Category Archives: offshore oil

energy policy, offshore oil

Gainesville.com: Oil will spoil the best of Florida

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By Nathan Crabbe
Editorial Page editor
Published: Sunday, July 27, 2014 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 25, 2014 at 2:03 p.m.
 
Growing up in Ohio, I liked visiting the beaches of Florida but didn’t realize that the state offered so much more as far as the water was concerned.

I thought that boating meant throwing out a line and catching fish. I didn’t know that you could jump in the water and actually catch things with your own hands.

I was lucky to meet Colleen shortly after moving here and eventually marry her, for a lot of reasons. One nice perk is that she introduced me to the possibilities that a mask, snorkel and flippers provide.

For Colleen and her family, all born and raised in Florida, the month of July is book-ended with the two best times of the year for living in the state. The start of the scallop season falls around the beginning of the month, while the two-day recreational lobster season falls near the end of it.

It was incredible enough to float around the Gulf of Mexico and catch bags full of scallops for the first time. It was absolutely mind-blowing to dive down in the waters around the Florida Keys and grab spiny lobsters with my (thankfully gloved) hands.

This is all a really long way of saying that I can’t believe that the Obama administration is going to allow more oil drilling off the Florida coast.

The administration announced this month that it is reopening the Eastern Seaboard to offshore oil and gas exploration. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved seismic surveys using sonic cannons to locate deposits beneath the ocean floor.
 
You think it’s loud when your neighbor turns on the leaf blower early in the morning? Seismic surveys require the use of sound waves far louder than a jet engine, reverberating through the water every 10 seconds for weeks on end.

This is especially harmful for whales and dolphins, which depend on being able to hear the echoes of their calls to feed and communicate. An expert on fish ecology told The Associated Press that aquatic creatures could suffer permanent hearing damage from just one encounter with a high-energy signal.

But that’s not even the most important reason that allowing more oil drilling off the coast is a terrible idea. Perhaps the Obama administration needs to be reminded of that reason, but I don’t think most Floridians do.
 
Just four years ago this month, the BP oil spill was finally being capped after polluting the Gulf for 87 days. It took months longer to fully seal the well. About 5 million gallons of oil spilled.

In addition to the devastating effect on marine life, the spill also hammered Florida’s economy. I visited some of the beaches near Pensacola around that time, and the only tourists were a handful of them who came to gawk at workers scooping shovels of oil from the sand.

Arrogance is the only possible explanation for reopening the Eastern Seaboard to offshore oil drilling. While it might bring jobs in the oil industry, it certainly won’t help anyone who owes their livelihoods to tourism and fishing.

So when I visit the Keys this week, I’ll try to soak in such pleasures as snorkeling around the coral reef of Looe Key. The reefs are already in decline due to pollution and climate change, and this oil announcement shows we won’t stop until we finish the job of destroying them.
 
It’s just a shame that we wait to learn from our mistakes until it’s too late.
Special thanks to Richard Charter.
energy policy, offshore oil

Huffman, Lowenthal, Capps Lead California Delegation Against New Oil or Gas Leasing Off California Coast

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For Immediate Release
July 24, 2014
Contact: Paul Arden
 
