Community Protest Against Drilling In The Gulf Of Siam

[Rooo]

SamuI resIdents up in arms

By Chularat Saengpassa

Watcharapong Thongrung

THE NATION

Published on August 3, 2010 <br class="clear-all">

Protesters threaten to approach court if oil-exploration projects are not scrapped; Locals fear any offshore mishap could have a long-term impact on environment and tourism

There seems to be no end in sight for the conflict between the residents of Koh Samui and oil exploration companies, as the protesters plan to take their concerns to the Administrative Court if all drilling projects are not terminated.

Continued HERE

-- The Nation 2010-08-03

[simon43]

The only reason why those natives in Samui are up in arms about this is because - for once - the local Samui mafia cannot get a cut on this one!

Care about the island? My arse...

Simon

[screamingeagle]

The only reason why those natives in Samui are up in arms about this is because - for once - the local Samui mafia cannot get a cut on this one!

Care about the island? My arse...

Simon

:clap2:

[crusty]

The Nation was my long term fave English news paper but since the beginning of this year they seriously lack any good reporting and articles.

BKK Post definitley on the up.

If you had watched the panel discussion last night on The Nation t.v. channel, it was obvious the three Samui panellists were way over their depth compared to the three from the energy ministry who gave a sane balanced explanation of why the protestors fears are unfounded. In all, an excellent discussion where all the panellists gave each other time to complete his answers (unlike the hysterical Fox channel where everyone finshes up shouting and talking over each other). Well done gentlemen !

[limbos]

Well Crusty, it's just very unfortunate timing with the Mexican Gulf and Chinese oil spills happening simultaneously exactly at the same time they want to set up a rig near Samui's coast.

The Nation was running better article yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't see the TV discussion, I was filling up Samui's empty streets around the Green mango area last night.

Edited August 4, 2010 by limbos

[Rooo]

OIL EXPLORATION

Samui locals to unveil stance on oil projects today

By The Nation

Published on August 6, 2010

Samui residents will reveal their next steps towards the four oil exploration concessions off the resort island at a press conference today, with the threat to seek an injunction from the Administrative Court.

Bannasat Ruangjan, president of the Koh Samui Tourism Association, said yesterday that it would take some time for the residents to gather data to back up their court case.

"We need to get a rough estimate on the economic and environmental damage the exploration will cause," he said. During this time, he said he would distribute information to more villagers to garner their support.

The protesters earlier asked Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to terminate the exploration concessions of four companies - NuCoastal (Thailand), Salamander, Chevron and Pearl Oil - by today. The four firms have concessions to explore for petroleum at sites 42-110 km off Koh Samui in Surat Thani.

The controversy was also discussed during the parliamentary session, when Surat Thani MP Thanee Thuangsuban asked if the Energy Ministry can reverse the concession, given that many exploration sites are located near tourist destinations, which has stirred concerns among tourism business operators. He said without solutions or supportive measures, the exploration could cause damage to the local way of life and the tourism industry. He also urged the ministry to focus more on alternative energy.

Continued HERE

-- The Nation 2010-08-06

[Rooo]

ENVIRONMENT

Oil exploration off Samui 'will continue'

By Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation

Published on August 7, 2010

Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul said yesterday the ministry could not terminate the four oil exploration concessions off the resort island of Samui as the concession-holders are not conducting any practices that breach the law or cause serious environmental damage.

Continued HERE

-- The Nation 2010-08-07

[screamingeagle]

ENVIRONMENT

Oil exploration off Samui 'will continue'

By Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation

Published on August 7, 2010

Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul said yesterday the ministry could not terminate the four oil exploration concessions off the resort island of Samui as the concession-holders are not conducting any practices that breach the law or cause serious environmental damage.

Continued HERE

-- The Nation 2010-08-07

I told you that protesting against this was a total waste of time. Let's hope these protesters move on to more important local issues concerning this lovely island..... water, roads, sewage, electricity, crime and corruption would be on my list. I doubt this will happen as local authorities here seem incapable of doing anything about these problems. Much easier to waste their time protesting about something else off island!!!!

[LeoLeoKhm]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

[smokie36]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

[LeoLeoKhm]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

sorry, smokie36, was it yes or no?

