour a new concrete seal before the well blew 20 hours later. Problem solved. Also, the odds of that much gas not finding a source of ignition before it dispersed below explosive concentrations are pretty slim on a rig like that. The loss of life actually could have been much worse had it spread further throughout the platform. BP's reason for for not doing the test, to save time and thus a large amount of money to get the rig underway to a new job. The work had already gone over budget.

Now meanwhile the 2005 Texas City explosion at a BP owned and operated refinery involved something like a five different mandatory safety systems not working on a single production unit, as well as most of the killed workers being killed because they were in an illegal trailer instead of a blast proof building as required by law. The OSHA investigation found over 300 specific violations of safety regulations. It didn't cause a massive oil spill sure, but it did kill or injure far more workers.

[Big Orange]

Yeah it still is because BP made the call not to test the concrete well seal in the first place, thus allowing the blowout to occur. If they'd done the test they would have had enough time to pour a new concrete seal before the well blew 20 hours later. Problem solved. Also, the odds of that much gas not finding a source of ignition before it dispersed below explosive concentrations are pretty slim on a rig like that. The loss of life actually could have been much worse had it spread further throughout the platform. BP's reason for for not doing the test, to save time and thus a large amount of money to get the rig underway to a new job. The work had already gone over budget.

The concrete for the well seal supplied by that infamous corporate nemesis, Halliburton, which has recently been accused by BP of illicitly destroying evidence related to concrete well seal. The buck ultimately still stops with BP, but Halliburton has a proven track record for being unscrupulous. Hell, the fact that BP was overseeing oil drilling conducted by a group of third party corporate units, with BP itself seemingly lacking the ability to reliably co-ordinate the different teams properly (to "improve efficiency") perhaps contributed to the disaster. And BP cutting corners by avoiding a vital test to save money sounds like the limp hand of free market capitalism striking again and fordlltwm still has a point about the US authorities not enforcing the use of auto shutdown systems in oil drilling speaks volumes about US regulations. There must be proper oversight with the oil industry to prevent companies like BP, Halliburton, and Transocean going Weyland-Yutani like they did back in '10, where the safety of employees and the welfare of the environment had been recinded to save money for impatient stockholders.

[evilsoup]

Oh just fuck you guys. BP isn't any worse than the other oil companies, but there's no reason to jump into defending them - they're still a bunch of assholes. And why is it all other brits who are defending them? Because they have 'British' in their name? That should make you hate them even more you fucking fucks, they're dragging us down by association! It was their oil rig, they were taking the profits; they should pay for the fuck-up.

But anyway, the ownership of BP is actually irrelevant to Elfdart's point, which was that British ownership of the Falklands will lead to inferior regulation of any oil drilling, compared to the Argentineans. Since the regulators in the Deepwater Horizon case was the US, that's not really evidence for that... wouldn't the regulations in the Falklands be the same as for the North Sea oil? Have there been any spills there? Is Argentina particularly good about combating environmental damage? These are the questions that need answering, not 'WHY ARE YOU BEING SO MEAN TO BP!?'

[folti78]

I suspect the market have done that calculation and decided that it is far preferable to invest in a place ruled by law and under foreign threats than it is to invest in a place like Argentina whish is ruled by friends of Chavez, defaulted on it's loans and cant even be trusted to provide accurate economic statistics anymore. Why else would there be prospecting in Falklands waters but not in Argentinian waters? It is not as if all the potential oil and gas finds are within Falklands territory.

You left out unilateral nationalization. The rest is Global Economics 101: If you want to attract foreign moolah, don't build the government policy around things that suggest they'll better off bringing their money to the nearest casino.

[HMS Conqueror]

Britain's economy is in a bigger toilet than Argentina's: 8.4% unemployment vs 6.7%. If anyone is trying to milk the Falklands for political gain it's Cameron.

The downside is that even people who have jobs in Argentina are mostly worse off than Brits claiming unemployment assistance, what with that $10k GDPPC vs $40k. The typical Argentine salary is about comparable to basic dole payments.

[Jade Owl]

Britain's economy is in a bigger toilet than Argentina's: 8.4% unemployment vs 6.7%. If anyone is trying to milk the Falklands for political gain it's Cameron.

The downside is that even people who have jobs in Argentina are mostly worse off than Brits claiming unemployment assistance, what with that $10k GDPPC vs $40k. The typical Argentine salary is about comparable to basic dole payments.

Plus... Argentina has rampant inflation that they're trying to hide. On the neighborhood of a 25% annual rate.