“The known risks of expanding offshore drilling in these areas far outweigh any potential benefits”
WASHINGTON°©-Reps. Jared Huffman (CA-02), Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), and Lois Capps (CA-24) led a letter from members of the California Congressional delegation to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, urging her to prohibit any new offshore oil and gas lease sales in the California Outer Continental Shelf Planning Areas as her department develops the next schedule of potential offshore oil and gas lease sales.
The letter, sent last night, was signed by 35 members of the California Congressional delegation, including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and calls for a continued focus on developing clean, renewable sources of offshore energy rather than expanding oil and gas development.
“Californians have repeatedly spoken out against new offshore drilling,” the Members of Congress wrote. “It is imperative that we promote the use of these clean technologies and protect the integrity of our state’s coastline from new offshore oil and gas development for both current and future Californians. The known risks of expanding offshore drilling in these areas far outweigh any potential benefits.”
The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management updates its Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program every five years. The development of the next five year program, slated for 2017-2022, is underway. The letter was submitted as part of the 45-day comment period, which closes on July 31, 2014.
The text of the letter is below:
Secretary Sally Jewell
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
Dear Secretary Jewell,
As Members of the California Congressional delegation, we write to urge the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to exclude any offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Northern California, Central California, and Southern California Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Planning Areas from the Draft Proposed 2017-2022 OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
Californians have repeatedly spoken out against new offshore drilling. Since 1969, 24 city and county governments have passed anti-drilling measures and the State has enacted a permanent ban on new offshore leasing in state waters. Serious accidents and environmental damage can and do occur at offshore drilling rigs. These spills and leaks, air and water pollution, and the industrialization of the shoreline threatens public health, impairs marine resources, and wreak havoc on our economy, especially the state’s critically important tourism, fishing and recreation industries, which inject billions of dollars into the California economy every year.
Energy companies are not producing oil and gas on the vast majority of land they already hold in offshore leases. The Department should be pushing to ensure that these companies are diligently developing the land that they already have before offering new federal leases. Furthermore, the amount of oil and gas available from OCS leases currently off limits is small compared to what is already open to drilling and would not significantly impact energy prices. Opening additional offshore areas to drilling will only allow these companies to warehouse more public land and put more of our vibrant coastal tourism economies and fragile shoreline ecosystems at risk.
Rather than expanding oil and gas development, the Department should – with proper consultation and consideration given to all relevant stakeholders – continue its focus on developing clean, renewable sources of offshore energy. It is imperative that we promote the use of these clean technologies and protect the integrity of our state’s coastline from new offshore oil and gas development for both current and future Californians.
                              
The known risks of expanding offshore drilling in these areas far outweigh any potential benefits. We therefore urge you to continue these longstanding protections and not include the waters off California’s coast in the new draft five-year plan. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
energy policy, offshore oil

Huffington Post: New Offshore Oil Plan Could Be ‘Game Over’ for Climate

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Richard Steiner
Professor and conservation biologist (www.oasis-earth.com)
Posted: 07/17/2014 12:14 pm EDT Updated: 07/17/2014 12:59 pm EDT

In a move that could rival the climate impacts of the Alberta tar sands and Keystone XL pipeline, and would release far more atmospheric carbon than that saved by the new EPA power plant and vehicle rules, the Obama administration just initiated its 2017-2022 process to expand oil and gas drilling on the nation’s outer continental shelf (OCS) – including the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico. The initial public comment period on the plan closes July 31, 2014.

Despite the fact that many of the 2011 National Oil Spill Commission’s recommendations to improve offshore drilling safety have yet to be implemented, and the certainty of more oil spills, this new leasing program would commit the nation to another 40 years of carbon-intensive energy that world climate cannot afford.

In addition to the proven offshore reserves already in production (currently providing 18% of domestic oil and 5% of domestic gas production), the government estimates that the U.S. OCS contains an additional 90 billion barrels of oil and 400 trillion cubic feet of natural gas yet to be discovered. Industry thinks there is more. History shows that once oil is discovered, it will be produced.


Burning this much oil and gas would release over 60 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere – a ‘carbon bomb’ almost as large as the entire Alberta tars sands. Just as with the tar sands (with 168 billion barrels of proven reserves), producing this U.S. offshore oil could be ‘game over’ for efforts to contain climate change. And this offshore carbon would dwarf the one or two billion tons of CO2 saved by the new power plant and vehicle rules by 2030.

Without doubt, the combined carbon from offshore oil (in the U.S. and other nations), and tar sands oil, would be disastrous for climate. But industry sees billions of dollars lying in the seabed, and seems to care little about climate impacts.

If we want to stabilize climate and secure a sustainable future, the carbon now safely buried beneath the seabed, just as in the tar sands, should be left right where it is – buried. In fact, a landmark 2013 study by the Carbon Tracker Initiative in the U.K. concluded that, in order to avoid climate warming exceeding the critical target of 2 degrees Celsius, two-thirds of world’s remaining hydrocarbon reserves must be left in the ground. That study, co-authored with the London School of Economics, warns that in the coming decade, $6 trillion could be wasted in finding and developing ‘unburnable carbon.’

