Obama to Oil Companies: Don't Bother!

In yet another move pandering to environmentalists, the Obama administration has delayed shale drilling in the Utica & Marcellus shale formation in the Ohio area.  This follows right behind his announcement to delay decision on the Keystone pipeline last week.  His new slogan, "We Can't Wait!" means only "We CAN Wait Until After Elections!" 

Shale drilling is booming around the Shreveport-Bossier area with the discovery of the Haynesville Shale a few years ago.  Take a drive down south from Shreveport on Highway 1 or Highway 71, among others, and you'll see gas production every where you turn.

Chesapeake Energy, one of the major Haynesville Shale developers, describes hydraulic fracturing:

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, is a proven technological advancement which allows producers to safely recover natural gas and oil from deep shale formations. This technology has the potential to not only dramatically reduce our reliance on foreign fuel imports, but also to significantly reduce our national carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and accelerate our transition to a carbon-light environment. Simply put, deep shale gas and oil formation development is critical to America's energy needs and economic renewal.

Chesapeake is also involved in working wells in the Marcellus shale area.

Here's a YouTube video on how fracking works.

The concern of environmentalists to fracking is the chemicals used in the process:

Shale gas production involves drilling deep wells and one or more horizontal shafts from each vertical well. By pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under pressure into the horizontal borings, producers fracture the shale, releasing the gas and oil, which is then produced through the vertical well. 

Environmentalists criticize the technology, arguing that the risk of methane infiltrating underground water reservoirs must be figured out before the big energy corporations run rough-shod through the state.  Ken Salazar's statement of concern is here.

One concern of environmentalists is that methane would leak into water wells.  Chesapeake disputes this claim in a Marcellus Hydraulic Fracturing Fact Sheet on their website:

The measures required by state regulatory agencies in the
exploration and production of deep shale natural gas and oil
formations have been very effective in protecting drinking
water aquifers from contamination attributable to fracking.
Based on reviews of state oil and gas agencies, there has not
been a documented case of drinking water aquifer
contamination related to the fracking of a deep shale natural
gas or oil well.

Chesapeake is not the only oil and gas company working the Marcellus shale, but they have gone to great lengths to reassure and inform on their process to the extent of even forming a GreenFrac program:

Despite being successfully used by the oil and natural gas industry since the 1940s, fracking continues to draw attention due to concerns over the contents of frack fluids and potential contamination of groundwater, despite the fact that there is virtually no risk that the mixture can escape from the targeted zone. Most of the chemicals used in fracking can be found in common, everyday household products such as laundry detergents, cleaners and beauty products. Some are even present in food and beverage items. While some additives have historically been classified as toxic, many, such as pH-adjusting agents and chlorine-based sanitization aides, are found in approximately the same concentration as in your backyard swimming pool.

The research abounds.

The bottom line is that fracking is a procedure that has been around for decades.  And it would not matter HOW the oil was collected, the environmentalists would not be pleased.  Most of them won't be pleased until we're back to horse and buggy transportation and using windmills to power our electric cars.

This latest move by Obama is simple pandering and should be seen for what it is.

Note:  It was reported that this delay would cost over 200,000 jobs but the actual number is actually up to 200 jobs, according to an "adjustment" by the USDA.  Even still, the point remains that it's a pandering move meant to appease a portion of his base and 200 jobs is still 200 jobs.

The bigger picture is that the message has been heard by future developers.  This administration will thwart you at every turn.  Don't bother trying to get your permits, your pipelines, your leases.

Desperate Democrats

In response to my post yesterday about former La. Governor Buddy Roemer's imminent presidential bid announcement, Sarah commented, "Who's not running for president?"  Well, Paul Ryan isn't....

But she raises a good point.  While the main stream media has already picked the Republican candidate, (we can just bypass that primary nonsense!)  in reality, the field is still settling.  I don't think Roemer is going to be a serious contender, but that's beside the point.  The field isn't set.  Stacy McCain still contends that Palin is getting in which will definitely shake things up.

Yesterday, Legal Insurrection pointed out that the democrats must already be sensing trouble:

Democrats must be in trouble if The Daily Beast is running a headline White Supremacist Stampede, with this opening line:

Add to the growing list of candidates considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 America’s most famous white-power advocate: David Duke.

Ah yes, the David Duke card gets played.

And Professor Glenn Reynolds agrees:

Like the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve oil, the fact that they’re playing these cards so very early in the election cycle does smack of desperation.

Obama's vulnerability is obvious to everyone except possibly the Narcissist in Chief himself.

