Saturday, June 5, 2010

Increase in deep-water drilling actually due to region's large oil reserves

Tags: Oil, imported, Big Five, Why Gulf Oil Needed, Greed, Gulf Oil Economy Substantial Part of USA Economy

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, oil is necessary mainly for transportation and we now import close to 66% of all our imported oil from just five countries of the 70% we import. The main reason why we have the problem after about 20 years of avoiding the problem. The major Gulf leak was by Mexico about 30 years ago in relatively shallow water (about 6-700 feet) and using the same techniques now used by BP with no advance in technology, it took Mexico 10 months to cap the well by drilling to relief wells which require ten tries to get it right. Similar problems in Australia in relatively shallow water too about, as I recall, about six months.

Canada requires ocean drillers to put in a relief piping in at the same time as the main drilling pipe. Smart thinking and good regulations takes care of the problem before it happens! Incidentally, Canada did not suffer the American/Europe financial meltdown because they enforced their regulations. The same in India, one of many Asian states that followed that rule.

They are good shape for growth by increasing their middleclass while the USA decreased our middleclass by exporting jobs and lowering pay and benefits, increasing Social Security payments greatly during the Reagan administration. These same guy criticize Americans for not savings without asking the question, how much can they really save. Over 150 million Americans with the use of credit cards can barely get by each week and month.


March 2010 Import Highlights: May 27, 2010

"Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in March 2010 has been released and it shows that three countries exported more than 1.00 million barrels per day to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 66 percent of United States crude oil imports in March while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 86 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports. The top five sources of US crude oil imports for March were Canada (2.020 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.149 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.086 million barrels per day), Venezuela (0.984 million barrels per day), and Nigeria (0.939 million barrels per day). The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were Angola (0.490 million barrels per day), Iraq (0.475 million barrels per day), Brazil (0.299 million barrels per day), Algeria (0.276 million barrels per day), and Russia (0.248 million barrels per day). Total crude oil imports averaged 9.292 million barrels per day in March, which is an increase of 0.612 million barrels per day from February 2010.

Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in March, exporting 2.517 million barrels per day to the United States, which is an increase from last month (2.490 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Mexico with 1.265 million barrels per day." U.S. Energy Information Administration

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

I recall that we now import 70% of our oil. Canada and Mexico are now are top two exporters of oil to the USA with Saudi Arabia third, and Venezuela and Nigeria fourth and fifth. But Angola, Iraq, Brazil, Algeria, Colombia and Ecuador oil are quite significant. Our foreign policies depend heavily on maintaining a guaranteed supply of oil and is an important part of our National Security considerations. Understanding this is vitaly important to understand why President Obama keeps drilling in the Gulf which contributes about 23% of USA oil production.

Unfortunately protestors on the Right and Left do not understand this and these facts are rarely, if ever, reported by the corporate press/media. WE NEED THIS GULF OIL FOR A LONG TIME!

Jim Kawakami, June 05, 2010, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com

Increase in deep-water drilling actually due to region's large oil reserves

MMS: "remarkable increase" in deep-water drilling due in part to "finding of reservoirs with high production wells." According to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS): "The deepwater portion of Gulf of Mexico has shown a remarkable increase in oil and gas exploration, development and production. In part this is due to the development of new technologies reducing operational costs and risks, as well as the finding of reservoirs with high production wells. "

MMS report: "Best source of new domestic energy resources lies in the deep water Gulf of Mexico." In a 2004 report -- titled Deep Water: Where the Energy Is -- the MMS stated that "our best source of new domestic energy resources lies in the deep water Gulf of Mexico and other frontier areas." MMS reported that due to "declining production" in "near-shore, shallow waters" in the Gulf of Mexico, "energy companies have focused their attention on oil and gas resources in water depths of 1,000 feet and beyond." MMS estimated that "the deep water regions of the Gulf of Mexico may contain 56 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or enough to meet U.S. demand for 7-1/2 years at current rates."

MMS report: Deepwater drilling is "America's Offshore Energy Future," "significant proved reserves" discovered in recent years. In a 2008 report titled "Deepwater Gulf of Mexico 2008: America's Offshore Energy Future, MMS reported:

The deepwater GOM has contributed major additions to the total reserves in the GOM. Figure 40 shows the proved reserves added each year by water-depth category. Additions from the shallow waters of the GOM declined in recent years but, beginning in 1975, the deepwater area started contributing significant new reserves. Between 1975 and 1983, the majority of these additions were from discoveries in slightly more than 1,000 ft (305 m) of water. It was not until 1985 that major additions came from water depths greater than 1,500 ft (457 m). From 1998 to 2001, significant proved reserves were added in the 5,000- to 7,499-ft (1,524- to 2,286-m) water depth range. The year 2002 saw the first substantial addition from water depths greater than 7,500 ft (2,286 m). …

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