The answer is, because we demanded it, you and I. “It” being a reasonably inexpensive, plentiful and secure supply of petroleum products, gasoline in particular. We don’t like gas lines or $8.00 per gallon. We really don’t like gas lines and $8.00 per gallon. (And “we” includes every American, with the possible exception of St. Ed Begley, Jr. ) We also decided that we didn’t | Read More »
MMS’s Annual SAFE Awards Luncheon is usually held in conjunction with the mammoth oil industry trade show, the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. The SAFE Awards honor those companies with exemplary safety and environmental performance during the previous year. The evaluation is based on records from MMS’s active inspection programs. This year’s SAFE Awards Luncheon, scheduled during next week’s OTC, has been postponed due to | Read More »
It’s a truism in the oil business: When it comes to solving a problem, one’s intelligence is proportional to the square of their physical distance from the problem. For those who barely squeaked through Intermediate Algebra, that means that Congress and Washington-based regulators are really, really smart when it comes to diagnosing and solving problems in the field. </snark> Before the blazing hulk of the | Read More »
Today’s Houston Chronicle has a pretty informative article on the search for hydrocarbons in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Complete with video, to boot. [Which has since been disabled for embedding. I encourage you to view the video at the linked website. - ed.] A $1 million-a-day gamble in the Gulf Major oil companies have focused particular attention on an ancient rock bed geologists call | Read More »
By including areas of the East Coast, Eastern Gulf of Mexico and offshore Alaska in its new Five Year OCS Leasing Plan, the Obama Administration would appear to be throwing a bone to the “Drill. Baby, Drill” crowd. Of course, everyone expects that there’s a quid pro quo in the deal: in exchange for this Open Access, you will support some form of Cap and | Read More »
Remember the State of the Union, way back in January? President Obama shared a vision of our nation’s energy future: But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and | Read More »
The Big Energy Lie goes something like this: The United States has only 2-3% of the world’s oil reserves, but consumes 25% of global production. Those words have been uttered by our Dear Leader as well as his Secretaries of Energy and Interior. The idea justifies “progressive” Administration policies ranging from “green jobs” to Cap and Trade to foreign affairs. And they are deliberately designed | Read More »
On Thursday, I wrote about the announcement of a new giant oil field discovered by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s in 4,100 feet of water, and the well is over 35,000 feet deep. If it turns out to be as big as BP hopes it is, it might be BP’s biggest Gulf find and deliver half the output of Prudhoe Bay. Big field. | Read More »
So, if we had started a year ago, we’d be only nine years away, even if you accept the meme. My, time does fly when you’re having fun! July 10, 2009 The President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Dear Mr. President: This coming Tuesday, Americans will mark the first anniversary of an historic change in our nation’s energy policy, one that came in the | Read More »
[promoted from the diaries by bs] All bloviating about “Energy Independence” aside, the White House’s new budget proves that the main goal vis a vis the domestic energy industry is to maximize the extraction of tax dollars. The inevitable result will be the permanent crippling of the industry and the loss of millions of jobs. In the meantime, say goodbye to whatever shot at Energy | Read More »
… may I brag just a little? MMS Announces SAFE Award Finalists WASHINGTON, D.C.– The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service today announced the national finalists for the Safety Awards for Excellence (SAFE) competition sponsored by the Minerals Management Service. Presented annually to Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas operators and contractors who achieve excellence in safety and pollution prevention, the National SAFE | Read More »
From the diaries by Erick. If (and it’s a Big If) President Obama doesn’t reimpose the Presidential Moratorium on exploration of the Federal Outer Continental Shelf, the first new area open for bidding may be offshore Virginia. Article: Offshore Virginia may finally be ready for drilling The MMS recently issued a [Call for Information and Interest/Nominations and Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact | Read More »
AP Investigation: Hurricane Ike’s environmental damage apparent as pipelines, oil rigs hit Ike’s toll on wildlife is still unfolding. Only a few pelicans and osprey turned up oiled, but the storm upended nature. Winds blew more than 1,000 baby squirrels from their nests. The storm’s surge pushed saltwater into freshwater marshes and bayous, killing grasses where cattle graze and displacing alligators. Flooding also stranded cows. | Read More »
Dear Friends, Today I returned to the House Floor in Washington, D.C., calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to reconvene the House to vote on meaningful energy legislation. Gas prices continue to squeeze family budgets, this is what I heard across Southwest Louisiana. Congress can act to help lower the cost of gas and diesel, but the Speaker and Washington Democrats refuse any reasonable | Read More »
Based on this map (which, by the way, is two years old), does it look to you like the oil and gas industry has not been aggressively exploring the deepwater Gulf of Mexico? That’s where a big chunk of the 68 million acres of non-producing Federal oil and gas leases are located. Even the Washington Post recognizes the fallacy of counting non-producing leases: deepwater tracts | Read More »
“Why don’t we just go drill the 86 billions of barrels we know we have?!” So goes the argument for expanding drilling in the OCS (or in ANWR, or any other unexplored basin, for that matter) – as if there is an existing inventory of “proved reserves” just waiting to be exploited. The problem is, many of the places where those 86 billion barrels supposedly | Read More »
The catastrophic spill occurred early Wednesday after a 600-foot Liberian-flagged tanker named The Tintomara collided with a barge being pulled by a tugboat near the Harvey Locks. The barge — which was carrying 400,000 gallons of thick, tar-like No. 6 fuel oil — was split in half, sending its contents into the river. As a result, the Mississippi River is shut down to boat traffic | Read More »
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