Free Republic

There are several studies that prove this. UCSB's study is rather bold right up front in it's findings: Next time you step on a glob of tar on a beach in Santa Barbara County, you can thank the oil companies that it isn't a bigger glob. That's pretty clear, isn't it? There's a study out there from the US Government which has taken note of seepages and compared them with leaks that happen from offshore oil rigs and notes that rigs leak less than the ocean floor does. The Brits have also noticed the positive benefits of offshore riggery, though...

The proliferation of marine life around oil production platforms turned on its head every "environmental expert" opinion of its day. The original plan, mandated by federal environmental "experts" back in the late '40s, was to remove the big, ugly, polluting, environmentally hazardous contraptions as soon as they stopped producing. Fine, said the oil companies. About 15 years ago some wells played out off Louisiana and the oil companies tried to comply. Their ears are still ringing from the clamor fishermen put up. Turns out those platforms are going nowhere, and by popular demand of those with a bigger stake in...

About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, NASA satellites collect thousands of images and 1.5 terrabytes of data every year, but some of it gets passed over because no one thinks there is a use for it.

Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation. A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil. Related Podcasts 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Oil in North Dakota and Montana Download directly | Details or subscribe by e-mail. Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the...

Last week, as a friend of mine and I were discussing the energy business, an acquaintance of ours came into the room. When told the topic of discussion, she immediately denounced Exxon Mobil. She'd just heard on the radio that the energy giant had had a record $45.2 billion profit in 2008. She was clearly hoping that we would join in her disgust. I asked, "So are you suggesting that Exxon should not make money?" I went on, "Would you prefer that Exxon be like AIG, or Citigroup, or one of the big Wall Street outfits that's now asking for...

The US rig count continues to plummet, down 73 with 1,399 rotary rigs still drilling, said Baker Hughes Inc. That's the lowest activity level since July 19, 2005, when 1,404 rigs were working and the count was climbing. A year ago this week there were 1,755 units at work. Canada's rig count inched up by 3 units to 435 drilling, down from 598 during the same time last year. US land drilling dropped 74 rigs to 1,330 working. Inland water activity was down 1 rig to 7. However, US offshore drilling increased by 2 rotary rigs to 61 in the...

U.S. Offshore Oil Production Matters Contrary to conventional wisdom about U.S. crude oil production, EIA’s November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) predicts U.S. crude oil production will increase 8 percent from 2008 to 2009. For example, the Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW Nov.10, 2008, pg. 5), commenting on the likely future track of global production, said, “Accelerating decline rates in these two areas [the North Sea and North America] are widely expected to swamp growth from newer non-OPEC regions…” Offshore production from the federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is a major part of the STEO’s production story, projecting that it will make...

The California Independent System Operator said Thursday it is eyeing an expected influx of thousands of plug-in electric cars in the state by the year 2012 that could pose a challenge to its grid's power flows unless the cars are developed to charge only at night. The ISO met with researchers from the University of California-Davis on Wednesday, who are studying plug-in cars, to get a handle on what sort of impact plug-in cars will have on the grid in coming years. "We really don't know yet," what the impact will be, and the university researchers were not able to...

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has proposed that oil and gas Lease Sale 208 for the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area be held March 18, 2009. The Notice of Availability of the Proposed Notice of Sale (PNOS) was published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 3. The proposed sale encompasses approximately 6,200 unleased blocks covering more than 33.5 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. This area includes 5.8 million acres, known as the 181 South Area, that will be offered for lease for the first time since 1988. "What makes Sale 208 noteworthy...

This is a reposting of an article written by Robert Rapier two years ago, on how winter gasoline differs from summer gasoline, and why this tends to make winter gasoline less expensive than summer gasoline. We also now have a lot of reports of gasoline outages due to short supply following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Feel free to discuss those in this thread also. Every year in late summer, you will start hearing references in the media about the conversion to winter gasoline, such as the following (originally in the Bradenton Herald, but the link is long dead): Motorists...