To commit to another four decades of carbon-intensive energy production as envisioned by the new OCS plan – Obama’s “all-of-the-above” (“business-as-usual”) energy policy – would dangerously delay our switch to sustainable, low-carbon energy, and virtually guarantee future climate chaos. Given the scientific consensus for the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, this new OCS plan is irresponsible and reckless. More offshore drilling is not a solution to our energy-climate crisis, but would only deepen and prolong the crisis, likely until it is too late. It is time to say “no” to this self-destructive energy path, and get busy building the future sustainable energy economy.

Some lawmakers are already expressing opposition to the drilling plan. In a July 2, 2014 letter to the President, Senators Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, and Congressman Frank Pallone (Ds-NJ) wrote that they “strongly oppose any efforts to expand offshore oil and gas drilling, particularly any such efforts that would threaten New Jersey’s vibrant coastal communities…We owe it to future generations to ensure that our pristine natural resources are preserved and protected from the polluting fossil fuel industry.” The same is true for all of our nation’s waters.

In the Arctic, large-scale offshore drilling would forever change the seascape and ecosystem. The Arctic Ocean is a spectacular, unique, and fragile marine ecosystem, home to polar bears, walrus, whales, ice-seals, and ancient human cultures. Already suffering extreme effects of climate change, drilling in the Arctic Ocean would make matters worse by adding significant industrial disturbance, including platforms, pipelines, tankers, ports, ship and air traffic, underwater noise, suspended sediment, and of course oil spills with no hope of cleanup. The area’s remoteness, severe weather and icy seas make drilling here a high-risk, unacceptable gamble.

Just ask Shell Oil. In perhaps the most intensely scrutinized offshore drilling project in history, Shell’s calamitous 2012 Arctic drilling effort off Alaska displayed arrogance, incompetence, and a reckless disregard for the risks involved.

One of Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs, the Kulluk, being towed across the stormy Gulf of Alaska in late December (to avoid paying first-of-the-year taxes), broke its tow and grounded off of Kodiak Island. It’s other drill ship, the Noble Discoverer, had to emergency-disconnect from drilling to avoid the approach of a large ice floe, had a stack fire, broke down and had to be towed into port, was detained by the Coast Guard, and was issued several notices of violation and serious deficiencies. Shell’s oil spill containment dome “crushed like a beer can” when it was first tested. Both of Shell’s Arctic drill rigs were seriously damaged, and the company had to cancel its 2013 and 2014 Arctic drilling plans. Industry observers opined that Shell may have “bitten off more than it could chew.”

If we genuinely care about our coastal and marine areas, we should not expose them to the risk of oil drilling. Spills will occur; they can’t be cleaned up; they can cause long-term, even permanent, damage; and restoration is impossible. Where we do produce and transport oil, it must be done with the highest possible safety standards. We need to use oil much more efficiently, and stop wasting it.

But beyond this, the global climate simply cannot afford the carbon that would be produced offshore. Instead, we need to kick our hydrocarbon habit, and get on with the hard work of building a sustainable energy economy.

If President Obama wants to make good on his campaign pledge to ‘slow the rise in the oceans,’ and to ‘heal the planet,’ he needs to abandon this plan for new offshore drilling (at very least, permanently withdraw the Arctic), and begin to phase-out existing offshore oil production. A tall order, perhaps, but essential in order to incentivize the transition to a sustainable energy future. And with such bold U.S. leadership, other nations would be encouraged to follow.

 
Sheikh Zaki Yamani, former Saudi Arabian oil minister, once said: “The stone age did not end for lack of stones, and the oil age will end long before the world runs out of oil.” Our ancestors invented a smarter way to live. Now it’s our turn.
Special thanks to Richard Charter
energy policy, offshore oil

E&E: Next Gulf lease sale includes plots along Mexico border

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Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter
Published: Monday, July 21, 2014

HOUSTON — The federal government has put the oil and gas industry on
notice to prepare for the next round of offshore lease bidding, to
cover waters off the coast of Texas.

And for the first time, the government is accepting bids on leases for
offshore oil and gas prospects along the maritime border with Mexico.

On Friday the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released details
of its planned sale of offshore leases in federal waters. The sale is
for acreages in the western Gulf of Mexico, in the federal government’s
Western Planning Area (WPA) for offshore energy development in the
Gulf.

“The decision to move forward with this lease sale follows extensive
environmental analysis, public input and consideration of the best
scientific information available,” acting Director Walter Cruickshank
said in a release.

