Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on June 9, 2011
Exxon makes major oil discovery in Gulf
Exxon Mobil said Wednesday it has discovered an estimated 700 million barrels of oil equivalent at a deepwater well off the Louisiana coast, a major find that a top House Republican argued should push the administration to speed up offshore permitting.
“This is one of the largest discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico in the last decade,” Exxon Mobil Exploration Company President Steve Greenlee said in a statement.
Exxon Mobil made the discovery after the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) approved an application in March allowing the company to resume exploratory drilling. Drilling at the well was halted in the aftermath of last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The well is located about 250 miles south of New Orleans in about 7,000 feet of water, Exxon Mobil said.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) applauded the discovery Wednesday and argued it shows the Gulf’s potential as a source of domestic oil.
“This is the exact reason why Republicans have been pressuring the Department of the Interior to issue offshore permits—America has abundant oil and natural gas reserves, we simply need to allow the hardworking men and women in the energy industry to do their job,” Hastings said in a statement.
Republicans and drill-state Democrats have alleged that the Obama administration is slow-walking the issuance of Gulf drilling permits. But the administration insists that it is working diligently to approve permits under a new regulatory scheme that includes beefed-up safety and environmental standards.
BOEMRE has approved 15 deepwater permits since February, when the industry was able to show that it can contain well blowouts.
6 Comments on "Exxon makes major oil discovery in Gulf"
Alan Cecil on Thu, 9th Jun 2011 7:35 am
Seven hundred million barrels! Wow! That’s enough to run the USA for…just over an entire month! Surely worth the risk of drilling in a mile and a half of ocean! After all, what’s the worst that could happen??
armageddon51 on Thu, 9th Jun 2011 8:02 am
Well that’s a strange coincidence. You lift a permit and suddenly oil appears ! You see, so please expedite permits and we will find more and more oil right away. Another slews of miles deep oil drilling. Here goes spill disasters two, three until the Gulf itself become an oil pond. That’s what we want right ?
Anthony on Fri, 10th Jun 2011 8:50 am
Seriously…700 million barrels in 7000 feet of water? Why bother…
James A. Hellams on Fri, 10th Jun 2011 9:31 am
The gentleman is quite correct about the 700 million barrels of oil lasting for just over an entire month, supplying the US. However, when compared to the average daily worldwide consumption of 86 million barrels of oil per day; the 700 million barrel reserve would last just 8.1 Days!
The 700 million barrel reserve is just a drop in the bucket, compared to the worldwide demand.
Nic2 on Fri, 10th Jun 2011 10:39 pm
What do you 4 clowns want to do?Put a windmill on every roof top or continue to send odscene amounts of money to the camel humpers and beaners. Get a life!
Gerry oswitt on Sat, 11th Jun 2011 12:05 am
WOW! T-Rex still should be fired after spending $41 billion on XTO, which has contributed nothing to XOM’s bottom line, as this “little” discovery will?