[RightWingConspirator]

(milky Since Jun 19, 2008)

You obviously do not know or understand much about oil exploration and drilling, especially deep water exploration and drilling where much of the 33 million acres you refer to are located. The fact is that you cannot just punch a hole into a leased parcel on the sea bed and expect to hit oil, just as you cannot do that on surface land. You first must map the underlying formations and make the best determination where, if any, oil reservoirs exist. Following that you will need to map the seabed to determine what infrastrucure is needed to pump, collect and retrieve the crude that is located.

If you had read the Wall Street Journal article several days ago that explained that, you might have not written your post. The article explained that, until the lessee has a producing well on a parcel--regardless if he has been actively exploring and surveying the parcel for the past five years, the government considers the parcel to be inactive--thus the disinformation the past week emanating from the Democrats. It does sound like, however, that you have already made up your mind and no amount of fact will change it.

[milky]

Considering my previous employment with Irving in NB, I believe that I’ve got a pretty fair handle on underwater oil exploration and HDP surveying. The FACT is, they have only surveyed some 25% of the acreage in question, and have only chosen to exploit 17%. 68% is a pretty good percentage, don’t you think? I have no idea what the percentage of exploitable reserves would be if they surveyed the remaining 75% of their active leases in the US, but then again, neither do they - which is the point I have been attempting to make.