Posted on 03/07/2017 12:32:55 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Department of the Interior will include “all available” federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico that have not already been leased out for offshore oil drilling.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Monday 73 million acres off the coast of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida would be offered at a lease sale in August as part of the Interior Department’s five-year leasing plan.
“Opening more federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling is a pillar of President Trump’s plan to make the United States energy independent,” Zinke said in a statement.
Interior finalized its current five-year offshore leasing program in January, just before Trump took office. The current plan includes 11 potential lease sales — 10 in the Gulf of Mexico and one in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.
The Obama administration, however, did not include any lease sales in most of the Arctic Ocean and all of the Atlantic Ocean. The administration initially considered offshore drilling in those areas, but decided not to on the urging of environment groups.
For now, it seems like the Trump administration will stick with current policies. that could possibly change one Secretary Zinke gets all his appointees in place. The Senate confirmed Zinke last week, and it’s unclear when they will hold confirmation hearings for other high-level Interior positions.
“The Gulf is a vital part of that strategy to spur economic opportunities for industry, states, and local communities, to create jobs and home-grown energy and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Zinke said.
Zinke’s announcement came the same day as President Donald Trump congratulated ExxonMobil on its $20 billion investments in Gulf Coast states to boost its petrochemical refining operations. Exxon started making big investments in the region in 2013 and continue until 2022.
Exxon says its investment is creating more than 45,000 construction and manufacturing jobs with salaries ranging from $75,000 to $125,000. Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Trump’s agenda of deregulation “enhanced” his company’s investments.
Shortly before leaving office, former President Barack Obama locked up even more offshore areas from drilling, issuing an executive order in December making 31 canyons in the Atlantic off limits to drilling. The order took 3.8 million acres of the Atlantic ocean out of play for drillers.
In that same order, Obama designated “the vast majority of U.S. waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as indefinitely off limits to offshore oil and gas leasing.”
Environmentalists supported keeping Arctic and Atlantic waters off limits to drilling. Activists say it’s necessary to protect marine life and slow global warming.
Trump, on the other hand, promised to boost U.S. energy production through opening more federal lands and waters for exploration and eliminating regulations. That includes rolling back Obama-era policies blocking offshore drilling.
“This is exactly the kind of investment, economic development and job creation that will help put Americans back to work,” Trump said of Exxon’s investments announced Monday.
“Many of the products that will be manufactured here in the United States by American workers will be exported to other countries, improving our balance of trade,” Trump said. “This is a true American success story. In addition, the jobs created are paying on average $100,000 per year.”
U.S. Arctic waters are estimated to hold 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Trump could redo the Obama administration’s five-year plan to include Arctic and Atlantic ocean lease sales, or Congress can repeal the plan using the Congressional Review Act. Trump could also undo Obama’s executive order locking up offshore areas.
ALL : )
Next up Alaska and the rest of the United States.
>after oil that is harder to refine<
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Do you have a crude oil essay for supporting that statement?
Refining is merely a separation of oil into its components and further “tweaking” of molecules here and there by the use of catalysts to arrive at the desired products. It’s not like putting a man on the moon.
I’d rather be on a drilling rig in the Gulf than one on the Atlantic coast.
Besides, extracted oil has a shorter distance to travel in the Gulf area where most of our refineries are located. And we have anchored floating oil processing facilities, the size of small towns, in the Gulf. It would be very rough for these facilities in an Atlantic ocean type of environment with its heavy seas.
Missed that news blurb. That is indeed good news. Maybe some of the old, polluting, down-right dangerous refineries can be shuttered for good. If they would just get rid of the ethanol mandate, that would be AWESOME!
That’s why we have Mr. Exxon Tillerson to read Vlad the Riot Act. Between the two of them, they now oil.
This is going to be good for the Gulf ecosystem. A report, from NOAA (I think), that went under-reported by the MSM, found ocean life after the Deep Water Horizon spill was more abundant and thriving, and they had discovered dozens of new species!
>Maybe some of the old, polluting, down-right dangerous refineries can be shuttered for good.<
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Why close them and not clean them up and modify them? Abandoning an old refinery site would give the EPA fits because of the ground pollution.
Besides, refineries are built at strategic locations with easy access to distribution points.