Look for more of these political moves to come; I'm taking over/under wagers on how far out from the election the permitorium in the Gulf is lifted.  I'm guessing early next year you'll see a wave of new permits being issued and rigs springing up like dandelions in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Permitorium in the Gulf Persists

In case you missed it, there was a great editorial at NOLA yesterday about the Obama administration's permitorium and the need to open drilling in the Gulf:

The best way to protect consumers against price spikes in the long run is to continue expanding oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. President Obama in May announced his goal to increase domestic oil production. But producers in the Gulf are still complaining that a de facto moratorium imposed after the BP oil spill last year hasn't been fully lifted. 

And for more background on how we got to this point, be sure to read Adam White's piece at The Weekly Standard which explains the attempts in Congress to compel the administration to handle the permit applications that are now just stacking up. 

The official moratorium has been lifted, yes, but drilling permits are not happening.  To date, only one well permit has been approved:

According to the House Oversight Committee’s recent report, the administration’s official moratorium “was replaced by a ‘permitorium’—whereby drilling activity remained at a standstill not by operation of law—but because of inaction on the part of [Interior].” As proof of the “permitorium,” the House report noted that before the Deepwater Horizon spill, Interior had “processed and issued permits to drill in two weeks”; since the moratorium ended last year, only one new well had been approved. In the words of Judge Feldman, “Where there should be a queue” of applications receiving orderly review, “there is instead an untended pile.”

Obama's decision to release oil from the strategic oil reserves was purely a political move.  White's piece makes the case that the current situation is not so dire that such a move needed to be made. 

Obama's poll numbers were/are plummeting and he's in campaign mode (when did he ever get out of it?), so he releases the oil reserves hoping for a bounce.  It didn't work.

If Obama wants a bounce in poll numbers, he needs to open drilling in the Gulf.  End the nonsense.

Oil Production Down, Oil Consumption Up

Obama's quest to end dependence on foreign oil is going in the wrong direction.  Via Beltway Confidential:

Here are the facts: According to projections made by the Energy Information Administration in April 2010, the Gulf of Mexico should have produced 1.84 million barrels of oil a day in the fourth quarter of 2010. Instead, according to the most recent EIA estimate, due to the Obama permitorium, the Gulf only produced 1.59 million barrels. That is 250,000 barrels a day in lost production. Overall, since Obama instituted his drilling moratorium, oil production from the Gulf is down more than 10%.

But while Gulf oil production is down from pre-moratorium estimate, total oil consumption is actually higher than EIA predicted last year. Total crude oil input to refineries is up from an estimated 13.85 million barrels a day to an actual 14.25 million barrels. But if domestic production is down and consumption is up, where is the extra oil coming from?

Foreign oil.

This administration needs to quit buying oil from people who hate us and open drilling in the Gulf (and elsewhere).  Now, where have I heard that before?

Your "Silver Bullet " is a Fountain Pen

Mark Tapscott shares a chart which shows how a "silver bullet" can work against oil prices.  What is it?  A fountain pen:

Notice what happened on July 14, 2008? Oil prices suddenly plummeted from their historic high of $145 a barrel. Why?Because that was the day President George W. Bush signed an executive order lifting the moratorium on off-shore drilling in the eastern half of the Gulf of Mexico and off the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Overnight, the price per barrel of oil plunged, and that plunge was reflected at the pump soon thereafter. 

In other words, Obama could with the stroke of a pen sign an executive order telling his appointees at EPA, the Department of Interior and the Department of Energy to stop throwing up obstacles to increased U.S. oil and natural gas production and instead work with the energy industry on a crash program to "drill here, drill now."

Read the rest and see the chart here.

Herman Cain: "Drill Here, Drill Now!"

Herman Cain responds to Obama's DOJ witch hunt on vicious oil speculators (emphasis mine):

With all due respect, Mr. President, there is something you could do to ease the pain at the pump. Namely, declare and implement a “drill here drill now” strategy. And remove the ridiculous restrictions on shale oil deposits available out west.

The very speculators you are blaming for the run-up in gas prices would quickly retreat if they thought you were serious about an energy independence plan to maximize all of our existing natural resources. The problem is supply and demand, and expectations about the changes in those dynamics. That’s what drives gasoline prices at the pump.

That's just the problem, however:  Obama isn't serious about energy independence as long as it pertains to oil.  He's only interested in energy independence when it concerns windmills and solar panels.

Until that so-called "green energy" solution materializes, we are a nation dependent on oil, on petroleum products, on gas...coal! 

