Oil Drilling: Risks and Rewards

[LiveScience]

Oil Drilling: Risks and Rewards

By Robin Nixon, Special to LiveScience
25 June 2008 04:46 pm ET

With gas prices skyrocketing and President Bush and other politicians calling to lift a ban against offshore drilling, a polarized debate has again flared up over the true risks and rewards of this approach to oil prospecting.

"There are extremes on both sides," said Judy Penniman of the American Petroleum Institute.

A federal ban was initiated by Congress in 1981 to protect sites off California and Massachusetts and has been repeatedly expanded since then. President George H.W. Bush put his own ban in place, by executive order, in 1991, and Bill Clinton extended it to 2012. Together, the rules now thwart drilling in Alaska's oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and elsewhere.

Scientists and politicians disagree on how much effect any new drilling might have on prices at the pump. Further, they argue about potential impacts on the ecosystem.

Impact on marine life

Concerns over new drilling amount to more than just a worry about spills.

To find potential oil reserves, researchers send seismic waves into the ground. The waves bounce back to reveal the buried topography and can hint at a possible reserve. But seismic noise disorientates whales and leads to mass beachings, said Richard Charter, a government relations consultant for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

Laboratory experiments attempting to pin down the impact of seismic waves on wildlife often must rely on caged animals, which raises questions about whether the animals would have fled and avoided ear damage if they could have, note Robert McCauley and colleagues in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

However, Andy Radford, a policy advisor at the American Petroleum Institute, isn’t worried. "[We] make sure there are no whales in the area when we are doing our seismic search," Radford said.

Several weeks ago, ExxonMobil suspended exploration near Madagascar because more than 100 whales had beached themselves.

Ultimately, the seismic tests only help geologists make educated guesses. "You never know until you drill," said Eric Potter, associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin. The usual outcome is failure, Potter said, sending wildcatters back to the seismic drawing board.

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[vulture4]

Offshore drilling can be environmentally acceptable, but there sure are a lot of tarballs on the beach in Galveston. And it will not lower the price of oil, since the total that will be produced is an insignificant part of global demand, and obviously the producing company will sell on the world market to the highest biider.We're better off putting our money into nuclear, solar, and wind.

[neilsox]

Replying to:

Offshore drilling can be environmentally acceptable, but there sure are a lot of tarballs on the beach in Galveston. And it will not lower the price of oil, since the total that will be produced is an insignificant part of global demand, and obviously the producing company will sell on the world market to the highest bider.We're better off putting our money into nuclear, solar, and wind.
Posted by vulture4

It is unlikely the tar balls on Galveston beach are from drilling 30 years ago, so perhaps environmentally responsible drilling off shore will reduce the tar balls.

If the USA, puts an export duty on our oil, it would be rare that anyone out bid domestic refineries.

I'm also opposed to any new subsidies to drill for offshore oil. I agree the money is better spent on nuclear, solar and wind. www.skywindpower.com   Neil

[Crossover_Maniac]

I keep hearing the same rhetoric of 'it will takes years and it would affect the price a few cents'.  It's funny how adding a million barrels of crude per day to the market will only drop the price down to a penny but not putting oil in the strategic oil reserve will drop the price of gas by $0.25 cents according the Democrat Party leadership.  I say it's a load of crap!  Ten years is probably a projection of how long it will take after the environmental wackjobs are done with the frivolous lawsuits and a few cents probably comes from the same fuzzy math as the 70,000 barrels>>>>>>1 million barrels logic.

Feel the Hope-nosis

[docm]

Hate to burst anyone's bubble but most all tar balls are formed in the Earths crust and migrate upwards until they hit water then float to the beach.  Latest research I've read* says that only 1% of oil leakage in the North American seas  can be tied to drilling with the vast majority of the rest, including tar balls, being natural seepage. 

Think the LA tar pits but on the sea floor.

* ("Oil in the Sea III", 2005. contributors: Ocean Studies Board; Marine Board; Transportation Research Board et al)

[drwayne]

Replying to:

Hate to burst anyone's bubble but most all tar balls are formed in the Earths crust and migrate upwards until they hit water then float to the beach.  Latest research I've read* says that only 1% of oil leakage in the North American seas  can be tied to drilling with the vast majority of the rest, including tar balls, being natural seepage.  Think the LA tar pits but on the sea floor.* ("Oil in the Sea III", 2005. contributors: Ocean Studies Board; Marine Board; Transportation Research Board et al)
Posted by docm

I remember quite a few years ago flying into Santa Barbara.  The flight path took us out over the water, and the pilor pointed out some areas with oil on the surface of the water.  He also told us that the shen was the result of natural processes, not drilling.

Wayne

"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher

[ed_pardo]

Hydrocarbons In The Deep Earth?
ScienceDaily (July 27, 2009)
The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle —the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of the core.


This artistic view of the Earth's interior shows hydrocarbons forming in the upper mantle and transported through deep faults to shallower depths in the Earth's crust. The inset shows a snapshot of the methane dissociation reaction studied in this work.
(Credit: Image courtesy A. Kolesnikov and V. Kutcherov)

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 150843.htm

Think about it.

[dougmanxx]

Hydrocarbons In The Deep Earth?
ScienceDaily (July 27, 2009)
The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle —the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of the core.

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 150843.htm

Think about it.

Always thought the "Peak Oil" idea was a bit too simplistic, as we keep finding billions and billions of new reserves every year. Man what will this idea do to the AGW crowd when they realize there may be MORE hydrocarbons around to be burned and turned into nasty CO2. LOL. I can't wait.

As far as drilling goes: the longer we wait the more opportunity we give to others who won't care and will go ahead and drill anyway. Don't think the Russians, Chinese or even the Indians wouldn't take advantage if they could. They will and their economies will benefit therby. I am all for being good stewards of the environment, but we have taken this idea to an almost religious extreme. We will suffer for it.

I think we need to drill, because we can and will do it with less environmental impact that anyone else. If we don't we give up that high ground and by default let the Russias and Chinas of the world take the lead.

[ed_pardo]

Doug Re:

"Always thought the "Peak Oil" idea was a bit too simplistic, as we keep finding billions and billions of new reserves every year. Man what will this idea do to the AGW crowd when they realize there may be MORE hydrocarbons around to be burned and turned into nasty CO2. LOL. I can't wait."

Maybe things appear a bit too simplistic. We are a culture seem to think we know a lot about everything but we always find more and throw many concepts into the garbage heap.

[Eskie]

What people do not realize is the advancement of technology, and the method our technologies get their energies. What we have done is rearrange enormous amounts of weights around, since the "Industrial Revolution". Our methods have come so far, from being dirty to "Green". And in the centuries between large amounts of insulation has been removed, and that's why we're seeing stronger typhoons, more extreme summer and winter seasons, and causing a lot of isostatic uplift in the immediate areas, melting permafrost, regionally, because the world is too large. This will contribute to the worldly climate change.

This underground elements, we're rearranging it to the atmosphere faster. Boiling the water above it, evaporating it faster. Our land development, is causing a lot of rearranging of weights around, flying organic and dust particles up in the skies making clouds, fooling us to think that the earth is cooling.

Life is around this planet, on surface, underwater, and what have we found so far without this planet? Guess work, not even life, but stories told by individuals who were abducted by space creatures, yeah right. Denying the truth in your face attitude is what delaying this shift to green energy resources and the ability for our earth to sustain itself to basically suffer the consequences.

Climate in the polar regions should be studied as they give a really good clues of the prevailing winds.