[folti78]

Opinionated situation report from a former Argentinian:

Most educated people knew that the second term of Cristina Kirchner ruling Argentina would be hard to say the least. With a decade of K rulership, since her husband Nestor was the president before her, it has now become very difficult to be optimist.
Lets try to explain how life is for people now in Argentina. Power supply interruptions are common as it usually happens this time of the year. Just a few days ago many places of the city ended up under water due to the intense rain and lack of pluvial infrastructure investment.
In economic terms the same old story continues, one that the Kirchners already have us used to, salaries keep rising, but never catching up with the 25% a year inflation. As a result, the standard of living has been decreasing proportionally. With the peso artificially pegged (once again) to the dollar at 4 to 1 this time, Argentina isn’t just expensive to live in in pesos, its expensive even when visiting with dollars or other foreign currency.
Secretary of Commerce Gullermo Moreno is stopping 2 out of 10 importation requests, and that’s only the ones that bother requesting. Other sources say that only 2 out of 10 requests get approved. When asking around stores they tell you that there’s no importation whatsoever in terms of electronics and plastic products such as toys or textiles, and at the end of the day that matters to consumers. Small or large chain store, the story has been the same for over a year and keeps getting worse: Moreno is stopping importations so as to promote national industry. The first problem with this this mechanism has proven to fail more often than work and we are already seeing the results. “Malo y Caro” (expensive and bad quality) are words that describe national production, especially when it comes to electronics. What can you expect when people are forced to buy whatever junk a corrupt businessman with strong political connections puts on the market? And the sad part is, this can barely be described as “national production”, its more like national assembly, with 95% of the manufacturing still being made in China. Usually its just the exterior box and manual that gets made locally. Sometimes its just a matter of sticking a local brand on the product that comes from abroad. At the end of the day its still Made in China electronics, the difference is that the “businessman” is the one paying the cheap price for it, and forcing you to pay whatever he feels like it. A nice dividend going to the politicians that allow this to go on in the first place, keeps things rolling.
This impacts society in a number of ways. “I cant even buy an iron!” complained a relative of mine. “All I can find is that locally produced Longvie junk, and its expensive at that”.
A quick visit to the Garbarino website shows that if you want a washing machine, you can only buy expensive and poorly put together local brands. Washer and drier? Two models, both made by Longvie and either one costs 1000 USD. When it comes to Tvs there’s a bit more offer, but be prepared to pay dearly for the precious imported product: A basic Samsung LCD 32” TV will cost you 800 USD.
Another relative that is about to travel told me “Its crazy, as soon as people knew I was traveling to USA they started asking me for stuff. Even people I didn’t know that well approached me with money asking if I could get them clothes and toys for their kids”. Toys being a plastic import that supposedly could be made locally, are pretty much banned from importation. Within the “supposedly” part of the explanations lacks the little problem of the local industry not being capable of producing that type of plastic product. Argentina toys are of poor quality. The plastic itself is generally of the type that breaks like glass and cuts you. I’ve stepped over such crappy cars myself more than once and had to pull pieces of plastic out of my feet. The last time this happened to me I couldn’t stop myself from smiling, remembering that Simpsons chapter where the Krusty cereal box advertises a barbed steel wheel hidden inside the cereal. How can anyone allow such a product to be sold to kids?
Because the importation restrictions also affect clothes and shoes, again in an attempt to shove national production down our throats, finding brand name shoes is increasingly hard. When you do find them the prices are exorbitant, mostly because they are scarce and only manage their way in through secondary channels. Its funny to see how among the better off kids, they will usually have the same model of Addidas or Nike, the one that someone managed to get into the country.
Most of this is old news and few things surprise you anymore in Argentina, so why would the future look any worse? One of the things that have allowed this madness to continue is that Argentina is a mayor producer of soy, which has had a record high price in recent years. The problem though is that there’s already been a 40% loss of this years production in the mayor soy producing locations due to the draught.
Even worse is the situation with medicines and medical supplies.
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1458025-los- ... -farmacias

Drugs are getting harder to come by, and it includes everything from cancer medication to epileptic seizure medicines, even vaccines and diapers for paralyzed older children.
Laura Sama needs medicine for her ulcer problem, and when the imported drug wasn’t available she used a locally produced option, but the one produced nationally had a component to which she was alergic and it nearly killed her. Now she goes around drug stores seeing if anyone can get her the imported drug that she needs.
Even books are getting banned from the importation. The excuse? The Argentine government cares so much that they wont allow in books and magazines until they are tested for the the lead content in their ink. If you buy a book online you have to go to customs… and then see when they get around to checking that sort of stuff.
Funny how that works since even blood tests are delayed due to the block on the importation of the reactives.
The ban on medicine importation should be bad enough, but there’s something particularly dreadful when a country starts banning books and magazines… its so Fahrenheit 451. With such a grim picture, its no wonder that companies keep closing and leaving Argentina for good. Giant Swift said “its just impossible to do business in Argentina anymore”.
No wonder people are already calling it Argenzuela.

FerFAL

Even if only half of it's true, it's still quite scary.

[CJvR]

"Argenzuela" LOL!

How could anyone not be eager to join up with Argenzuela? Silly Falklanders...


http://en.mercopress.com/2012/03/29/arg ... orry-about

The Argentine Ambassador to the US, Jorge Argüello, assured on Wednesday that despite reactions to trade barriers put up this week by the US to Argentina, there was “nothing to worry about” regarding the relationship between the countries.

However Argentine political analysts consider the current situation as one of ‘conflict’ with little chance of a reversal in the short term, particularly since President Obama in his message to Congress said Argentina “has not acted in good faith in enforcing arbitral awards in favour of US owned companies”.