'O'NO! modifies (flips) stance on offshore drilling

[GlynMeek]

Here's what confuses me. (well, just one of the things) We hear that even if we started drilling today, we wouldn't see the benefit for years. On average, it takes maybe 60 days for the average 'hole in the ground' to determine if it is a producer, perhaps another 30 to cap it and start production, after which the oil can be taken directly to the refinery...perhaps a few days to refine it into gasoline etc.

I make that 3 months, give or take...how come the government tells us 5 years?

What am I missing?

Glyn

[bomelia]

Its all BS. You hear these liberal f&%ks saying even if we started today, we would not see results for X months or years. So why bother? We need solutions NOW they say! That is pure stupid liberal thinking. Long term thinking and action is what solves the problem. Liberals do not understand the term "invest". I have always been cautious in my terminolgy, but if it is good enough for Jamo, then me too. Liberals are maggots. Maggots do not invest. They just eat what is in front of them. Pigs. And to think they have the testicular fortitude to ask the Saudis to drill more!!!! A$%holes!

Drill now, drill here, pay less tomorrow. Dumb f&@king liberals.

Mike (posted with love)

[cobra de capell]

Originally Posted by GlynMeek

Here's what confuses me. (well, just one of the things) We hear that even if we started drilling today, we wouldn't see the benefit for years. On average, it takes maybe 60 days for the average 'hole in the ground' to determine if it is a producer, perhaps another 30 to cap it and start production, after which the oil can be taken directly to the refinery...perhaps a few days to refine it into gasoline etc.

I make that 3 months, give or take...how come the government tells us 5 years?

What am I missing?

Glyn

I'll chime in - the missed part is whether of not oil is found - the oil companies want to drill in areas that are now off limits because they believe oil can be found - if that proves to be true, the time it takes to 'produce' is drastically reduced - of course, if it's in the middle of the ocean a little more time is needed.

Here's part of a web article that need be of interest....

How the Leasing and Exploration Process Works
When a company decides to take the financial risk on a promising subsurface structure, they usually bid on a cluster of blocks to include the entire structure and its periphery. But if the first couple of exploratory wells are unsuccessful, the company may judge the remaining blocks as too risky for further drilling, and allow the leases to expire.

Much of the 68 million non-producing acres may be in the “risky” category. Legislation to force companies to drill on all leases is superfluous because those leases will eventually expire. The US Minerals Management Service (MMS) can then reoffer expired blocks to see if another company is willing to take the financial risk.

In order to discover major oil fields, the industry needs access to extensive areas where exploratory drilling has been minimal. Most such areas are offshore, currently under moratorium. With access to extensive areas, major companies capable of taking big financial risks can conduct and share geophysical surveys, from which they decipher geologic structures. They drill off-structure core holes to analyze sediments for oil-prone organic material. Companies assemble the data to develop hypotheses about the conversion of organic material into oil in source rock, and its migration and accumulation in commercial concentrations in postulated geologic structures.

MMS then issues a “call for nominations,” asking companies what areas their studies show are prospective. MMS compiles nominations and selects areas that comply with political and environmental issues. Companies bid competitively on blocks that are mapped in a 3-mile by 3-mile grid. High bid wins the right to drill on each block. MMS sets minimum bids for blocks based on prospective attractiveness, timetables for drilling the first well and subsequent wells, and expiration dates.

The “sweaty palms” stage is when a company drills its first well, the ultimate test of their hypothesis for the generation, migration, and accumulation of oil. To maximize data from the well, they conduct detailed seismic surveys to determine the most advantageous path for the well, and to locate depths for capturing samples of rock and fluids. All this takes time and money, but physical information from the subsurface is critical for developing a 3-D geologic picture, to determine subsequent drilling. If the well is a non-producer, the company may recompile all data, revise their hypothesis, and decide that nearby structures are worth testing. But if the sediments do not show promising features, the company may see the weakness of their hypothesis, and decide to abandon the area.

