It’s not often that US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar delivers a speech to polar bears, dolphins, jelly fish and sea turtles, who all sit intently on chairs in the audience. It’s not every day that you see surfers covered in chocolate oil spills. Salazar was making the opening remarks to a public hearing … Read More
Offshore
Official EIA drilling data buried by media
Do you sometimes wonder why the American people seem to support more offshore drilling, despite the fact that it won’t make a difference on gas prices? Its not only that its all in how the question gets asked, it also turns out that the media is simply not telling a critical piece of data. According … Read More
The Republican Horror Show…
It could be the scene from a Hollywood horror movie. In a darkened cavern strange beasts make noises to please their masters. They know what they are saying makes no sense, but that does not stop their strange mutterings. But this is no movie, this is reality. Everyday, even though they are meant to be … Read More
Bush Lifts US Oil Exploration Ban
We have said it before and we will say it again. Once an oilman always an oilman. You can’t get crude out from your veins. Yesterday, in a sop to his oil industry buddies, George W. Bush lifted an executive order banning oil exploration in US waters. It was a political move aimed at ratcheting … Read More
EIA: Offshore drilling won’t impact prices until…2030…if then.
I had just started to draft a blog about this when I caught Joe Romm’s excellent post on the same topic. Over to you, Joe: Or, jump directly to the Energy Information Administration’s report.
Once an oil man, always an oil man
For a man whose ties to the oil industry are legendary, it came as a surprise that Bush once said that America had to break its oil addiction. Like an ailing addict who has tried but failed to beat his cravings, Bush has gone cold turkey for oil. As the world faces record oil prices, … Read More
WWF Says Halt Canadian Oil Sale
Conservation group, WWF, is urging Canada to postpone the sale of key oil and gas rights in the Arctic Beaufort Sea, worried the drilling areas overlap with key habitats for polar bears and whales. “This sale is premature due to the absence of a completed Beaufort Sea management plan that would protect sensitive habitats, which … Read More
Oil Firm and Green Groups Strike Deal
For years they have been at loggerheads, but in a deal thrashed out with environmental groups, a Houston oil company has agreed to shut down its offshore oil production off Santa Barbara County decades early in exchange for approval this year to drill into untapped undersea reserves. To sweeten the deal, Plains Exploration & Production … Read More
Mexico’s Oil Reforms Get Muted Response from the Majors
A plan to shake up Mexico’s flagging state-run oil sector has met with a muted reaction from the oil majors. The foreign oil companies want Mexico to join the rest of the world in offering risk-sharing joint ventures, especially in the huge deep-sea sector. These joint ventures would enable the companies to claim that they … Read More
Drilling for Oil to Start Off Falkland Islands
After 10 years of delays since oil was discovered off the Falkland islands, oil companies are planning to start drilling within the next 12 months. The move follows the conclusion of lengthy, but successful, tests by geologists and significant cash injections by two major oil companies which plan to bring rigs to the islands by … Read More