Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.
When people hear the word oil it is commonly interpreted as gas, but the oil that we drill is not what goes into our cars. The oil that is retrieved from the ground is called crude oil, Oil in its raw natural form and when it becomes refined it is used in plastics, rubber, and gasoline. ”Gasoline is a volatile, flammable liquid obtained from the refinement of petroleum, or crude oil. It was originally discarded as a byproduct of kerosene production.” The first oil well was found and harvested in Titusville, Pennsylvania by a man named Edwin L. Drake, in 1859. The well was about 70 feet deep (How gas). It pumped between 20-40 barrels a day
In 1859 Edwin Drake and E. B. Bowditch of the Seneca Oil Company drilled the first commercial oil well in the United States in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The well produces about 500 gallons of oil a day and over time has increased. Soon, similar wells all over western Pennsylvania were providing crude oil for kerosene production that was needed to fuel the nation 's streetlights and house lamps. “The lighter boiling component, gasoline, was discarded, since it had no market. There are historical reports that "waste" gasoline, which had been dumped into rivers, sometimes caught fire. In 1892 the first gasoline-powered engines, for both car and tractor, were developed: This soon provided a market for the once useless substance, gasoline”
Offshore drilling is a topic of extreme debate and argument and one of the most debated parts of that is whether or not it benefits the economy in the U.S. One of the first things to note is that stopping offshore drilling could potentially damage the U.S. economy, and therefore how much energy we can overall use. According to Mason, Joseph R., author of, "The Oil Industry Supports Many Louisiana and Gulf Region Economies", we can see the statement, "the moratorium would produce broad economic losses within the Gulf and throughout the nation as a whole". We can gather, from this, that ceasing offshore drilling/offshore oil production, could potentially harm the U.S. economy, and as I said before the economy being damaged overall decides
Since Donald Trump took office as President of the United States, he has been a constant figure in the news. Earlier this month, his administration announced a plan to open U.S. coastal waters to offshore oil drilling. According to the New York Times article, the plan lifts a ban that was put in place by former President Barack Obama and gives energy companies access to billions of acres of the U.S. coastline along the Eastern Seaboard, the Artic, and the Pacific waters off California.
Have you ever wondered how we get gas for a cars ,lawnmowers, and other petroleum powered devices ? in order to know we have to go back to the beginning or where it all started. America paved the way for petroleum products , we practically created the industry . It all started with a man named Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie created an oil empire he controlled the drilling , transportation and refining of oil. But soon the industry was crowded with new competitors , one of these competitors was John Rockefeller ,John rockefeller would soon put Carnegie out of business. The Petroleum industry lead america into some of the world's greatest inventions, america had used the discovery of petroleum as a way to make life easier. We created cars, motorcycles
So what is this mysterious black gold substance that everyone refers to as crude oil? Basically, crude oil is a petroleum based substance that is naturally formed from plants and animals that roamed the Earth millions of years ago. These microorganisms settled deep within our Earth’s crust and comprises of numerous minerals, hydrocarbons, organic compounds and inconsequential traces of metals. Crude oil cannot just be drawn up from the ground and shoved into someone’s gas tank without first being refined
America must wean itself off of dependence on foreign oil, and one valid solution to this problem is offshore oil drilling and production. America’s economy is heavily based on petroleum, as though it is the nation’s blood; a necessity for survival. About 25% of oil produced in the U.S. comes from offshore rigs. Most of the U.S. coastline has been off limits for oil drilling since the early 1980s. Due to environmental concerns after an oil spill off the coast of California in 1969, an offshore drilling moratorium was imposed. Since then, the U.S. has amplified its energy consumption to where it uses nearly 25% of the world's oil. Meanwhile, the U.S. produces about 10% of the world's oil. That has made the U.S. heavily reliant on imported
America has been dependant on oil since the 1800’s and the invention of modern machinery. From skin care products to the gasoline in our cars and engines, petroleum is the basis of almost everything we use for everyday life. Without oil the nation could not meet the energy demands we need to survive. Continued exploration has been the topic of heated debate among supporters and opponents, especially when it comes to offshore drilling. My goal here is to show the differing view points of drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and present a better understanding from a national perspective. Drilling for our own offshore oil reserves can save the United States billions of dollars.
