It doesn't do any good if we cannot bring the oil to market in a timely fashion. Will you also spend additional billions to enlarge the pipeline, enlarge the port and not use those either?
Probably not at first. Having the wells drilled and ready to go shaves some years off the total process time. When we are done with that, we can authorise the next step, and then the next step.
The nice thing is that it does get part of our reserves to a place far from hurricanes. And when we finally stop being stupid about it and just use the oil, we don't have to wait 10 years.