Desperate Times..

So this is worrying. There are reports in today's press that Shell have come up with a work around for the pesky low oil price and its impact on deepwater drilling: swingeing cost cuts the likes of which austerity crazed governments across the world would be proud.

The Australian: Costs tumble as Shell masters 'budget' deepwater drilling

Of course this is nothing new - cost cutting and advances in technology have for many years brought previously inaccessible and uneconomic oil within reach, extending the event horizon of the peak oil phenomenon that was once a fashionable concept but is now unlikely to materialise - demand for oil is now likely to dry up long before we get close to running out of it.

I just have a deep and uneasy feeling that we are getting to the point where the desperation of oil companies to justify their existences and the pressures to keep their shareholders happy are landing them in dangerous territory. This feels like gambling with the safety of workers and the health of the environment.

Let us not forget that the investigation of the Deepwater Horizon spill concluded that cost cutting lay at the heart of what was an avoidable incident.

All the more reason to work together to accelerate the transition to a fossil fuel free world.