As the Deep Horizon oil well continues to leak oil in to the Gulf of Mexico and Obama holds steady to his ban on new off shore drilling (that may or may not include new drilling in shallow waters), lawmakers from the Gulf region are very unhappy with Obamas edict:
Bipartisan pressure is building on the Obama administration to reconsider its ban on new offshore drilling, with Gulf lawmakers decrying the moratorium as an overreaction to the BP oil spill that will compound the economic damage the disaster is inflicting on their states.
Lawmakers and industry groups warn that the moratorium could cost thousands of jobs and drain hundreds of millions of dollars out of the local economy. That’s on top of the billions of dollars studies predict could be lost from hits to the tourism and fishing industries along the Gulf. (emphasis added)
The article continues.
“Obviously we need to learn the lessons from this incident … but to completely shut down deepwater (drilling) and even threaten shallow water is a huge economic blow,” Sen. David Vitter, R-La., told Fox News on Friday. “And on top of the recession and on top of the hit that the oil is directly making on our economy, that is another big, big economic blow that is going to knock us down.”
And it not just those dastardly Republicans who want to kill the environment while chanting “drill baby drill” who are unimpressed with Obama. Even Democrat Mary Landrieu is warning of long term effect of Obama’s poor decision.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., warned about the danger of a permanent flight of the industry from the region.
“If these big rigs ever leave the Gulf … it’s not like you can make those every day or every year. Some of them take years to build. If they leave the Gulf and go drill under long-term contracts off the coast of Africa, they’re not coming home any time soon,” she said. (emphasis added)
Obama’s decision to unilaterally stop the United States from exploring and drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico is not going to stop Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, India, Russia, China and other nations from drilling less than 70 miles off the coast of Florida.
Via money.cnn.com:
Call it Castro’s revenge. With Cuba’s leader sidelined by illness and its economy in shambles, a major oil find – estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey at 4.6 billion barrels, nearly two-thirds the amount in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – could give Havana a new lease on life. “Cuba could be a major regional player in oil,” says Jorge Piñon, an oil expert at the University of Miami and a former president of Amoco Oil Latin America.
So far Cuba’s oil production has been puny – just 68,000 barrels a day, compared with more than ten million by Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer. With help from the Soviet Union, oil was discovered in Varadero in 1971. Production stayed at about 18,000 barrels a day until Canada’s Sherritt International arrived in 1992 and started joint production with Cuba Petróleo. Currently Sherritt is responsible for almost half of Cuba’s production, entirely onshore.
In 2004, Spain’s Repsol YPF found signs of oil in deep water offshore. Last year India’s ONGC Videsh and Norsk Hydro of Norway joined Repsol to explore its six blocks. Separately, Malaysia’s Petronas won concessions for four blocks, reportedly after seeing fresh data from the Repsol-led consortium. ONGC also secured concessions for two more blocks. In January, Venezuela’s state-owned PDVSA picked up rights to four blocks. China also has an exploration agreement with Cuba, and Chinese oil giant Sinopec has been leasing rigs to Sherritt and others. (emphasis added)
Of course, there is no risk of an oil spill from one any of these players. Right?
