Offshore oil: What’s really out there?

Thank you for a truthful article. it is hard to find an article that actually is based in facts. Thank you……..

There is in fact no single answer to our energy crisis, but why must we always be so short sighted? Yes it is true we probably will have 5-10 years before any significant production is seen offshore or in ANWR… so what!!!
I think it’s more important for us to plan for the future than to always look for just a quick fix. The biggest problem this country has is that people are always satisfied with a quick fix that never lasts, but instead of investing time and effort into something that will provide jobs, a partial solution for our energy crisis, as well as reducing our dependency on foreign oil isn’t “good enough” because it won’t be immediate.

THERE IS NO SINGLE ANSWER TO THIS PROBLEM,WHAT WE NEED IS A PROACTIVE GOVERNMENT WILLING TO COME UP WITH A PACKAGE OF MEASURES,PUT THEM INTO LAW AND ENFORCE THEM.

We’ve all heard about safe drilling, drill baby drill,etc.What is the response to the 500,000 barrels that were recently spilled in the Gulf? Or does anybody care?

Of course we should drill. It would result in lower oil prices almost immediately and will increase our energy supplies more quickly than any other action. Wind and Solar power sound great but are of limited use because we have no economical means to store the energy until it is required.

If we can drill the gulf, then we should be able to drill the east and west coast.

Last time we leased our water rights to oil explorers the public got screwed. Not only did the oil explorers pay way below market price for leases they also failed to explore those leased areas.

Fossil fuels, including oil and natural gas, are a finite resource. They will run out some day. Nobody knows when that day will be. We must find alternate sources of energy and, like it or not, it will take energy in the form of fossil fuels to carry out the research and development of alternate sources of energy and develop the infrastructure to deliver that energy. I believe we are nowhere near being able to replace any significant portion of our fossil fuel supply with alternate renewable sources of energy in the short term. It seems reasonable, therefore, to continue to develop fossil fuel resources and to conserve our use of those resources with the knowledge that they will ultimately be replaced. We cannot and should not rely importing more and more oil from unstable areas of the world and transferring vast amounts of wealth to unfriendly nations. We need that wealth to fund the search for alternate sources of energy. So go ahead, drill and develop our own sources of oil and natural gas.

If we had drilled more years ago things would be better. The US is not liked abroad by many regimes and nothing would suit them better to see us struggle or perish from a major power. It is out there and can be done environmentally correct, look at the GOM. Give states that allow and produce oil a break in prices, and pass the higher prices on to those who say ^not in my backyard. California idiots should pay 10 dollars per gallon and Lousiana, Texas,and Mississippi three dollars per gallon.

It is crazy how idiots don~t mind paying 5 bucks a cup at Starbucks for coffee just to look cool complain about 4 dollar a gallon fuel. The Europeans have been paying more for fuel along with other countries for years, so stop whining. Phil Gramm was right, we have become a nation of whinners.

Drill, but do not expect oil to last us much longer than 15-20 more years. If there was a highly developed, reliable, and commercialized alternative fuel, like what we thought Ethanol was going to be, then I would be less inclined to advocate drilling. But such an aforementioned alternative fuel does not exist. And right now, there is not really a cost effective way to fuel your car, either with gas (demand is too high) or ethanol (less fuel efficiency than gas, plus the nearest gas station with ethanol is 60 miles from my house, and generally is not commercialized, and never will be.) The point is, President Bush rescinded an executive moratorium on offshore drilling, and that very day, the price of oil dropped $6. His action basically carried no weight whatsoever, and there was a drastic price decrease. Even the threat of new drilling keeps driving the price down. If congress announced an immediate rescinding of the ban on offshore drilling, prices would fall again, even more drastically, because there would be more supply.

As far as existing federal leases for offshore oil exploration, let me remind everyone, that is exactly what it says: exploration. There is no garuntee that there is actually oil on that lease. And if there is no oil on the lease, or if it is not cost effective enough to pump it out of there, then the oil companies have taken a massive hit. They paid for a product, and didn’t recieve it. On the other hand, there are places where oil companies are absolutely certain that there is oil, its cheap, and easy to pump out. Therefore, it is also safer and cleaner to pump it out. You have environmental problems pumping oil out when its really hard to get to, and you break a lot of equipment in the process.

