Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.
"We, therefore, the undersigned citizens of the United States, petition the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline prices (and diesel and other fuel prices)* by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries." The 450k e-signatures on this petition at americansolutions.com indicate that a large number of Americans favor punching holes in The Land of the Free to free us from dependency on foreign oil. Chuck Norris, last seen supporting presidential candidate Mike Huckebee, is down with that. He's signed, and sent a far less pithy message to our Texas elected lawmakers: " Congress, get off your gas, and drill!" The bullet points ('natch) list restrictions on domestic oil production and some side effects (e.g. American Airlines going out of business.) "If there isn't a conspiracy going on here, someone needs to make a movie about one!" Norris announces, pimping for work. At least he's conciliatory at the end "Congratulations Congress – you're completely failing us."
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M1EK, Landcrusher Deep water rigs are all tied up, IIRC. These are the babies that can drill in thousands of feet of water. Land rigs shouldn't be a problem. But even if we don't have enough of them, their technology is as old as dirt. Diesel electric drive, big ol' mud pumps, tower, racks and swivel, shakers and so forth. And with slant drilling you can cover a lot of ground with a single stationary rig. The jobs are dangerous and lonely, but the pay is great. Rather than giving bazillions in windfall profit taxes to the gov't to squander, lets allow the majors to drill here and spread that money around in gainful employment with the aim of moderating oil prices and propping up our supply side somewhat.
chuck, It may be possible that we have a short term situation with deep water rigs, but we can always build more. There could be high demand for the existing ones, but that is no reason to say that we should not open more areas to exploration at all. As soon as those wells are drilled, those rigs are again free, so we need places to drill. Also, we need certainty in the market that if you build one, it will get used instead of being parked down in Beaumont. I used to fly over several of them everytime I went east out of Houston. Just sitting there, waiting to be used and costing huge $. The really stupid thing is preventing drilling in places that we don't really control, so foreign powers can still drill there. All that being said, much of the off limits areas are NOT deep water.
'crusher When you have a moratorium for long enough, your chances of catching up quickly without economic dislocation at the end of the catch up period go way down. You'll have a lot of suddenly surplus gear. Wasn't there a bumper sticker in the early '80s that went Dear Lord, Please send another oil boom. I promise I won't screw it up next time.
Chuckr, You are correct. Though I don't remember that sticker, I remember the sentiment. It takes two years for a deepwater drilling platform to be built. There are many in the pipeline. The correct answer to this is for the US to free up all international waters for our domestics right away. Otherwise, in 2 years we will be in the same place, only 2 years farther down the hole. There is a surplus of shallow rigs, but the oil companies refuse to suggest shallow drilling off Florida due to the likely S__t storm it would cause. Part of the problem is the anti drilling congressional types. I love the latest crap they put out today. Oldie but goodie - It will take 7 years for ANWR to come online, it's no solution. Of course, they have been saying that for what, 20 years? A really nasty one from another Rep. Idiot(D) from Slumville, USA. Near quote - there are over 69 million acres that are under lease that the oil companies aren't drilling now. Why don't they drill there? The truth - Expensive, eco-friendly drilling techniques allow the drilling of large areas from a single pad. Those acres are being drilled, they are just using horizontal drilling to reduce the footprint. IOW, the oil companies do something good for the environment, but the Demogogue of the hour uses that against them. That crap may fly when they want to shout about each other, but if I were an oil exec I wouldn't stand for it. Overall, I can tell you that the pendulum has swung the other way in Houston. Oil companies are now REALLY cautious about over investing in exploration. They seem to have finally learned their lessons. The late nineties glut was much easier for them to deal with, and wasn't as much self caused as the eighties problems.