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Date:         Sat, 22 May 2010 15:51:29 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Private Re: Castrol and BP
Comments: To: mcneely4@COX.NET
In-Reply-To:  <20100522135153.WGWPG.475528.imail@eastrmwml46>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 01:51 PM 5/22/2010, Dave Mcneely wrote: >The oil I have been using in my '91 VW Vanagon GL Campmobile with >stock 2.1 waterboxer engine is Castrol 20W - 50, from British >Petroleum. Some may find it foolish, but I no longer want to use >any BP products, just as I have avoided Exxon since the Exxon-Valdez >catastrophe. What non-synthetic alternative do knowledgeable list >members recommend? Why?

Dear Dave,

I think you're being simplistic. By that criterion you'll have to avoid *every* oil producer and refiner of any size -- it's a very incestuous industry because oil, roughly speaking, is oil. It might make more sense to avoid any products coming from a Transocean-operated well, but again there's no way of knowing what they are.

Iraq (Arabian Gulf, ~9 million bbl) Pemex (Mexico, Ixtoc I well blowout, ~3.5 million bbl). Note that the BP spill is "only" around one-plus million bbl so far, although the rate is much faster than Ixtoc, which ran for ~nine months. Anything coming from the Nowruz oil field in the Persian Gulf (almost two million bbl) Amoco (Amoco Cadiz, Brittany, ~1.6 million bbl) Unknown (Brittany, Torrey Canyon, ~860 thousand bbl) Unknown (Hawaii, Irene's Challenge, ~237,000 bbl) Unknown (Greece, Irene's Serenade, factor of two +/- 475,000 bbl) Unknown (Gulf of Oman, Sea Star, ~937,000 bbl) Unknown (Oman, Amini, ~380,000 bbl) Unknown (Galveston Bay, Burmah Agate, ~255,000 bbl) Unknown (Delaware River, Corinthian, ~266,000 bbl) Unknown (Istanbul, Independente, ~690,000 bbl) Unknown (Portugal, Jakob Maersk, ~640,000 bbl) Unknown (Canary Islands, Khark V, ~450,000 bbl) Unknown (Straits of Magellan, Metula, ~400,000 bbl) Unknown (Colombia, St. Peter, ~280,000 bbl) Texaco, (Panama, storage tank, ~240,000 bbl of which ~140,000 went into the water) Unknown (Spain, Urquiola, ~733,000 bbl) Unknown (Durban SA, World Glory, ~334,000 bbl) Exxon/Esso (Alaska, Exxon Valdez, ~240,000 bbl) -- note that Mobil and Exxon are the same company now.

All of these spills are Valdez-size or larger. Size doesn't necessarily correlate with environmental damage -- if you want to research that, <http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/book_shelf/26_spilldb.pdf > is a good place to start.

Comments?

Yours, David


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