Updates
March 12, 2011: Administration opening up Gulf. Too little too late?
BHP Billiton PLC said Saturday that the permit will allow it to get back to work in its Shenzi field, located about 120 miles off Louisiana's coast. The well, about 4,300 feet below the surface, began production in March 2009, but drilling stopped last year amid the backlash to an April 2010 blowout of a BP PLC well in the Gulf of Mexico.The article doesn't say, but there have been comments that the court had to step in to force an "up or down" decision by the administration on whether to get around to making a decision. I don't know the details, but if that's accurate, the AP was not helpful in providing full story.
Original Post
Headline: Obama Blames Oil Companies For Lack of Drilling
In his Friday press conference to discuss gas prices, President Obama was rather defensive, straining to counter the notion that his administration has been unfriendly to oil drilling, something most people would like to see a lot more of these days.Flashback -- State of the Union Address, 2011: President Obama mentioned the word "oil" twice in that speech (download it here, and do a word search for "oil" to confirm; twice the word "oil" shows up):
First time:
With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.Second time:
We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.And that was the administration's energy policy: transfer oil profits to subsidize coal-powered vehicles.
Meanwhile GE accelerates its transition into oil diversification with another acquisition. What's good for GE is good for the country, I suppose one could say. After all, the administration's economic czar is the CEO of GE.
Miscellaneous issues:
Permitorium
EPA targets fracking
Onshore delay of drilling permits
Increase taxes on oil companies
Windfall profit taxes
The Steve Chu effect
Plan A: wind and solar energy
No Plan B
I can't make this stuff up.
This response to the question of why there is not more drilling sounds to
ReplyDeleteme like. "humma hummma , hummma humma" in other words a bunch of bs.
With the oil cos, it is one excuse after another. Even with crude at historic high prices. This is unreal . If the "business climate" is so bad, then why is this sector doing so well in the equity markets ?
“The process of looking at an area that might have oil and gas potential and narrowing your search over time and over a sequence of steps to actually producing oil and gas involves kind of casting a big net first and over time through geologic work,” Ranger said. “[Y] You prioritize some over others, you may be lucky on those first ones you drill, you may not — then you drill prospects further down your priority list.”
Ranger also explained it’s not always a cut-and-dried situation. Some areas will have oil and gas, some won’t and some might have it, but it may not be economically feasible to pump it out of the ground.
“When you drill, you have results that are either sufficient oil or gas to allow production or a dry hole or somewhere in between where you think we may have production but we may need some further work to determine whether this formation, this target, is economic to produce. Those steps consume several years from the point of leasing to a point of decision.”