As to the moratorium in the Gulf, Cain says:

The Obama Administration has used the Gulf oil disaster of a year ago to limit oil exploration in the Gulf and elsewhere. As a result, the oil production in the Gulf is down 13 percent versus a year ago. That also means that there are a corresponding number of people out of work, who are denied productive and well-paying jobs.

These people don't want BP handouts - they want to work.  We're not just talking about rig workers but all of the peripheral industry and small business that supports that.  

Drill here, drill now!

Is it Not "Imported" Oil if it Comes From Brazil?

Obama two weeks ago:

We want to help with technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely, and when you're ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers. At a time when we've been reminded how easily instability in other parts of the world can affect the price of oil, the United States could not be happier with the potential for a new, stable source of energy.

Obama this week:

With gasoline prices rising, oil supplies from the Middle East pinched by political upheaval and growing calls in Congress for expanded domestic oil and gas production, President Obama on Wednesday will set a goal of a one-third reduction in oil imports over the next decade, aides said Tuesday.

The Audacity of Hypocrisy

Obama is finally taking (just) a little heat on his support of Brazilian oil.  The Washington Post has an editorial today pointing out the hypocrisy of Obama's position, Ed Morrissey has a post at Hot Air, and Steven Hayward at NRO comments as well.

Obama's comments in Brazil last week were puzzling at best:

By some estimates, the oil you recently discovered off the shores of Brazil could amount to twice the reserves we have in the United States. We want to work with you. We want to help with technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely, and when you're ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers. At a time when we've been reminded how easily instability in other parts of the world can affect the price of oil, the United States could not be happier with the potential for a new, stable source of energy.

The hypocrisy abounds.

Consider this from WaPo:

Brazil already produces vast quantities of a fuel — ethanol — that the U.S. government, under a policy long supported by presidents and farm-state members of Congress from both parties, has promoted as a green alternative to gasoline. But the United States, protecting its own heavily subsidized ethanol industry by means of a 2.5 percent tariff and a 54-cent-per-gallon duty, prevents Americans from importing all but trivial amounts of the stuff from Brazil.

We're willing to import oil from Brazil, but not ethanol; our own ethanol industry is heavily subsidized.  Ed Morrissey thinks Obama should explain why we're willing to import oil but not ethanol:

"Not only does Barack Obama need to explain his enthusiasm for drilling and oil consumption apparently everywhere but in the US, he also needs to explain why the US wants to import oil from Brazil, but not ethanol."

While lauding the Washington Post editorial for pointing out Obama's hypocrisy's, Morrissey also points out:

Most of the rest of the media ignored them, just as they ignored the fact that Obama was cheerleading for Brazilian oil production at the same time he had launched a war against Libya.  Hardly anyone has commented on the connection between those two actions, but Obama has to have his eye open for ways to increase supply and lower fuel prices in case Libya’s production stays off line for a long time, which looks like a pretty good bet.  Otherwise, oil prices will skyrocket and the American economy will stall further into stagnation, which will mean a short political career for Obama.

The lamestream media is alive and well.  The criticism in the major media for Obama's Brazilian comments was nowhere to be found.  

Blood for Oil.  Isn't that what they said about Bush?


Even worse, it seems to me, is that as badly as America needs jobs, why is Obama so willing to shut down our own exploration industry and send these jobs to Brazil?  Since the moratorium only five new permits have been issued.  Senator David Vitter calls Obama's position ridiculous:

“We have abundant energy resources off Louisiana’s coast, but this administration has virtually shut down our offshore industry and instead is using Americans’ tax dollars to support drilling off the coast of Brazil,” said Vitter. “It’s ridiculous to ignore our own resources and continue going hat-in-hand to countries like Saudi Arabia and Brazil to beg them to produce more oil. We need to get serious about developing our resources here at home and working towards lower gas prices and long-term energy independence.”

It's true, as WaPo and Morrissey say that this position abounds in hypocrisy but it's also true that it is further proof that there are children in the White House where adults need to be.   Team Obama says what sounds good at the time then backtracks later.  He'll have to retreat from this in some way or else open up the permit process and get Gulf drilling once again. 

(AP Photo)

Obama, Brazil, and Gulf Oil Exploration.

Is Obama just plain trying to ruin America's energy industry?

Apparently Obama would rather buy oil from foreign sources while he tilts at windmills and looks to the future of "green energy." 

Since the BP oil spill last spring, the Obama administration has issued five new deep water permits.  Five.  Bloomberg reports today that Chevron received the fifth permit for exploration in the gulf. 