Over 20 million acres is up for grabs in sale 238, scheduled to be held
Aug. 20 at the Superdome in New Orleans. The government’s last lease
round for the WPA was in August 2013 and netted the government a little
over $100 million.

What makes this lease different is that it stretches far south to just
north of the U.S.-Mexico maritime border. Activity was forbidden in a
buffer zone created around the international boundary pending the
completion of a treaty between the two nations clarifying how offshore
energy exploration and production would be pursued in the Gulf’s
borderland.

The U.S. and Mexico have since finalized a treaty on Gulf energy
exploration, so BOEM says it’s removing the prior restrictions in
place. The offshore energy treaty with Mexico has now entered into
force as of last Friday.

“As such, whole and partial blocks in the 1.4-nautical mile buffer area
will be offered for lease in WPA Sale 238,” the agency said in its
package of details covering the drilling rights sale.

The WPA is the least developed portion of the Gulf’s offshore drilling
industry, with most activity found off the coast of central and
southeastern Louisiana. Though it is home to substantial numbers of
shallow-water operations, new leasing in this area is focused on
deepwater and ultra-deepwater regions, in formations where companies
have found success.

The length of time that a lease can be held depends on the depth of the
water column it’s lying in. Leases for exploring deepwater prospects
that are more than 5,200 feet deep are good for 10 years. Standard
leases remain valid for five to seven years, but companies can earn
three-year extensions if they spud a well in the acreage they are
holding before that lease expires.

BOEM is almost halfway through its five-year lease sale schedule, which
is ending in 2017. After next month’s round the agency will hold six
more lease sales for Gulf of Mexico acreage: three for the Central
Planning Area, one for the Eastern Planning Area and two more for the
western Gulf off Texas.

Offshore drillers are more active in the Gulf now than they were at the
time of the 2010 Macondo well blowout and oil spill, when a drilling
moratorium was put in place. With new production coming online this
year and next, some analysts are predicting a sharp jump in Gulf oil

output starting in 2015 (EnergyWire, July 14).
Special thanks to Richard Charter
energy policy, offshore oil

Nola.com: Oil, gas production declining in Gulf of Mexico federal waters, report says

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Times-Picayune
 
By Jennifer Larino, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on July 08, 2014 at 12:40 PM
 
Oil and gas found off the coast of Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states made up almost one quarter of all fossil fuel production on federal lands in 2013, reinforcing the region’s role as a driving force in the U.S. energy industry, according to updated government data. But a closer look at the numbers shows the region’s oil and gas production has been in steady decline for much of the past decade.

A new U.S. Energy Information Administration report shows federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico in 2013 accounted for 23 percent of the 16.85 trillion British thermal units (Btu) of fossil fuels produced on land and water owned by the federal government. That was more than any other state or region aside from Wyoming, which has seen strong natural gas production in recent years.

The report did not include data on oil and gas production on private lands, which makes up most production in many onshore oil and gas fields, including the Haynesville Shale in northwest Louisiana.

But production in the offshore gulf has also fallen every year since 2003. According to the report, total fossil fuel production in the region is less than half of what it was a decade ago, down 49 percent from 7.57 trillion Btu in 2003 to 3.86 trillion in 2013.

The report notes that the region has seen a sharp decline in natural gas production as older offshore fields dry out and more companies invest in newer gas finds onshore, where hydraulic fracturing has led to a boom production. Natural gas production in the offshore gulf was down 74 percent from 2003 to 2013.

The region’s oil production has declined, though less drastically. The offshore gulf produced about 447 million barrels of oil in 2013, down from a high of 584 million barrels in 2010.

Still, the region accounted for 69 percent of all the crude oil produced on all federal lands and waters last year.

Crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico could to start to recover in coming years, as companies restart major projects delayed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion. The disaster killed 11 men, unleashed the worst oil disaster in U.S. history and prompted a federal ban on deepwater drilling. The ban lasted several months.

The most recent federal lease sale held in New Orleans, in March, drew more than $872.1 million in high bids on more than 1.7 million offshore acres in the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Previous sales under President Barack Obama administration’s 2012-17 leasing program have opened 60 million acres offshore and drawn $1.4 billion in bid revenues.