[NALAK]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

sorry, smokie36, was it yes or no?

nearest one is 42 km away, so that will be a no, dont tell the Samui residents but the gulf of thailand already has oil rigs that if had a leak would effect Samui. its a case of yes but not in my back yard, we all want oil but 100 kms is to near. laughable. ruin Samui that was done years ago. plus point would be a few off shore workers spending some cash on the island, looked to me like the protesters had just come from a swim on Chaweng beach with a load of jet ski waste on them.

[Gatorade]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

sorry, smokie36, was it yes or no?

Whether you can see the oil rigs from Samui will depend on how high you are on the island. Casting my mind back I seem to recall

that a simple calculation from present position above mean sea level to the horizon was something like 1.15 X the square root of the height.

So for eg. if you are say 900 feet up the calculation will be 30 X 1.15. Therefore the approximate distance to the horizon will be

34-35 Nautical Miles.

[screamingeagle]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

sorry, smokie36, was it yes or no?

Whether you can see the oil rigs from Samui will depend on how high you are on the island. Casting my mind back I seem to recall

that a simple calculation from present position above mean sea level to the horizon was something like 1.15 X the square root of the height.

So for eg. if you are say 900 feet up the calculation will be 30 X 1.15. Therefore the approximate distance to the horizon will be

34-35 Nautical Miles.

Wow! I wish I'd paid more attention in Maths class at school. Well impressed!

[crusty]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

sorry, smokie36, was it yes or no?

Whether you can see the oil rigs from Samui will depend on how high you are on the island. Casting my mind back I seem to recall

that a simple calculation from present position above mean sea level to the horizon was something like 1.15 X the square root of the height.

So for eg. if you are say 900 feet up the calculation will be 30 X 1.15. Therefore the approximate distance to the horizon will be

34-35 Nautical Miles.

Na, any old seadog will tell you line of site to the horizon is 25 n.m. So if the structure is above sea level, yes you will be able to see it.

[Rooo]

Found these 2 old topics on the same subject.

This is an interesting one:

[Gatorade]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

sorry, smokie36, was it yes or no?

Whether you can see the oil rigs from Samui will depend on how high you are on the island. Casting my mind back I seem to recall

that a simple calculation from present position above mean sea level to the horizon was something like 1.15 X the square root of the height.

So for eg. if you are say 900 feet up the calculation will be 30 X 1.15. Therefore the approximate distance to the horizon will be

34-35 Nautical Miles.

Na, any old seadog will tell you line of site to the horizon is 25 n.m. So if the structure is above sea level, yes you will be able to see it.

A seadog might tell you the line of sight = 25 N.M. but a navigator wouldn't!

I thought the question came from a poster who wondered how high they would need to be to see the rigs from the Samui hillsides.

So obviously the higher you are the further you will see. But even a sharp eyed seadog will not be able to see anywhere near 25NM at Sea Level, more like 5 NM Max! But who cares. For anyone remotely interested there are plenty of websites which will work out the horizon distance in all measurements.

[LeoLeoKhm]

so, will it be possible to see the oil rigs from Koh Samui?

sorry, smokie36, was it yes or no?

nearest one is 42 km away, so that will be a no, dont tell the Samui residents but the gulf of thailand already has oil rigs that if had a leak would effect Samui. its a case of yes but not in my back yard, we all want oil but 100 kms is to near. laughable. ruin Samui that was done years ago. plus point would be a few off shore workers spending some cash on the island, looked to me like the protesters had just come from a swim on Chaweng beach with a load of jet ski waste on them.

Sorry mate, but this is simply not true. I took part in the protest, made some videos, you can have a look at www.qik.com/leoleo - I saw several thousand people, at least a hundred or more came together with me from Koh Phangan. And yes, quite a few Samui school kids, as well. In and around Nathon where I was, the humain chain was several km long.

But then again, I did not call for anybody to take part in the protest or anything, the quality of the discussion here shows I was right..

I asked about visibility from Samui simply because if it is possible to see those oil rigs from Samui (Lamai, Chaweng?), Laem Set - then resorts, hotels and those exclusive hillside rental villas will loose, as no tourists would like to spend their cash enjoying the view to the oil rigs. It will also affect Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, as Samui is really a hub for other islands. You will not need any spill to seriously damage tourism at these three islands, you just need the view to the rigs.

As for the off shore workers spending some cash on the islands - how many workers will be employed in these oil rigs, and how much cash will they spend in comparison to drop in tourism at, say, even 30%... surely it will be more though, if one oil rig is seen even only in good weather.