While Chevron is the fifth company permitted to resume work in the area following the last year’s Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, it’s the first to be allowed to tap a reservoir that has never produced, according to the regulator. 

Thirty-nine shallow permits have been issued to date with 13 still pending.  Why the hold on shallow water permits when the BP spill was deepwater?  The Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement has 8 permits pending for wells in depths greater than 500 feet. 

We have vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, yet Obama would rather buy oil from Brazil or the Middle East.  Victor Davis Hanson calls this a "man made energy crisis," which is something akin to a "man made disaster," I'm afraid.

Consider the logic of the president’s Orwellian declaration: The United States in the last two years has restricted oil exploration of the sort Brazil is now rushing to embrace. We have run up more than $4 trillion in consecutive budget deficits during the Obama administration and are near federal insolvency. Therefore, the United States should be happy to borrow more money to purchase the sort of “new stable sources of energy” from Brazil’s offshore wells that we most certainly will not develop off our own coasts. 

Does this make any sense at all?  It does if what you want to do is ruin the energy industry in America. In Brazil, Obama said:

“With the new oil finds off Brazil, President [Dilma] Rousseff has said that Brazil wants to be a major supplier of new stable sources of energy, and I’ve told her that the United States wants to be a major customer, which would be a win-win for both our countries.”

Just makes you want to slap your head, doesn't it?  It's not exactly a "win-win," buddy.  Why buy oil from Brazil when we have our own?  Of course, Brazil gets to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Is Brazil going to drill for our oil and sell itback to us?  THAT makes a lot of sense.  Earlier this month Petrobras received permission to pull oil out of the Gulf, conveniently gaining approval right before Obama's Fabulous Brazilian Adventure.

It's not just oil.  How could we forget Obama's promise to bankrupt the coal industry?  To his credit, he didn't shut down the coal mining industry after the last mine disaster as he did with the oil industry and the BP spill.  Union pressure, maybe.

Cap and trade?  One shudders to think what that monstrosity would have done to energy prices. 

Hanson makes the case that Obama's vision is to turn America into something European with high speed rail and high gas prices:

At a time of trillion-dollar deficits, the administration is borrowing billions to promote high-speed rail, and is heavily invested in the federally subsidized $42,000 Government Motors Chevy Volt. Apparently the common denominator here is a deductive view that high energy prices will force Americans to emulate European centrally planned and state-run transportation.

That would be the key term - "state run."  State run transportation, state run health care, even massive expansion of entitlement programs all fit into Obama's vision of America.

I've got new for you.  That's not my vision of America AT ALL.  What in the world is wrong with drilling our own oil and supporting the current energy industry in our country rather than bankrupting it?  Why not drill in the gulf and why not open ANWR?  What a naive puppet this man is.  How clueless.

Truly.  Every act he commits reveals pure naivete. 

You want to develop "green energy," fine.  But don't run us out on a limb and then saw it off with your solar powered chain saw.


(Graphic from EOEarth)

A Mystery

What in the world is wrong with this picture? 

Here we are, in America, literally sitting on vast oil reserves in just ANWR and in the Gulf alone and all it takes to make the price of gasoline skyrocket overnight is one crazier-than-a-run-over-dog dictator in Libya shooting his own people and threatening to burn his own oil fields.

Yet the liberals won't let us drill in ANWR and Obama won't let us drill in the Gulf. 

What is wrong with this picture?

Rig Explosion Reaffirms Moonbats Love for the Obamatorium

The latest on today's oil rig explosion from NOLA is that up to thirteen rig workers are being examined and treated at a Houma hospital but there is no word at this time about their condition.  However, Governor Jindal visited them this afternoon and according to NOLA:

Jindal said he visited with the workers and was pleased that none was injured. "They didn't have any visible injuries and they're eager to get home as soon as possible,'' the governor said.

Good news!

Left Coast Rebel has the unfolding of events today here (with photos!)

The Houma Courier points out that this rig is in much shallower water that the BP rig which blew earlier this year:

The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay. It's location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after the April rig explosion.

The Times-Picayune has this graphic showing the relation of this rig to the BP rig.

There were seven active wells on this particular platform and they have been shut down.

Via The Dead Pelican also comes this NOLA report of the Coast Guard reporting a sheen in the water emanating from and unknown source:

[Jindal] said the company didn't believe any of them were leaking oil, but the Coast Guard has since reported seeing a mile-long sheen on the water stretching from the accident site, which is 102 statutory miles, or about 80 nautical miles, off the Louisiana coast.

It is unclear at this time where the oil or fuel that's making the sheen is coming from.

