Posted on 07/22/2008 10:23:38 AM PDT by SmithL
U.S. offshore oil fields could hold enough crude to supply all of the country's needs for more than 11 years.
Or they might not. No one knows for certain because, with new offshore oil drilling banned on the East and West coasts, no one has gone looking for oil there in years.
Now congressional Republicans are pushing hard to make offshore drilling a key issue in the presidential campaign, hoping to channel the anger Americans feel over historically high oil and gasoline prices. More oil, they argue, will bring lower prices.
The federal government estimates the nation's outer continental shelf might hold 85.9 billion barrels of crude, including 10.13 billion barrels off California. For comparison, the United States consumes about 7.56 billion barrels of oil per year. The nation's sea floor also could hold 419.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, equal to U.S. consumption for 14 1/2 years. But the federal estimates are just that - estimates.
"You don't really know what's there until you go out and drill a well," said Ken Medlock, an energy research fellow at Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. "And even then, you're not 100 percent sure of what you're going to get."
In addition, offshore oil exploration is slow and costly.
If the federal government opened California's coast to drilling tomorrow, the first exploratory wells probably wouldn't be drilled for at least six years, Medlock said. Bringing newly discovered oil fields into full production would take longer.
That means any new oil wouldn't arrive on the market until midway through the next decade, at the earliest.
..."It's a crock to say that's any kind of near-term solution for the pain drivers are feeling at the pump," said Bill Corcoran, senior regional representative for the Sierra Club.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
And the propaganda continues. The “no immediate benefit” argument is the stupidest excuse not to drill. The longer we put off drilling, the long we get held hostage by OPEC.
“More oil, they argue, will bring lower prices.”
Another institution that has no clue how supply and demand works.
How many of those six years is jumping through insane bureaucratic hoops and dealing with environmentalist lawsuits at every step of the process in order to get government permission to drill the exploratory wells?
I’m old enough to recall the oil boom years of the early eighties. Many friends had jobs in the industry and it brought in big time dollars to an economy that really needed it after the Carter years.
What kind of expertise does a regional rep from the sierra club have markets, economics, or commodities? They should be embarrassed.
Drilling Iraq would be more cost effective.
I guess this SF Chronicle writer and his editor haven’t heard that the price of a barrel of crude has been dropping like a rock just due to us talking about allowing drilling. The actual drilling of course wouldn’t cause the price to drop further.
LMAO
Evidently they don’t mind if the Chronicle’s credibility drops below that of the the weekly reader.
“”It’s a crock to say that’s any kind of near-term solution for the pain drivers are feeling at the pump,” said Bill Corcoran, senior regional representative for the Sierra Club.”
Bush rescinded the executive order on offshore drilling and the price dropped huge...so I guess this guy is just a complete fool.
8 years...
LOL
If we don’t drill for it, someone else will.
” The longer we put off drilling, the long we get held hostage by OPEC.”
Elementary, my dear, Watson. LOL
ping
check out rigzone.com for current oil-patch information.
Yeah, a lot of people actually thought that would happen...or we would at least get some revenue from it.
Someday, the Communist, er, DemocRAT party may achieve its objective of destroying the United States of America as it is currently constituted. When that shining socialist future day comes, the successor nation(s) will drill for the oil that we once locked up in order to appease DemocRAT special interests, er, environMENTAL extremists.
What irony -- I wonder if we'll be around to witness it -- hopefully the gulags that the latter-day Stalinists open will have cable TV and broadband access in order to trumpet the success of the latest USSA 5-Year Plan ... :^).
Noticew they were careful not to ask a real oilman because they wouldn't have gotten the answer they wanted. Instead, they get a researcher whose entire life occurs within the walls of a university.
Not a real credible source, IMO.
The ‘Rats just want us all riding in government mass transit like good little comrades.
And they want government ownership of all American oil companies.
“Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink.”
P.J.O’Rourke
That "6 year" estimate is total baloney, based on past practices of endless "environmental" studies, open bidding, contested federal leasing practices which end up in court, with endless appeals, etc.
Congress could cut through all that red tape with the stroke of a pen, and we would be drilling exploratory wells within months, with production likely within 18 months.
My best buddy is an oil well investor. (small time). He basically bids on oil and natural gas wells in the continental US and offshore, with the hope that they will produce more than expected, or that the acres attached to the lease will ultimately yield more production.
His buying price range is between $50,000 and $250,000 --
It is a game wholly dependent on getting the best geologist who knows the particular ground characteristics.
Depending on how the well is fractinated ??, and depending on the new horizonal drilling techniques, a well can end up producting waaay more than estimated... or it can begin to produce less within a few months or years, he says.
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