Facts about Offshore Oil Drilling in US – updated article
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Dec 27
Are you looking for additional information on off shore and ice cap drilling?
Offshore drilling rigs adding pollution to our oceansOffshore oil drilling- updated information
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Ecological concerns about U.S. offshore oil drilling
How much oil is the U.S. producing via offshore drilling and is it worth the potential dangers? Are there any myths to offshore drilling? What are the ecological problems that offshore drilling produces?
The debate on the pros and cons of offshore drilling has become a big one in the US media this last 12 months. The future energy policy of the country is still unclear and many of its citizens want to know what the country is doing in the face of an uncertain future. In this article I have given you some offshore oil drilling facts, and some of the offshore oil drilling pros and cons.
In offshore drilling, oil is extracted from beneath the ocean floor, anywhere from a couple of hundred meters to 250 miles off the coast. Nowadays, oil companies are forced to explore locations as deep as 2 kilometers beneath the ocean's surface, as easily extractable sources of oil are dwindling.
Not too many people know that the first place that offshore drilling took place was in Azerbaijan, in the 19th century. Since then offshore rigs have been built all over the world. One of the highest concentrations of them is in the North Sea off the UK, although the output from these rigs has been dropping for many years. The Gulf of Mexico is another area dense in rigs, and there are over 4000 of them currently in operation there.
US offshore oil production facts:
565 million barrels per year are extracted which equates to less than 1.5 million barrels per day. The current U.S. oil consumption is 21 million barrels per day.
Offshore drilling in the US will barely reduce the country’s demand for foreign oil. The US uses about 8 billion barrels of oil per year, and it is estimated that conventional offshore drilling would bring just 18 billion barrels in total. As a chief researcher at the Earth Policy Institute said, “Many people have a false sense of security that we have sufficient fuel under our sea beds to be independent from other countries, but in reality nothing could be farther from the truth”.
Offshore drilling in the US will not guarantee lower fuel prices. There are too many other factors which influence it, such as the hedgers who manipulate the price of oil.
Improved technologies have led to a lower occurrence of oil spills in the last 4 decades. However, at current extraction rates, it is predicted that in the Gulf of Mexico there will be one oil spill per year of no less than 1000 barrels over the next 40 years.
Offshore drilling has taken a huge knock since the BP oil spill. Before the spill, President Obama admitted that the political pressure was such that some new areas would have to be opened up for offshore drilling. However, now this process has been halted, and Obama has much more political support to restrict offshore drilling from most areas in the US.
Despite all these cons, the future of offshore drilling in the US depends less on the facts and figures and moral arguments, and much more on the political and corporate forces behind this multi-trillion dollar business.
In the offshore drilling pros and cons debate, it must be remembered that many of the offshore drilling facts get distorted. There was, for instance, so much information spread around about the oil spill which simply was not true. Whether you pay more attention to the pros or the cons of offshore oil drilling may largely depend on your philosophy. Many people are ready to move into the new green economy, whilst plenty more see bigger value in keeping the status quo and further utilizing the reserves under our ocean floor.
For more information, go to:
en.wikipedia.org,
naturalgas.org
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September 4th, 2010 at 6:59 pmCritics of point to the fact that the ban will damage coastal communities because many oil workers come from these areas. This of-course misses the point that, as a rule, more people in such towns are employed in the tourism industry than oil.
September 3rd, 2010 at 9:15 amThe government has argued that such a offshore oil drilling ban ban is required in order to “protect local communities, coastlines, and wildlife”. However, a large and influential group of companies have sued the government, claiming that there is no evidence that offshore drilling threatens the Gulf (!)Of-course the compaines provide all the equipment and transportation for drilling rigs.
September 3rd, 2010 at 9:12 amGood blog! I genuinely love how it’s easy on my eyes and also the details are well written. I am wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which must do the trick! Have a nice day!
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 amNice post…
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:28 amThis is a good article. We’re always looking for great resources to send to my coworkers, and your post is definitely worth sharing!
September 1st, 2010 at 3:54 pmTruly the issue of offshore drilling distracts from the real issue – and that is the development of green energy in the US. Energy subsidies need to be shifted away from oil towards green energy.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:57 pmThe US may stop offshore drilling in the sea but Cuba plans to start it in the near future! The Brazilian oil company Petrobras has recently signed an agreement to drill in Cuban waters not far rom the Florida coast.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:53 pmWe’re in the Myrtle Beach marketplace and also have definatly ended up effected because of the market
August 30th, 2010 at 9:22 pmwho exactly predicted that there will be ‘one oil spill per year of no less than 1000 barrels over the next 40 years.’ sounds like a pretty nonsensical stat to me. At the same, time this is no reason to doubt that accidents and spills will continue to happen from time to time. This latest one is going to hurt the industry irrevocaly i think, in the US at least.
August 27th, 2010 at 3:20 pmOffshore drilling has decades left yet, or even centuries. I know personally that the technology is developing really fast that is enabling new areas to be explored. as long as their is oil and gas, there will be thousands of rigs around the world extracting the stuff
August 27th, 2010 at 3:17 pmOffshore drilling is a big step backwards. When we talk about energy sufficiency, and freeing ourselves from foreign dependence, we should not even breath offshore drilling in the same sentence. We should be thinking of green energies – geothermic, wind, solar etc. One way or another, these will be the industries of the future, and either the US becomes the leader in technology and industry, or other countries will get their first
August 27th, 2010 at 3:15 pmIt is wonderful right here. good research. I’ve been searched this kind of information for quite a while. thanks
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August 5th, 2010 at 5:14 amthats so cool
June 17th, 2010 at 10:15 amWhile offshore drilling is hazardous and a lonely job, and while gas prices are soaring to record levels, the ban on offshore drilling may wind up hurting the American economy because of the reliance on foreign oil.
February 15th, 2009 at 5:56 pm