Everyone needs to pay more attention to Biodeisel. It’s a very big thing in my hometown. LSU offers a weekend course on how to make your own. Its basically vegetable oil with lye thrown in it. A buddy of mine makes his own Biodeisel, and estimates his cost per gallon between 75-85 cents. That includes the vegetable oil (which he can sometimes get for free from local restaurants after its been used), and the other couple of chemicals used in the process, which can be easily obtained from any local supermarket. Biodeisel burns cleaner in your engine, as well as burning cleaner in the environment as opposed to petrodeisel. And I like driving big trucks with big engines, so biodeisel appeals to me. Just look into these things. Also, check out pickensplan.org

Too little, too late, especially since the idiots on the hill are more concerned with politicizing our crisis, which will further delay any relief.

Drill, this should have been done in the 70’s, maybe we wouldn’t have been in this situation. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be looking for alternatives, but there are so many things made that use petroleum. You will never get away from petroleum. If the government wants us to use alternatives, they need to find or help people pay for it, because it not cheap either and the average family can’t afford to retro fit their house like Al Gore. I’m currently looking at geothermal (I heat with fuel oil), it is going to cost me over $19,000 to do the house. I’m screwed either way I look at it, can’t afford the oil and can’t really afford the geothermal. So until you can make it affordable for alternatives, get drilling!

We shouldn’t even have to be asking this question. What difference does it make if the benefits of drilling in the OCS won’t be recognized for four years or seven years or whenever? The simple fact is, we WILL benefit. It may take a year or it may take five years but at some point energy prices will be lower then they would have otherwise been had we done nothing. It’s this lack of long tern thinking that has us in this mess in the first place and I suppose we have our elected representatives in congress to thank for this. Long tern to these clowns is next week and all decisions appear to be based solely on getting a political advantage. Wind, solar and renewable fuels may be a admirable long term goal and definitely one we should be striving for but no one has any idea how long that conversion will take. If one were to think about the magnitude of the change and all that is involved, a generation away doesn’t appear unreasonable. In the mean time a secretary in Ohio spends $80 to fill up her gas tank and a homeowner in New Hampshire spends $1,000 to fill up their heating oil tank while we send 700 billion dollars to foreigners to buy what we have but congress won’t let us use. We fiddle while Rome burns.

Drill … it’s the best short term solution. Many family’s are suffering financially due to these prices. I am sure we will have alternative fuels within the next ten years. I’d love to see Hugo talk trash about the US then.

Drill. We need to have as many sources as possible. The use less option means that in 10 years will be back to horse and buggy. Wise up our economy requires lots of energy- computers, buildings, hospitals. Have you not noticed in a power outage everything stops.

The time span for actually retrieving oil in northern Alaska is exagerated…The stimate of 10 years before oil starts flowing is ridiculous and appears to be a smokescreen or excuse as to why it we can’t do it. Nothing is ever solved by citing excuses of why some endeavor will take longer than we want it to take or that it isn’t worth the effort. If our politicians would get off their big rumps and earn their pay, maybe we wouldn’t be in such a dilema.

The threat of more supply will lower the price. Also, we will not be at the mercy of regimes that do not like us. Actually drilling may be better for the environment – no seepage of oil. Santa Barbara can be online and producing with in a year since most of the infrastructure is already existing check this out http://www.soscalifornia.org/

Most experts agree that it will take many years and billions of dollars to explore, drill and bring to production and significant amount of oil. I believe it is much wiser to invest this time and money into renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass (not food stocks like corn). This will also send a message to the speculators that we are serious about solving our energy problem and would also drive down the cost of oil.

Lets start drilling AND increasing our research for such things as solar, wind, hydro-cell, etc… If we just research and it’s not feasible in 5-10 years yet for alternate sources, then what Obama? Trillions of dollars continue to go overseas to people who don’t share our same freedom perspective and we are back to worthless politics with a weaker nation. We drill now to protect ourselves and way of life.

Furthermore, I don’t believe we need to drill to lower prices, it is good to get some gas guzzlers off the unnecessary road. And WHY IS WASHINGTON RUNNING EVERYTHING? The government protects our freedom and security. Let our founding capitalism principles continue the success that made this nation take care of the rest! Obama, McCain, this country made you rich, not the government.

When the people fear the government it’s tyranny, when the government fears the people it’s liberty! Who fears who right now?

Drill Drill Drill!!! Destroy the environment and INCREASE or reliance on fossil fuels! At least we’ll save a nickle a gallon on gas until the glaciers melt! New York city will make a great artificial reef.

Drill now and keep the wealth in our country. Instead of putting money in the hands of the foreigners, keep it here. The wealth will trickle down to average citizens, income tax revenues will increase, and our country will be more secure.