No Quick Fixes
Congressional leaders use the sound bite, “We can’t drill our way out of this oil mess.” Of course; who ever claimed we could? But we can’t conserve our way out either. Reducing demand is a long-term process; “evolution” may be a more accurate term. Tightening CAFE standards will ease demand, but the benefit would be spread over many years. For long-term reduction, we would have to overhaul our daily travel patterns through societal lifestyle changes while we restructure our cities and suburbs. Such fundamental changes will take a human generation or longer. It took decades for the car culture to evolve in the U.S. It will take that long to reverse it.

The popular alternatives (biofuels, wind, solar) could be the subject of another paper, but they have minimal potential to substitute for transportation fuels. We need to recognize the unique nature of liquid fuels, that the US will depend heavily on oil imports for decades, and that “energy independence” is a fanciful hope.

Opening prospective areas under moratorium would allow fresh exploration where little previous work has been done. It will offer us the best chance for significant discoveries that could stabilize domestic production. Every barrel of oil we produce domestically is one less barrel that we must import. And while they’re at it, Congress should approve leasing for the coastal plane of ANWR so we can learn what resources are really there.

Tom Standing began his career as a chemical engineer in refinery operations and later shifted to work as an engineer for the San Francisco water system. He is self-taught in the sciences of petroleum production, geology and geochemistry.
____

Just think if Clinton had not vetos drilling at ANWR around 10 years ago, we would be in a lot better shape.

Let's face it, we are oil users, big time and for our government to place known domestic sources of oil off limits with no viable alternative plan is insane.

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by GlynMeek

Here's what confuses me. (well, just one of the things) We hear that even if we started drilling today, we wouldn't see the benefit for years. On average, it takes maybe 60 days for the average 'hole in the ground' to determine if it is a producer, perhaps another 30 to cap it and start production, after which the oil can be taken directly to the refinery...perhaps a few days to refine it into gasoline etc.

I make that 3 months, give or take...how come the government tells us 5 years?

What am I missing?

Glyn

Well here's a thought... If we are going to do a bunch more off shore drilling, we will probably need a lot more off shore drilling rigs. I guess to build such things, we will need to ship a bunch of scrap metal from recently retired SUVs off to China and wait for some company in China to build the rigs for us. I'm sure that the rigs will start showing up in the near future, but it will take quite a while to get enough delivered to make a difference.

Since we seem to have trouble building new refineries, we can probably ship the oil from our off shore drilling to some other country that can cut thru the red tape and build refineries, and then ship the gas back here.

[cobra de capell]

Here's another web post that rings true to me (responding to BO claim that it would take 10 years to produce more domestic oil).....

As if anything that would take that long is automatically out of the question, because . . . I guess, . . . we are too . . . impatient? His real reason is, of course, that he and his enviro-kook buddies don’t want drilling anywhere, anytime.

But let’s call his bluff on the 10 year B.S. just to set the record straight. It turns out that people who actually know what they are talking about, oil company folks, disagree with His Holiness. From The Street.

A Congressman followed my segment and suggested that drilling wouldn’t help for 10 years or more. I know this is absolutely untrue, so I called Transocean, the biggest driller in the world. An officer of the company told me that depending on the location of the drilling, oil could be realized in as little as a year.

Ultra-deepwater fields might produce in 3-5 years. For the most remote locations, without any prior infrastructure support, that barrel may require a 4-6 year window. I suggested 8 years and he said that he could not envision a situation where it would require more than 6 years to bring a barrel out of the ocean floor.
____

Hmmm. Where is the 10 year figure? It is a figment of the Obama’s imagination. We can get oil in one year. If we started with nothing and sailed out to sea to drill, it’s 4-6 years, max.

Another liberal lie to prop up environmental extremism at the expense of normal Americans who can’t afford gas to get to work.

The only real question is not how long, but how safe as none of us wants to destroy the environment in the process, but getting to work at a reasonable cost is of real concern, as is the cost of food and every product since transportation costs impact practically everything.

[Scott S]

Originally Posted by GlynMeek

I make that 3 months, give or take...how come the government tells us 5 years?

What am I missing?

Glyn

Ever watch a government road crew fill a pot hole?

Think in those terms.

Scott S