Fairhope Alabama Personal Injury accident Attorney at Law James Dorgan

Discovery underlines need for more drilling

Monday, September 18, 2006

COURTESY OF THE MOBILE PRESS REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD 

FOR YEARS, doomsayers have been predicting that the world was going to run out of oil. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective on energy issues, these predictions have failed to take into account the human ingenuity that leads to the discovery of vast new oil fields in places like the location of the "Jack 2" well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Last week Chevron Corp. and two partners announced that their Jack 2 test well, which was drilled to the unprecedented depth of 28,175 feet, had tapped into a new field that could contain up to 15 billion barrels of oil. The huge petroleum pool was discovered in a 300-square-mile region off the coast of Louisiana.

News of the discovery offered U.S. consumers hope for some relief from rising gasoline and natural gas prices. Oil industry experts say the field won't produce enough oil to offset the price impact of growing global demand for energy. But every newly discovered source of oil adds to worldwide reserves, and those reserves should get a significant boost now that oil companies have demonstrated the ability to pump petroleum from previously unheard-of ocean depths.

Environmentalists won't be happy about this advance in oil-drilling technology.

Their concerns about the pollution generated by the burning of fossil fuels are legitimate, but the plain truth is that a modern industrial society cannot survive on conservation and alternative energy sources.

Research into energy alternatives may eventually provide the answer environmentalists are seeking. Until then, the nation must rely on fossil fuels.

It's clear the oil fields of the Gulf will play an increasingly important role in meeting the nation's energy needs. Two areas in the central Gulf that have been placed off-limits to oil and natural gas exploration contain an estimated 1.2 billion barrels of oil and 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. A bill approved by the Senate this summer would open those areas to drilling.

The development of these sources would increase domestic energy reserves and help Gulf states, including Alabama, by providing billions in royalties over the next 20 years.

A broader energy development bill passed by the House would lift a freeze on drilling in 85 percent of the nation's coastal waters.

That proposal almost certainly won't pass muster in the Senate. It's critical that House and Senate negotiators find a way to break the long-time deadlock over drilling. The Senate compromise on drilling in the Gulf offers the best chance for changing the terms of the congressional debate about energy exploration in other areas, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

We've learned that billions of barrels of oil still lie beneath the floor of the Gulf. For the sake of consumers and broader national economic and security interests, it's time to put that energy to good use.