I truly do not understand why people who take part in this discussion and who obviously live at Samui most of the time, are taking this topic so lightheartdly Because you do not care?

[Rooo]

LeoLeoKhm,

I posted THIS LINK, re a discussion on this board .Please have a look.

[Gatorade]

I truly do not understand why people who take part in this discussion and who obviously live at Samui most of the time, are taking this topic so lightheartdly Because you do not care?

Leo I really do care, but like an awful lot of posters here I feel there are other problems on Samui and KP in urgent need of addressing. I for one am more worried about the overfishing (as per SBK's post)and the constant news of marine mammals being washed up dead or badly injured due to uncaring and greedy attitudes.

So there may be quite some scepticism amongst us as to why the local Thai Government and Thai locals are suddenly so environmentally concerned! Particularly when on a daily basis we are bombarded with grotesque unfettered hotel/condo development, open sewers (Chaweng)and a total disregard for any form of long term planning regarding water and electricity supplies to name but a few.

Perhaps I've lived here too long but I'm deeply suspicious of this sudden caring attitude. Earlier a poster observed that it is

because there is little in this project for the locals.

Anyway it's good to see that there is a lot of external interest in this affair. It might at least help to keep the oil companies on their toes.

As far as the extra income from off-shore workers is concerned, there might be a noise trade off as there will be helicopter shuttles to bring them in. Wonder if they will use Samui Airport again?

[LeoLeoKhm]

LeoLeoKhm,

I posted THIS LINK, re a discussion on this board .Please have a look.

Thank you, Rooo, i read it. In fact, I read it twice, as you posted it twice, the first time together with another link. Still I do not understand what relevance it has to the issue of visibility of oil rigs from Samui shores. Perhaps you could explain?

[LeoLeoKhm]

Leo I really do care, but like an awful lot of posters here I feel there are other problems on Samui and KP in urgent need of addressing. I for one am more worried about the overfishing (as per SBK's post)and the constant news of marine mammals being washed up dead or badly injured due to uncaring and greedy attitudes.

So there may be quite some scepticism amongst us as to why the local Thai Government and Thai locals are suddenly so environmentally concerned! Particularly when on a daily basis we are bombarded with grotesque unfettered hotel/condo development, open sewers (Chaweng)and a total disregard for any form of long term planning regarding water and electricity supplies to name but a few.

Perhaps I've lived here too long but I'm deeply suspicious of this sudden caring attitude. Earlier a poster observed that it is

because there is little in this project for the locals.

Anyway it's good to see that there is a lot of external interest in this affair. It might at least help to keep the oil companies on their toes.

As far as the extra income from off-shore workers is concerned, there might be a noise trade off as there will be helicopter shuttles to bring them in. Wonder if they will use Samui Airport again?

I guess the locals are concerned because, in contrast to many posters in this thread, they understand that you really won't need any oils spills to ruin the economy of the three pearls of the Gulf of Thailand (as per discription of this forum )

If only it is possible to see an oil rig from anywhere in Samui, few tourists will come to those areas, and less than now will come to the rest of the island. And for the locals - tourists are the major source of income. I am sure you know it, having lived on this island for a long time.

Thank you very much though for your answers on the visibility issue. I asked for an non-English speaking friend, he years ago purchased some hillside land in Laem Set, and was going to start building a house of his dreams later this year.

Now he will not, and will try to sell the land for whatever money you can get for land with the view to an oil rig. I am not sure what this value may be; a rough guess would be to compare it to a price of a coconut plantation... ? I am pretty sure the same will happen to other areas from where it is possible to see the oil rigs.

However, there are always good news in any piece of bad news. When tourism industry shrinks, less customers will be around, the problem of overfishing will ber solved, as they will be nobody to buy the fish, no bad condos/developments (same reason), and even open sewers in Chaweng will dry out, as there will be less waste. How much waste a coconut-based economy will produce?

No tourists = no airport, no Tescos, no Macros, No BigC, no banks etc.

Which is personally fine with me.

[Rooo]

LeoLeoKhm,

I posted THIS LINK, re a discussion on this board .Please have a look.

Thank you, Rooo, i read it. In fact, I read it twice, as you posted it twice, the first time together with another link. Still I do not understand what relevance it has to the issue of visibility of oil rigs from Samui shores. Perhaps you could explain?