No I do not but do not need one.
The Gulf oil is not the sweet light oil found in the Atlantic basin that is easier to crack unlike the heavy crude that comes in from SA and our Gulf oil. Even though our refineries are setup to handle the heavy crude they would welcome the light crude that results in less down time in decoking and turn around times associated with it. Since the find in the Eagleford, most refineries have set themselves up to handle even light crude oil that has not been seen before
Besides, extracted oil has a shorter distance to travel in the Gulf area where most of our refineries are located.
Now this is about the dumbest remark I have heard associated with not drilling in the Atlantic coming from a liberal in my life seeing that over half of our usage is replaced by SA and it comes a hell of a lot further than the East Coast of America. If we can build a pipeline (which you probably endorse) from Canada and ND to the Gulf State refineries I am sure we can handle a lil ol pipeline from SE Atlantic.
And we have anchored floating oil processing facilities, the size of small towns, in the Gulf. It would be very rough for these facilities in an Atlantic ocean type of environment with its heavy seas.
Yeah and I have put control systems on probably 30% of those platforms so I am familiar with them. I do not think Exxon would have a problem with handling the "Atlantic ocean" since they have vast experience in off shore drilling in the Atlantic around Africa in much rougher conditions and even the dreaded (hold your breath ) North Seas.
>But US companies will be able to sell their oil in more places and more of it.<
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Customers will know that the US is a more reliable energy source than OPEC was.
That is the attractiveness of doing business with the US.
We are not going to spread Islam.
The place where I work might get shut down because there is too much Zinc and Copper in the storm water. The readings were good a few years ago according to the environmental standards. But what happened was the EPA LOWERED THE BAR. So now the company has to pay whatever it costs to fix it. Otherwise they get shut down. It can be upwards of 100k. They also said that the bar is going to be lowered AGAIN. It’s a huge scam to get companies to pay money out. It’s an unofficial tax. It’s cheating and it’s wrong. Zinc and Copper are natural minerals and the environment is not going to be hurt by it.
Here’s hoping he does the same with the California coast.
Not to dispute most of your argument, but, Canada is our biggest source of imported oil, no? Something like 40%. SA about 11%. Unless vast qty’s of oil are coming from SA through Canada or other countries to the US and somehow being called Saudi Arabian oil...?
I agree, though, now that Trump is in, that a pipeline or pipelines to move oil from the SE Atlantic to the refineries is / are practical. I expect more areas to be opened or reopened: Even with Trump, some stuff takes time, and I doubt it it makes sense to do all at once.
If it costs too much to produce for $20/barrel then the price won't go to $20/barrel.
Is the EPA saying that the high Zn and Cu levels come from the type of crude that you processed? The same storm water must also have fallen on your neighbor’s place. Do they also have high Zn and Cu levels? It is because of these wild accusations by the EPA that our oil industry has so much difficulty in growing. Hopefully Trump will put a stop to this despotism.
“If it costs too much to produce for $20/barrel then the price won’t go to $20/barrel.”
Price is not determined by the cost of production, price is determined by supply and demand.
Retro-fitting is not usually as cost-efficient as building new from the ground up.
That depends on the shape that the refinery is in. Plenty of refineries have been disassembled in one place and reassembled piece by piece elsewhere.
This will have dramatic impacts across the globe. I would avoid investing in petroleum stocks or companies supplying their equipment. This is a shot across the bow to the Arabs and Russians. Unless there is a tremendous increase in demand the supply of oil will massively increase. The days of dollar gasoline may not be behind us. This would mean price pressures should keep prices under control in the rest of the economy. Internationally this will lower the trade deficit at a minimum and strengthen the dollar.
The prospect of cheaper energy, stronger currency and low inflation should keep interest rates under control. This could produce the best of all possible worlds-low inflation and interest rates and a strongly growing economy.
“Trump to open golf courses to oil drilling?”
A hole in one could really mean something then.
Complain elsewhere. This thread is to examine the implications of this decision not to listen to Know Nothings spout off about things they don even understand.
This decision is a tremendous boost to our National potential.
My guess is that the actual drilling won’t happen that fast so price drops can be mitigated.
In an economy every good comes with some bad we just have to hope the former outweighs the latter.
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