Drilling in currently off-limits areas of the US

Byron100

With the price of oil setting new highs, and the news that Russia might have actually peaked (they actually admitted this...gasp!), I'd to pose a question that's been in my head for quite some time. Exactly how much oil is locked away in the current "no drilling" zones of the eastern GOM and the continental shelf of the Eastern Seaboard of the US, as well as anything we can get our hands on in Alaska? And how high does the price of oil need to go before the President issues an emergency order to open up drilling in these areas?

All I seem to hear that these no-drill zones will never be tapped for their oil no matter what, but I happen to disagree. What's going to happen when gasoline is $12 a gallon and the trucks are no longer delivering food to grocery stores as oil imports drop off a cliff? If the oil is there, in our own backyards, aren't we going to break open the piggy back and extract what we can? And how long would it take to reach maximum productions from these prohibited areas? With Peak Oil becoming more of a household term day by day, I just don't understand why there isn't more of an outcry to start poking holes everywhere there might be oil. Of course there's the environmental side, but people do tend to care about being able to use their cars and eating food more than the risk of oil spills around Florida and North Carolina...and the day is rapidly drawing near that we're going to be faced with a very stark choice.

Answers, anyone?
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steam_cannon · Expert Joined: Dec 28, 2006 Posts: 2334 Location: MA

The stuff is off limits because it's not economical enough for oil
companies to secure rights. And mostly we are talking about finds that
would not actually do much to provide large volumes of oil for the US.
So it's mostly political rhetoric. Like damming up the grand canyon, it
won't help our power situation much.

I'm sure everything that can be opened up, will be. But it ain't going to
do a bit of good.

Plantagenet

Plantagenet

steam_cannon · Expert Joined: Dec 28, 2006 Posts: 2334 Location: MA

TreeFarmer · Heavy Crude Joined: Jun 26, 2007 Posts: 287

A number of exploratory wells were drilled off of the southeast coast back in the 1980's. What was or was not found was not publicized.

TF

Byron100

TheDude

ANWR, or ANWAR as I see it often spelled (conflating it with Ghawar I guess!) has only had the one test well drilled, the KIC - whose details are still confidential. It's only the 1002 area that has potential for oil/gas too, covering only 8% of ANWR's area. People don't bring up this fact though. Perhaps this summer we'll see calls for a few more test wells at least, if gas prices go high enough.

ANWR 1002 - it's where the oil's at. We've had a few threads here on ANWR too of course, like Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; The Last Nail in the Coffin.

Simmons says we're hard up for deep water drilling rigs to exploit the continental shelf even if we wanted to - only four more built this year, I seem to recall him describing the ones we have as "rusty," too.
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Plantagenet

TexasEx2006 · Coal Joined: Apr 03, 2006 Posts: 16

ANWR is off limits due to the fact that it is being held as collateral on on debts to the FEDs stakeholders

MD

It will all be drilled.

It will all be taken.

The cheap and the clean first, followed by the dirty and expensive.

We'll burn it all.
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md@peakoil.com

Plantagenet

Tanada

MonteQuest · Last edited by MonteQuest on Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:25 pm; edited 1 time in total

Plantagenet