When Arizona Sen. John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president, he vowed to cut America's reliance on foreign oil by opening up the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts to drilling—drawing cheers from GOP delegates on hand for his party's national convention. "We will drill new oil wells offshore, and we'll drill them now," McCain pledged to his faithful, who gushed with enthusiastic chants of "drill, baby, drill!" The ultimate goal, the candidate said: to "stop sending $700 billion a year (for oil) to countries that don't like us very much." No one disputes that a lot of oil lies...

The House introduced new energy legislation late last night. Finally…right? The House also wants to bring the 290-page bill, which can be found here, to the floor today. You think the 435 Members in the House of Representatives are going to meticulously read all 290 pages? A bill that makes fundamental changes to thousands of pages of earlier energy bills as well as the tax code. Please. This isn’t Harry Potter. You can’t just cruise through something as complex as energy policy in one short night. It’s true that Congress should craft an energy policy as expeditiously as possible to...

WASHINGTON: Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives attacked a Democratic offshore drilling plan Friday for including a 50-mile coastal buffer that they said would leave untouched most of the 18 billion barrels of oil in waters now off-limits to energy companies. A Democratic drilling proposal expected to be taken up by the House next week would allow energy development access to waters 50 to 100 miles from shore along almost all the country's coastlines as long as a coastal state agrees to drilling off its shores. Waters off Florida's Gulf coast and a nationwide 50-mile coastal buffer would remain...

Updated 9/12 1800 EDT. Hurricane Ike's current track currently is headed directly for Houston/Galveston and is expected by the National Hurricane Center to be Category 2 (or perhaps a 3) at a late Friday/early Saturday am landfall, which remains in striking distance of over 5 million bpd of US petroleum refining capacity. (A little perspective: 5 MMBBL is about 30% of US capacity (about 15 MMBBL), and a bit less than 6% of global capacity (~85 MMBBL)). Current path estimates for Hurricane Ike (Methaz NHC official track Sep 12 (17:00 EDT)-click twice to enlarge--colors represent storm surge from SLOSH models,...

As discussion regarding domestic exploration for oil and natural gas off Florida’s coast grips the nation’s attention, new poll results today released by Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) demonstrate a significant increase in the percent of Floridians in favor of drilling off the state’s coast over the percent of those in favor this time last year. The McLaughlin & Associates poll, conducted last week, concluded 73.2 percent of Floridians favor drilling for oil off the coast of Florida – a 10 percentage-point increase over the previous year’s poll results. Further, the results show bipartisan support of the issue with the...

A U.S. appeals court Monday awarded nearly a dozen oil companies more than $1 billion to recover costs from breached 1980s exploration and production leases off the coast of California. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a previous court's decision for the plaintiffs claiming the government owed them for the bonuses paid for the Outer Continental Shelf leases. It may send a strong signal to congressional lawmakers who've been trying to force oil companies to pay royalties on offshore oil and gas leases signed in the late 1990s that omitted royalty relief provisions. "It's very important...

The Energy Challenge When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing. That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new...

Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands. The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not. The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads. “We need an interstate transmission superhighway system,” said Suedeen...

Oil fields aren't new in Los Angeles. But with the price of crude beyond $100 a barrel, it is cost-effective to start drilling there again, in both old and new wells. And that has made some residents very unhappy. "What we have is a world class oil field sitting below a world class city," said John Martini, manager of governmental affairs for Plains Exploration and Production Co., or PXP. The Texas oil company does extensive work in the Inglewood oil fields. Now, the company is seeking government approval to tap as many as 50 new or existing wells a year...

Denbury Resources Inc., Dallas, plans to pay $600 million or more to acquire giant Conroe field north of Houston where it intends to begin injecting carbon dioxide within 5 years in a development project worth $750 million-1 billion. Recovery at Conroe from CO2 injection is estimated at 130 million boe, depending on the ultimate recovery factor, and the properties contain 18.2 million boe of proved conventional reserves. Conroe is producing 2,500 boe/d to the interest to be acquired from an undisclosed private seller, which will retain a 2.8% interest, and unspecified other interest. Meanwhile, the company booked 29.8 million bbl...