The relevance is, that at the time, only 30 people turned up for the protest / meeting, which is what this topic is all about. Just want to know why all the interest now.No one worried about visibility of rigs back then & they knew where they were going. I just find it very odd.

[LeoLeoKhm]

LeoLeoKhm,

I posted THIS LINK, re a discussion on this board .Please have a look.

Thank you, Rooo, i read it. In fact, I read it twice, as you posted it twice, the first time together with another link. Still I do not understand what relevance it has to the issue of visibility of oil rigs from Samui shores. Perhaps you could explain?

The relevance is, that at the time, only 30 people turned up for the protest / meeting, which is what this topic is all about. Just want to know why all the interest now.No one worried about visibility of rigs back then & they knew where they were going. I just find it very odd.

but the subject of the meeting in that link is a Chevron project 60+ km away... hence, no visibility issue.

[Rooo]

LeoLeoKhm,

I posted THIS LINK, re a discussion on this board .Please have a look.

Thank you, Rooo, i read it. In fact, I read it twice, as you posted it twice, the first time together with another link. Still I do not understand what relevance it has to the issue of visibility of oil rigs from Samui shores. Perhaps you could explain?

The relevance is, that at the time, only 30 people turned up for the protest / meeting, which is what this topic is all about. Just want to know why all the interest now.No one worried about visibility of rigs back then & they knew where they were going. I just find it very odd.

but the subject of the meeting in that link is a Chevron project 60+ km away... hence, no visibility issue.

All part of the same issue. where do you think the end product is going to? Tha Sala, the next big beach from Khanom .Chevron is the name of the parent company, see how many off shore companies are registered by a string of subsidiaries .There was a series of links shown on another discussion or newspaper report.

PS : It's 65 kms from the coast of Koh Tao, NOT Samui.

Edited August 19, 2010 by Rooo

[powderpuff]

Oil Drilling rigs are ugly but wind farms are beautiful. Just ask Ted Kennedy.

Get over it.

We drill & then we leave.

[itishothere]

Now he will not, and will try to sell the land for whatever money you can get for land with the view to an oil rig.

Have I understood this correctly? The view to an oil rig 42km away is making him sell his now worthless land??

42km??? What kind of eyesight does this person have? ONE oil rig, hidden perhaps behind Koh Tao, or several jestskis, or a low flying plane. I cannot believe I would be able to see something that far away. I can't see the SeaTran ferry after about half way to KPP.

[carmine]

Now he will not, and will try to sell the land for whatever money you can get for land with the view to an oil rig.

Have I understood this correctly? The view to an oil rig 42km away is making him sell his now worthless land??

42km??? What kind of eyesight does this person have? ONE oil rig, hidden perhaps behind Koh Tao, or several jestskis, or a low flying plane. I cannot believe I would be able to see something that far away. I can't see the SeaTran ferry after about half way to KPP.

The amount of opticions on the island lead me to think most people are partially sighted anyway.....................

[Tracer Round]

I asked about visibility from Samui simply because if it is possible to see those oil rigs from Samui (Lamai, Chaweng?), Laem Set - then resorts, hotels and those exclusive hillside rental villas will loose, as no tourists would like to spend their cash enjoying the view to the oil rigs. It will also affect Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, as Samui is really a hub for other islands. You will not need any spill to seriously damage tourism at these three islands, you just need the view to the rigs.

Yes, how true. The 27 rigs of the coast of California keep all the tourists away from the Southern California beaches. Such a shame....

Oh, and there is this:

"Removal of the rigs would be a death sentence for creatures that call the rigs home."

Can oil rigs help sustain marine life?

[smokie36]

I asked about visibility from Samui simply because if it is possible to see those oil rigs from Samui (Lamai, Chaweng?), Laem Set - then resorts, hotels and those exclusive hillside rental villas will loose, as no tourists would like to spend their cash enjoying the view to the oil rigs. It will also affect Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, as Samui is really a hub for other islands. You will not need any spill to seriously damage tourism at these three islands, you just need the view to the rigs.

Yes, how true. The 27 rigs of the coast of California keep all the tourists away from the Southern California beaches. Such a shame....

Oh, and there is this:

"Removal of the rigs would be a death sentence for creatures that call the rigs home."

Can oil rigs help sustain marine life?

Yeah i've seen some of these creatures moping around Samui's bars lost for want of an oil rig. Sad really.