Charles Goslin Today’s sea lanes are more crowded than they have ever been, chock-a-block with bigger [fatter] tankers, heavier loads, and more containers jammed to the hilt with manufactured goods from China, Indonesia, the U.S., Latin America, and elsewhere. In the meantime, the world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. The lifeblood … Read more
When it comes to the next terrorist attack, you can bet on one thing: It probably will not happen at the Mall of the Americas, London’s Oxford Street or Canada’s West Edmonton shopping complex. These venues are on high security alert after this weekend’s threat issued by the Al-Qaida affiliated … Read more
To paraphrase Mark Twain’s wry remark, “reports of the demise of the oil & gas industry have been greatly exaggerated.” Sure, crude prices have dropped to around $50 a barrel and gas is sitting at only $2.50, but if activity in Houston is any indication, the industry is gearing up … Read more
When it comes to pipeline safety and security, our two neighbors provide an interesting and illustrative contrast. To our north, Canada’s oil and gas industry’s safety and security standards, with regards to pipelines, mirror and even surpass those of the U.S. The oil and gas sector is privately owned and … Read more
“When it comes to pipelines, security is today where corrosion was 20 years ago.” This candid assessment, from Phillip Nidd, Vice President of Operations at Dynamic Risk USA, really distilled our impressions and understanding of security’s role at the 29 September – 3 October 2014 International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, … Read more
Threat is the “fissile material” needed to activate the individual components of asset, vulnerability, impact, consequence, and likelihood in the calculation of risk. It is threat that initiates the sequence of relationships and events that, together, combine to elevate or lower risk. It is important to understand threat in this … Read more
On August 14, 2014, the Energy Security Council (ESC) hosted its one-day summer conference alongside San Antonio’s scenic Riverwalk and Butchko, Inc. was there to meet with old friends, make new ones, and take the pulse of the oil and gas industry’s security community. Two particular topics caught our interest … Read more
It is easy to dismiss the chronic issue of human and drug smuggling in the Eagle Ford Shale Play as “the way it has always been in this part of Texas,” throw up a game fence, and get on with operations. This is a very shortsighted, naïve approach to the … Read more
In a recent Bloomberg Business Week article, writer Joe Carroll’s highlights the gritty, tough landscape of South Texas border country where security issues – very similar to those unfolding in the Eagle Ford Shale Play – continue to evolve. It is something we are talking about a lot at Butchko … Read more
As Winston Churchill famously said of Russia, “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” Indeed, the opaque nature of Vladimir Putin’s most recent aggression in Ukraine – Russian-speaking “insurgents” with balaclava’s and unmarked uniforms, mysterious pipeline explosions followed by near real-time Russian media coverage, and a … Read more