Results tagged “API”

Late last week, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced that they will shorten lease sale terms on nearly 36 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The proposed plan would set five-year terms for leases in water depths of 1,300 to 2,600 feet, instead of the standard eight-year term. Leases in water depths between 2,600 and 5,200 feet would run for seven years instead of 10.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today voted to send the Kerry-Boxer climate bill to the Senate floor without amendments. Only Democrats were in attendance for the vote, and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.) voted against the bill, saying he would withhold his support contingent on the adoption of some pro-agriculture amendments.

"Remarkable" was the word used by Energy Information Administrator Richard Newell last week to describe the sharp rise in U.S. natural gas reserves. In a report issued by his agency last week, Newell noted that U.S. proven natural gas reserves rose 3 percent in 2008.

The report also showed that natural gas reserves in shale formations rose an astonishing 51 percent over 2007. "This year's report underscores for a second year the technological shift in domestic exploration and production from conventional reserves to unconventional shales," Newell said.

Today, AAA reported that yesterday's nationwide retail gasoline prices climbed to a nationwide $2.695 per gallon average, the highest average price this year. Despite this sharp gasoline price increase, which has been driven by strong crude oil prices, the federal government has done little to help increase the supply of domestic crude oil, the basic feedstock of gasoline.

Members of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry Labor-Management Committee, which includes API along with fifteen labor unions, have written to senior members of Congress encouraging them to support tax policies that will protect and encourage the development of quality U.S. jobs, while at the same time fortifying our nation's energy and economic security.

Friday night, Sen. Barbara Boxer issued an updated version of the Kerry-Boxer climate bill, and the more we learn about this bill, the more it resembles Waxman-Markey--only worse.

More voices are speaking out against the climate legislation being considered on Capitol Hill. Here's a sampling of some of the statements and studies that have been in the news during the past couple of days.

House and Senate leaders are continuing to push for climate legislation despite the fact that far fewer people believe that global warming is a serious problem, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The survey, conducted among 1,500 adults from Sept. 30-Oct. 4, shows that 35 percent of respondents believe global warming is very serious as compared with 44 percent in April 2008.

As I've discussed on this blog, I recently traveled with a group of bloggers to visit man-made islands where drilling for oil and natural gas occurs in coastal waters--the THUMS Islands in Long Beach, CA.

One of the most reliable barometers of drilling activity is the Baker Hughes rig count. Since 1944, Baker Hughes, an oil services company that produces drill bits, has been issuing weekly counts of U.S. and Canadian rotary drilling rigs that are actively drilling for oil and natural gas. The weekly figures are released at noon on the last day of the work week and are regular features in many energy industry magazines and newsletters.

The Weyburn oil field in southern Saskatchewan is the largest greenhouse gas storage facility in Canada. Under a project sponsored by the International Energy Agency, academic institutions and industry partners, the oil field is being injected with carbon dioxide (CO2) piped from a North Dakota coal gasification plant. By injecting CO2 into the oil-bearing rock formation, it's believed that the oil field's life could be extended by 25 years while providing storage for 20 million tons of CO2.

Yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that a second round of oil shale research and development on leases with vastly diminished potential commercial acreage will resume.

Secretary Salazar's decision is a positive step in the process of developing the innovation and technology needed to bring production from the nation's vast oil shale resources to American consumers.

In this episode, Jane Van Ryan interviews the Heritage Foundation's Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst on energy and the environment, on his recent paper, "Five Things Congress and the President Are Doing to Bring Back Sky-High Gas Prices."

Another voice in the news can be added to the list of those favoring increased access to our nation's offshore oil and natural gas resources. Last week, a Florida Sun-Sentinel op-ed authored by Dave Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, discussed the new jobs, increased revenues, and energy security that offshore energy development could bring to the nation and the state of Florida--all with minimal impact to the surrounding environment.

As we've explained in this blog, there's no doubt that the Waxman-Markey climate bill would be very expensive for American consumers. According to studies, it could increase fuel costs, kill millions of jobs and increase the amount of refined fuels imported from overseas. An issue we have not yet discussed is that there is another provision that could result in a massive transfer of wealth from the United States to other countries.

The provision allows for international offsets, which means companies that are having difficulty meeting their U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emission allowance obligations can pay to reduce emissions elsewhere in the world by purchasing international offsets. On the surface, this might appear to be a reasonable--and altruistic--way to recognize that climate change is a global problem. But in actuality, it is an extremely costly experiment that could fall on the backs of American consumers.

Be grateful that energy-rich Canada is our friendly neighbor to the North. A new study released today shows that the development of Canada's oil sands will lead to the creation of more than 340,000 new U.S. jobs between 2011 and 2025. With our national unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, this is very welcoming news.

Two reports indicate that oil demand has probably peaked in the United States and other developed countries and will not exceed pre-recession levels. According to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), oil demand in developed countries, which accounts for 54 percent of overall oil demand, likely peaked in 2005.

"In the past three decades, the petroleum business has transformed itself into a high-technology industry... In some cases, these improvements have been evolutionary, while in others, they have been revolutionary."- Doug Morris, API, before the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation, Oct. 15, 2009.

Virginia Delegate Chris Saxman--a featured speaker at the Richmond Energy Citizens rally--authored an op-ed in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighting the one-year anniversary of lifting the Congressional OCS moratorium and the continued lack of progress on offshore energy development.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee held a hearing this morning to examine the Waxman-Markey climate bill's potential costs and benefits. But when the senators asked direct questions about the bill's impact, the government witnesses often had difficulty answering. As one witness said, "There's a significant degree of uncertainty."