ConocoPhillips has a little problem with one of its oil wells, and the government has ordered it to stop production at all of them. They've had to stop production at 51 injection wells and 180 producing wells for a total of 231 wells out-of-production because of this one teensy problem well.
Conoco reported yesterday that it has complied with a government order to suspend all drilling, water injection, and production at the affected Penglai 19-3 oil field.
Oh, one thing. The oil field is in China's Bohai Bay, and the order comes from the Chinese government. Maybe they don't want crude washing up on their beaches either? The oil is already impacting fisheries in the area. and China's nascent environmental movement has brought pressure on the government to do something, so this is what they did. (The well has been leaking for two months, and Conoco has been unable to do anything about it.)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j9oS2OX7c8kuBbkeeow_XA1WEI8Q?docId=b597749655254188a9b4bf3ccefa9da8
Those dreaded government bureaucrats, insisting that an oil company clean up its mess. How dare they?
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