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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (603983)	3/16/2011 11:18:43 PM
From: d[-_-]b	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574096

I use the canard we could use the money - drill baby drill.

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (603983)	3/16/2011 11:21:06 PM
From: Brumar89	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1574096

That "millions of acres not drilled yet" is a bogus argument the Democrats trotted out a couple years ago. This was posted to you 2.5 years ago: Message 24821058 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGISTS An International Geological Organization Willard R. (Will) Green President June 23, 2008 The Honorable Nancy Pelosi Speaker U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Steny Hoyer The Honorable John Boehner Majority Leader Minority Leader U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515 Dear Speaker PELOSI, Majority Leader Hoyer, and Minority Leader Boehner: Given the on-going debate about access and leasing activity on federal onshore lands and the Outer Continental Shelf, I would like to offer some perspective, on behalf of the American Association of Petroleum GEOLOGISTS (AAPG), on the science and process of finding oil and natural gas. ..... Once a lease is awarded, GEOLOGISTS begin an intensive assessment. They collect new geological, geophysical, and geochemical data to better understand the geology in their lease area. They use this data to construct a geological model that best explains where they think oil and natural gas were generated, where it may have been trapped, and whether the trap is big enough to warrant drilling. If there is no evidence of a suitable trap, the explorer will relinquish the lease and walk away. If they see a trap that looks interesting, they schedule a drill rig to find out if they are right. Drilling is the true test of the geologists’ model, and it isn’t a decision to be made lightly. Drilling costs for a single well can range from $0.5 million for shallow onshore wells to over $25 million for tests in deep water offshore. As the well is drilling, GEOLOGISTS continually collect and evaluate data to see whether it conforms to their expectations based on the geological model. Eventually, they reach the rock layer where they think the trap is located. If there is no oil or natural gas when the drill reaches the trap they were targeting, they’ve drilled a dry hole. At this point the explorers will evaluate why the hole is dry: was there never oil and gas here; how was the geological model wrong; and can it be improved based on what they know from the drilled well? Depending on the results of this analysis, they may tweak the exploration idea and drill another well or decide the idea failed and relinquish the lease. If there is oil and/or natural gas, they’ve drilled a discovery. Typically, they will test the well to see what volumes of oil and/or natural gas flow from it. Sometimes the flow rates do not justify further expenditures and the well is abandoned. If the results are promising, they will usually drill several additional wells to better define the size and shape of the trap. All of this data improves the geological model. Based on this revised geological model, engineers plan how to develop the new field(e.g., number of production wells to drill, construction of oil field facilities and pipelines).Using complex economic tools, they must decide whether the revenue from the oil and natural gas sales will exceed the past and continuing expenses to decide whether it is a commercial discovery. The process of leasing, evaluating, drilling, and developing an oil or natural gas field typically takes five to ten years. Some fields come online sooner. Others are delayed by permitting or regulatory delays or constraints in the availability of data acquisition and drilling equipment and crews. Large projects and those in deep water may require a decade or more to ramp up to full production. As you can see, oil and natural gas exploration is not simple and it is not easy. It requires geological ingenuity, advanced technologies, and the time to do the job right. It also requires access to areas where exploration ideas can be tested—the greater the number of areas available for exploration, the higher the chance of finding oil and natural gas traps. ....