The foolishness of the offshore/ANWR drilling debate in solving our energy crisis
(Hat tip to my friend scorpioatl for posting this information).
A new report is out from the Congressional Committee on Natural Resouces that debunks a lot of the BS going around right now about how offshore drilling is necessary to “solve” the current energy crisis.
Some interesting tidbits from the report:
-On the Outer Continental Shelf, 82% of federal natural gas and 79% of federal oil is located in areas that are currently open for leasing.
-Onshore, 72% of oil and 84% of natural gas resources are either fully accessible under standard lease stipulations designed to protect lands and wildlife, or will be accessible pending the completion of land-use planning or environmental reviews.
-Between 1999 and 2007, drilling permits for oil and gas development on public lands increased more than 361%.
-Since 2004, the Bureau of Land Management has issued 28,776 permits to drill on public land; in that same time, only 18,954 wells were actually drilled.
-Oil and gas companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000 extra permits to drill that they are not using to increase domestic production.
-Onshore, of the 47.5 million acres of federal lands leased by oil and gas companies, only about 13 million acres are actually producing oil and gas.
-Offshore, only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased acres are currently producing oil or gas.
-Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres of federal land that are not producing oil and gas.
-The 68 million acres of leased, inactive federal land could produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. That would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75%.
-4.8 million barrels of oil equals more than six times the estimated peak production from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
-Development of and production from the 68 million acres currently under lease but not in production would cut US imports of oil by one-third.
It seems like oil companies’ failure to fully utilize the resources available to them are far more responsible for stagnant oil production than any ban on offshore drilling.
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An additional fact:
Drilling in ANWR would produce no results for about ten years, and would reduce oil prices by around 75 cents a barrel in 2025. Source: Wall Street Journal.
While drilling in areas already available will provide a bit of respite, it will not solve the long-term problem of having a growing economy dependent on a dwindling resource. We MUST find another way before the pain of dwindling supply and burgeoning demand becomes too great.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: anwr, offshore-drilling, petroleum
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It is one thing drilling for oil off shore, and it is another seeing the price go down. I doubt the price will go down. Oil cmpnaies, hedge funds will only take more profit. I would. Wouldn’t you? Ethical corporations? The problems we face today is a result of years of allowing freewheeling corporations. They are more likely to lock workers up in a factory if thre were no legislations against it.
I am not sure if anyone is aware of this. To counter the growing threat of Russia and Iran. The Bush administration has embarked on building a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, down through Pakistan into India. This is a competing gas line against what Iran was planning to do. Who’s idea is this? Haliburton? Can you imagine the complications, the problems, the danger, the life lost? There is abundant gas in the Straits of Malacca. In Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. If india wants gas, they can run a line from there.
The Chinese are already building two massive ports, so their battleships can be stationed. One in Macao, and the other in Sri Lanka. To counter the giant up north, Sri Lanka has made an alliance with China. Reason China has to have power over this area? Gas in the South China sea, the Straits of Malacca, and the Indian ocean. The battle seems to be over natural gas, considering Indonesia and Malaysia will become net oil importers in 5 years. But there is plenty of natural gas. So, I am assuming China wants a bigger share of the gas in this region. They already contend some of the islands that are part of Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam as theirs. So, one can imagine.
So, if the US does not beat China to the punch, we are in toruble. Plus, the gas line from South East Asia is a much cheaper, and less risky option then Turmenistan. And China a bigger threat than Russia. As far as Iran building a gas line, it will only stall them a few years.
It would be intereting to know how many gallons of fuel we have used to fight the war in Iraq. It must be mind-boggling!
McCain can’t remember when he’s had a fresh idea. Swithing gears from no new drilling to, hey … let’s drill!
And please Bush Jr., just shut up and try and not screw things up anymore than you already have. Go away quietly and please, please go away.
No more embarrassing trips on our behalf please.
[...] environmentalists and energy activists out there to remind us that offshore and ANWR drilling is a fool’s errand at best, public opinion is beginning to shift in favor of “drill, drill, [...]