OF COURSE more drilling will help lower oil prices, both in the short term AND in the long term. The law of supply and demand dictates that if we allow free markets to function, the prices will be self-regulating. This is because high prices spur us to conserve and reduce consumption. High prices also spur the development of new sources of energy whether they be renewable, nuclear, or good old fashioned fossil fuels. People who argue that one supply side factor alone cannot affect gas prices in the short term are missing the point. When all of the factors brought about by high prices in a free market are taken in aggregate, they absolutely will affect prices. The problem comes when government regulations such as the moratorium on offshore exploration interfere with free market forces and restrict the development of new supply in response to high prices.

I believe the more we delay the longer it will take to give the public a break. I’m retired on a fixed income and the price for gas has lowered my standard of living. I’ve had to tighten up in other areas. Areas that aren’t necessities but gave me quality of life. I say drill now.

Drill ! They keep saying that it will be 10 years before results. Well, that time will past quickly if they will start now. States like Florida say that they are worried that it will hurt tourism. They better realize that there will be NO tourism if prices continue to climb. Just think of all of the money that leaves this country. Right into the hands of our enemies. I’m sure they are not worried though because there is no leadership in this country and they know it. It makes no difference which party had the solution, the other will be against it. They are not concerned about the American citizens. Only themselves !!

Of course we need to drill ASAP but it needs to be a part of a more comprehensive energy plan. That plan should include electricity, natural gas and crude oil based products. Americans are being held hostage by environmentalists. Every topic (cap and trade, OCS drilling, nuclear power, clean coal, pipelines to deliver energy to consumers) is becoming a seperate battle keeping Americans seperated from globally competitive energy costs. This war of attrition is resulting in more family wage jobes going overseas and a reduced standard of living for the average working American. If there is not a more dynamic change in our countries energy policies we will starve our economy and our energy supply will look more and more like a thrid world country where brown outs, black outs and long lines at the fuel pump are common.

We need to drill where ever we can as well as develop alternative energies. We have sat on the possibilities of alternative energies for so long, it is rediculous, now we are racing for them and it will take just as much time to put these in place. There is no reason why we can’t drill offshore, preserve the environment, and not have platforms “littering” the horizon. I believe that it was Denmark (or at least one of the Scandanavian countries) that actually built a drilling station that mounted to the floor of the North Sea and then laid pipe and cable back to shore. As a Software Consultant, technology today gives us MANY more options for our capabilities in not only further drilling, but also preservation and conservation.

Any studies of energy needs in 30 years shows oil is still the most significant resource that will be needed. Saying no to drilling for outdated environmental concerns is pure politics and will do nothing to make us energy independent.
We need to drill and move toward alternatives in parallel as this problem just gets worse with all the growing economies.

Why don’t the oil companies explore and drill on the millions of acres of federal lands they can drill on now, but don’t?

Off shore drilling proponents are using the energy crisis and people’s fears to their advantage, of course.

Let’s use our scarce financial resources to invest in sure things such as; wind, solar, and geothermal.

Let’s also look at the huge oil shale deposits we have in North Dakota and Colorado. The Canadiens are exploiting this technology and selling us oil from shale. We could be an exporter of energy like OPEC, if we got it together. Can’t we think of everyone’s best interest and work together to get out of this crisis?

Also, how about forming a “food producing and exporting” (FPEC) cartel? We could sell our food to OPEC countries just as they sell their oil to us. A quid pro quo arrangement that may offset the balance of payments in the world.

Absolutely drill. We can also or always find ways to other energy sources but we need to be drilling now wherever we can so we do not have to be dependent on foreign oil. Not to mention the jobs it will create. This will be a new boom in the economy with lower gas prices, more jobs and more wealth for this Country. Ony good can come from this.

