Does Drilling in ANWR Make More Sense than the Alaskan Offshore?

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  August 12th at 07:00 AM  | 

At this writing, Shell Oil is awaiting final permits from the Department of the Interior and EPA for drill two of five wells in the Arctic Ocean offshore Alaska that were originally planned for 2012. Later than normal breakup of pack ice also caused Shell some delays. According to Human Events: The company is now counting on operations beginning in early August, which gives them | Read More »

Study Reveals the Gulf of Mexico Permitting Mess

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  May 31st at 09:00 AM  | 

In a rational world, the Federal government would act as a motivated lease owner who was interested in promoting the safe and environmentally responsible development of his mineral resource, consistent with sound conservation practice. That’s why there’s a permit process in the first place. Since Macondo, that’s backwards. Operating practices must conform to the permitting process that has, um, evolved in a purely political environment: | Read More »

Offshore O&G Lease Sale: Small Companies Stay Away in Droves

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  December 18th at 05:33 PM  | 

On Wednesday of the week just past, the Department of the Interior conducted the first sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico since BP’s Macondo oil spill. Measured by the statistics touted in Interior’s press release, the sale would appear to be a rousing success: NEW ORLEANS – The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that its | Read More »