There is debate as to whether or not that sheen exists; the AP reports that there is no sheen.

Latest reports are that the fire has been contained "but is still burning."

And of course the rumors are already abounding about the origin of the disaster; so far I've seen where the Obama administration blew it up to reaffirm the need for the moratorium, that it was Bush's fault, that MoveOn.org is responsible...; and I'm not linking to them because perpetuating these silly suggestions isn't really helpful.  I only mention them to remind us all that the loons are still out there.

It remains a fact that the business of oil production is and has always been a dangerous one; the workers all understand that when they sign on, just as say, coal miners, for example, do.  Accidents happen.  Fortunately, in this case. safety training saved the lives of thirteen men and they had the good sense and wherewithal to use that training.

It is true that the Obamatorium is devastating to Louisiana:

[Eric] Smith [Associate Director of Tulane University's Energy Institute] says the impact of the moratorium will worsen in the months ahead. He says drilling rigs cost up to a million dollars a day, so oil companies cannot afford to leave them idle. He says eight rigs that were on their way to the Gulf were diverted to other locations after the ban was imposed, and two others have left since then.  "If you are a company like Murphy, which is one of the rigs that did leave, and you have prospects in Africa as well as here and you see you cannot drill in the Gulf for a couple of years and you are under contract for the rig for five years, you will just move it to Africa and work," he explained.

Recently-published reports show that US government officials have estimated the moratorium could cost around 23,000 US jobs.

This explosion is already causing the "I told you so" people to reaffirm the need for a moratorium on drilling. Via the L.A. Times comes this:

“Today’s news comes as no surprise,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. “Offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is like playing Russian roulette. Its not a matter of if something will go wrong, it’s a matter of when.”

I guess once all those windmills and solar panels spring up all over the country and all those mysterious "green jobs" emerge, we just won't have this kind of problem anymore. Either that or the libs will eventually realize we're a nation that is dependent on oil and we have plenty of our own without having to rely on foreign sources if they'd just let us go for it.

The Gulf Oil Spill (UPDATED!)

Scroll for updates.

There's a lot to be said about the Gulf oil spill.  For now, via The Dead Pelican, NOLA has a great up to date article with some excellent graphics. 

It seems that Jindal has declared BP's efforts to be "not adequate."  Meanwhile, fishermen are losing their livelihood as oyster beds and fishing areas are closed off.  In addition, several species of wildlife are endangered now.  The Brown Pelican was recently removed from the endangered list and had just begun breeding again.

The conspiracy theorists are out, and the environmentalists who declare all drilling should stop immediately!  Nonsense.  All of it.

But for now, check out that NOLA article.

LSU has satellite images here.

Update 4:20  More maps and graphics here. 

As long as we're talking about conspiracy theories and blame, be sure to check out Doug Ross's time line post.  He makes a valid point.  I'm not in that camp that says "it's Obama's fault!", nor is Doug, I don't think; but, to those who blamed Bush for Katrina - take THAT!   Bush couldn't have done anything more than he did for Katrina aid because of Mayor Ray Nagin and "Katrina Mary" Landrieu.  Bush's hands were tied.  Now Obama, in this case....I don't know.  Time will tell.

Update 4:43  Meanwhile, NOLA reports that:

The attorneys general from five Gulf Coast states are scheduled to meet in Mobile to discuss legal options that might be taken following the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King is hosting the meeting of attorneys general from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. The meeting will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center in Mobile.

Dozens of lawsuits are expected in the wake of the spill which is threatening wildlife, beaches, the seafood industries and recreation along the Gulf beaches, known for their pristine white sand.

Obama is scheduled to visit the Gulf area tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

Update 5:00  The WSJ has an article on the spill, the blame game, and posts this picture of an oil covered Northern Gannet rescued yesterday.  Photos, maps and graphics there as well.

Lots more at Memeorandum.
 
(Top Photo credit:  Ted Jackson / The Times-Picayune)

The Decline of the American Oilfield

"We can now transport natural gas, something we have an abundance of here in Louisiana, and we should be reaping this benefit now, but the overwhelming preliminary red tape to get a well drilled in Louisiana makes it an exceedingly difficult hurdle for a contractor. It is compounded by our own Federal government, now under the control of Obama and his Liberal mandates attempt to cause change with crushing and crippling blows. Drilling goes elsewhere, overseas, and we sit on our hands bewildered, and at a loss."

That comes from this article on the state of the oil business it Louisiana (and likely elsewhere) and the potential effects of Cap and Trade. Check it out.

(H/T: The Dead Pelican)