NO Drilling!
We’ve been through an “oil crunch” sever times now (70’s, 80’s/90’s and now). As a country we still have not learned our lesson. We need to curtail consumption. In the same time it takes to drill and produce a usable product we should/could develop alternative fuels or improve the fuel efficiency in our vehicles. Currently you can go to England and drive a Ford Focus “clean diesel” four door sedan that gets about 50 mpg, why don’t we have them here? Poor quality of fuel? FIX THE PROBLEM!
Too many profit and loss statements tied to the current fuel system I suppose. It’s time we (citizens) changed the thought process of the corporations. We are inadvertently doing that as I type this. We are not buying as many gas guzzlers. That alone is forcing the auto manufacturers to rethink & re-tool in an attempt to get us buying again. This is what we as a country need. Reduce fuel consumption and do not buy inefficient cars. This will force those that want our money to offer a better product which will include much better gas mileage.
The other part of the solution would be alternative power sources. Ethanol, while better for the environment, hurts in other areas (less food production for humans and animals) which increase our food bill. Natural gas is plentiful and better for the environment. Put the money in the infrastructure if this is a viable alternative. Hydrogen Fuel Cell seems to hold the most promise. The government needs to put a “real” emphasis on this. We went from theorizing an atom could be split to designing and building a test reactor in about 10 years. It only took another 10 years to produce electricity and that was during and after a World War. Yes there was perhaps more of an incentive but it can be done.
Consider the resources spent on the current war. Funnel that into a well organized (not typical government operation) effort at developing an alternative and see how long it takes for a solution to come forth. I would suggest a current/former CEO of a large corporation take the head job on this, NOT a politician. We truly want results! How about Bill Gates? It should be difficult for someone to buy his vote. Talk about going down in history as a great achievement, Wow. Pulling this off would almost be unprecedented.
China and India, what about the China / India fuel consumption factor? Not sure. Removing government subsidies is a start. Currently we use about 3 X what the Chinese do and about 10 X what they use in India but we won’t be the dominant fuel users in the near future.
Overall, let the prices rise. It hurts now but we’ll be better off in the future. We’ve ignored this problem far too long and it seems we can no longer put our heads in the sand. I have to drive 40 miles each way to work. It’s a government facility but they removed the mass transit system many years ago. Now I car-pool and still pay more than I did a year and a half ago. We are being educated whether we want it or not and just like going to school: You can put the effort in for several years and reap the benefits for a lifetime, or take the apparent “easy route” and pay for the rest of your life. For my children’s sake I want to fix it now and not make them fix it when it’s an extreme crisis.

Even if assuming that the moratorium is lifted, and while the effect of drilling is not immediate, it may be in the future. All that this would do is delay the inevitable that Oil is eventually going to run out. People have short memories and we will eventually be back to wasteful habits of misusing it until the next crises looms when there is no place left to drill.

Of course it will have an impact! Hackett is correct. Added to this are the lease bonuses and royalties that will bring billions to the government to offset our debt and help costal states. We have the abilty to explore, drill and produce with advanced technology that will have to have a very small impact on our environment. We also need the natural gas, as this debate will be about our high utility bills next winter. Areas like the Destin Dome off the NW coast of Florida hold huge deposits of natural gas, and once leased we are only two to three years from production. I just can’t believe we are even having this debate, we should be drilling.

If we don’t drill now, just think of what the prices will be 10 years from now (when they say they could begin production)? You can’t conserve out of the problem. You need to have energy while searching for alternatives. It will be YEARS, even more so than new oil field production for alternative fuels to come into play. Also, oil speculation is also another obvious culprit, if not the biggest culprit, as well as OPEC.

To drill or not to drill? ‎

Let’s see…‎

Today we consume about 22 millions barrels of crude oil per day.‎
Off shore and Alaska drilling may start producing some oil 5 – 7 years from now.‎
We do not know how much oil is there, but, according to some speculation, new off shore ‎and Alaska will be able to give us about 200 – 250 thousand barrels per day 10 years ‎from now.‎
Meanwhile, Mexico main oil field Cantarell will go off line in a year or so. Our own old ‎oil fields have been declining since 70s continue doing so.‎

So, to drill or not to drill?‎
From political games point of view – one presidential candidate cries out – “Drill! ‎Drill!…” and another “Don’t! Don’t”. So much ado about nothing.‎

Using today’s consumption level number, off shore and Alaska drilling may cover less ‎than 2% of our daily appetite. Five – seven, ten years from now it will cover even less.‎

So, to drill or not to drill? And the answer is – it does not matter.‎

Everyone seems to say another 3 million barrels a day won’t bring prices down, but I bet if you took away 3 million barrels a day now the price of gas would skyrocket.

We should of drilled ten-(10) years ago. Its stupid not to get going and start drilling now.

I live in Florida and we know there is oil in panhandle next the Alabama and in the Straits between the Keys and Florida. We need to get going.

Don’t forget about the recent potential large discoveries off the coast of Brazil as well.

These delays are costing us a lot money……

My opinion is drill now and drill everywhere we can. This is the only way we can buy time to develop the alternative sources needed to be able to rid ourselves of the dependence on oil. I believe once the world sees we are serious about producing our own energy, prices will decline.

If we had instituted this policy 7 or 8 years ago, we wouldn’t be talking about high oil today. If speculation is what is driving prices, then any speculation on new oil would undoubtedly lower the price

What we need is to consume less oil if we want to lower our gas prices, not drill for more. This is both a short term and long term solution.

Drill, drill, drill. When you fill your tank with gas and approach empty, do you park in the garage and leave it to await alternative energy or go back for more gas?

Drill, drill and do it yesterday, today and tomorrow.