Interesting how Obama announces Gulf of Mexico leases from out West instead of the Gulf region.
Environment & Energy News reports,
In his second day of taking his State of the Union message on a swing-state road tour, President Obama will be in Nevada and Colorado today to highlight his energy agenda and announce a major oil and gas lease sale for the central Gulf of Mexico.
A day after focusing on manufacturing proposals in speeches in Iowa and Arizona, Obama will make energy issues the focus of today’s stops beginning at a UPS facility in Las Vegas where he will discuss how safe domestic oil and natural gas development fits into the all-of-the-above energy strategy he embraced in Tuesday’s address.
In that speech, Obama said he was directing his administration to open more than 75 percent of U.S. potential offshore oil and gas resources and today’s lease sale announcement is being touted by the White House as a major step toward doing that…
“The Central Gulf of Mexico remains the area with the greatest offshore oil and gas potential in the entire United States outer continental shelf, and this proposed sale is another important step in making this area available for safe and environmentally responsible exploration and development,” said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Tommy Beaudreau.
Before Macondo, there were two lease sales (minimum) per year, one for the Central Gulf (off MS & LA, basically) and one for the Western Gulf (off TX).
That’s where the bulk of the potential resources are because that’s where almost all of the offshore wells have been drilled. At one time, conventional wisdom said the reserve potential of the deepwater was low because a conventioanl understanding of geology held that the likelihood of sand in the deepwater was low.
That theory was proven wrong when we drilled wells.
Geologic data is very saprse off the eastern U.S. Much of what is “known” there is based on extrapolations from Mauritania, which was adjacent to N. Carolina millions of years ago before the plates split apart.
We don’t really know what the potential of a basin is until we drill it.
Obama’s position is just more blown smoke.