US Ban To Cost 30M Barrels Of Oil A Year

An interesting post from http://sweetness-light.com about the drilling ban.This follows this post about Cuba drilling in the Gulf of Mexico while America doesn't. This follows this post about a creative solution to Gulf drilling and this previous article about the recent news about offshore drilling to encourage American energy independence This is a key issue to prevent money from going to hostile countries such as Iran and Venezuela. For more posts like this click here.


US Ban To Cost 30M Barrels Of Oil A Year
A report from Reuters that for some odd reason did not seem to make it to our shores:
U.S. drilling moratorium to take bigger output bite
By Tom Doggett and Timothy Gardner
July 7, 2010
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration’s contested moratorium on deepwater drilling will take a larger portion out of U.S. oil production next year than previously thought, the government’s energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday.
Oil production next year is expected to be cut by 82,000 barrels per day, or almost 30 million barrels total, due to delayed or cancelled drilling caused by the moratorium, the Energy Information Administration said. That is 17 percent more from the 70,000 bpd in lost output the agency predicted just last month.
Monthly production losses could reach nearly 100,000 bpd by December 2011, the EIA said.
In response to the BP oil spill, the administration imposed a six-month moratorium on exploratory and development drilling in waters more than 500 feet deep. A federal judge lifted the ban last month, but administration lawyers will go to an appeals court on Thursday to argue it be reinstated…
Because of the legal uncertainties, analysts said oil exploration will be hampered for months to come.
As a result, the moratorium will end a recent pattern of yearly increases in U.S. oil production, as according to EIA data total output from both onshore and offshore next year will fall by 26,000 bpd to 5.37 million bpd.
The American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies on behalf of oil and gas companies is fighting a blanket moratorium.
It has recommended to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that as long as oil companies meet the department’s new safety regulations for shallow water drilling then companies should also be allowed to drill in deep waters.
What kind of crazy logic is that?
The safety rules for exploratory and development wells, which were issued last month, require companies to certify they have working blowout preventers to avoid oil spills, they will conduct at least two tests of cement barriers in underwater wells and that they will follow new casing installation procedures.
"The government has imposed significant new requirements. If companies demonstrate compliance with these new requirements, then they should be permitted to begin operations across the board and maintain the thousands of job that are at stake," said Erik Milito, who oversees drilling issues for API.
Obviously the American Petroleum Institute (aka ‘Big Oil’) is a little slow to catch on.
The whole idea behind the oil spill Mr. Obama’s moratorium is to drive up the cost of energy so high that his coveted (and largely imaginary) ‘green alternatives’ will be viable.
How on Gaia’s green earth can he carry out that noble mission that if evil oil companies are allowed to drill in the US?

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 3:00 am. You can leave a response.