Sadly the oil and gas industry took another kick while down this week.
The Obama Administration has decided to not open up Atlantic Ocean waters to off shore drilling in 2017.
I read a lot of different things, some dating back to 2005. Where offshore drilling money goes and how it gets there is very convoluted. As I understand it, this is the time line for Atlantic off short drilling.
If I am wrong, for heavens sake, please correct me!
- 2006- law passed allowing states to collect a portion of the royalties from off shore drilling instead of the royalties only going to the U.S. Treasury
- 2008-Congress lifts the offshore drilling ban and leans on President Obama to allow oil companies to begin leasing swaths of the coast for future drilling.
- March 2010-President Obama ends the 30 year ban on new offshore drilling on the US Atlantic Coast and N. Alaska
- April 2010– Deepwater Horizon oil spill gushed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the platform that exploded killed 11.
- December 2010- President Obama decides to not allow the lease of offshore swaths in the 2012-2017 exploration plan
- January 2015- Administration releases plans for 14 potential leases giving drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, the coast of Alaska, and part of the Mid-South Atlantic running from 2017-2011
- April 2016- Complete reversal of leasing program
Now I completely agree on the 2010 flip flop from allowing drilling to not allowing. After the Deepwater Horizon tragedy people needed to grieve and coastal communities needed time to recover. What I am not a big fan of is the current and sudden change. Yes, we have a surplus of oil right now. But any actions to become less and less dependent on oil from the volatile Middle East, in my opinion, is a good thing. You have to realize there is not going to be any drilling right away. Offshore rigs don’t get thrown together in a few weeks or even months. To start, companies have to collect years of exploratory data. They have to research weather, tides, wildlife mating and migration patterns. All these factors have to mesh with where actual dead dinosaurs resided, then they can decide what kind of platform is best. Then you have 2-4 years of construction. Finally, you can start to drill.
I found this great infographic showing how they built a platform that is currently working in the Caspian Sea offshore of Azerbaijan.
Yes, oil disasters are just that, disasters. They hurt the environment, wildlife, tourism and local economies. And as the tragedy of Deepwater Horizon showed, these oil disaster can take precious lives. But, if we, “we” as in Americans, just stopped doing things because of a horrific mistake, nothing would get done. We have to learn from our mistakes, hold people accountable and do better.
I feel like a song on repeat now! Yes, we need renewable energy. It has an important place in this world’s future. But we are not going to get rid of fossil fuels anytime soon. If we can make sure that we are a nation that sustains its own energy AND can still export to make a profit……then I say let’s do it.
Croft Production Systems is doing its part to help the environment. Our Passive Dehydration System or PDS is a clean way to dehydrate your natural gas. It has no moving parts, has zero emissions and requires no air permits. We can have you dehydrating gas within hours of delivering the unit to your well site.
references:
http://time.com/4278458/oil-drilling-national-security/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125378223