Environmentalists are one the biggest critics against the notion of increasing domestic oil drilling. By increasing the amount of drilling we do in the United States, we increase the risk of disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters are hardly the only source of economic damage either, to find oil reserves under the ocean, seismic waves are generated into the ground. These waves bounce off the ground back up to the ship, where computers and scientist can use the results to make educated guesses on whether or not oil is located under the surface. These seismic waves can wreak havoc with marine animals like whales; where in one case over 100 whales beached themselves to get away from the painful experience (Nixon). Using seismic waves does not even guarantee that oil might be located underneath the surface, the only way to tell is to actually drill into the potential finds causing even more destruction for what might be for no gain. Once oil is found and drilling has begun, the amount of damage done to the environment can become unimaginable. The recent example is that of the Deepwater
Natural gas is one very important fossil fuel and from its various uses, its numbers have continued to dwindle. Supply and demand has taken a toll on this very precious commodity. Ordinary vertical drilling of natural gas has ceased to produce much and this once prevalent method may eventually end up becoming obsolete. In the 1990’s a different method that was being used, but wasn’t common, caught some attention and is called horizontal hydraulic fracturing or fracking for short. Since the method of fracking was first used in 1940, it has gradually changed and is now combined with a new strategy of drilling horizontally. This new way of drilling helps to reach vast amounts of previously inaccessible gases and oils that are stuck in shale. According to oil industries Devon energy, Chesapeake, and Halliburton’s estimates, around 827 million cubic feet of untapped gases and oils are under the U. S. but may not be as easily accessible as once thought (Mooney 80-85).
Oil drilling is a phenomenon that’s been since the late 1850’s, and makes the oil as cheap as fifty dollars a barrel for consumers all around the world. Oil drilling first began in 1859 when George Bissell and Edwin L. made the first successful drilling rig on a well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Offshore drilling began in the late 1800’s and by 1897 the first offshore well was producing oil. When citizens think of offshore drilling the first thing that usually comes into mind is the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill that began on April 20, 2010. It killed 11 workers, and at least four species of marine animals were killed off from its effects (Offshore Drilling). Offshore drilling is a hazardous way to mine oil, and even though it may seem to
The Arctic oil drilling industry can be seen as one of the most driven economic gains and a step ahead for the country to become energy independence. Nonetheless, the price that comes with this gold liquor has shifted the country’s mission to harvest and provide a clean, eco-friendly energy. The continuous drilling processes come with negative impacts towards the areas involved: in this case, The Chukchi Sea, The Beaufort Sea and The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In order to sustain the oil drilling industry, the massive infrastructure development has been conducted on the areas listed above. From these development, the rate of carbon emission and acid level in the soil have increase; these pollutants are threat not
Another benefit of offshore oil drilling consists of increasing job opportunities for people. The unstable economy in the United States results in people losing their jobs quite often. In the book Offshore Drilling, the loss of job opportunity in the United States is explained this way:
The issue of whether offshore oil drilling is a safe operation or not has been arguing for a long time in the United States. ( SPE International, N.D.) Drilling on water started in early 1930s in Louisiana by shallow-draft barges. Nevertheless, the first oil well on water was drilled in 9th of September, 1947 by Kerr-McGee’s unit Tender Assist Drilling (TAD) in the Gulf of Mexico (SPE International, N.D.). A year after year, oil companies used more and more sophisticated equipment to drill on water, but the number of spilled accidents has been rising since 1964 (Ivanovich, and Hays, 2008). After all, while
To spark a drastic change, typically something drastic and eye opening needs to occur. Looking back in recent United States history, there have been many accidents, attacks, and natural disasters that have sparked conversation as well as legislation for change. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began on April 20, 2010 and raged on for months caused tremendous devastation and pollution to the ecosystem. Discussion about offshore oil drilling and regulations was inevitable after the spill. In President Obama’s Oval Office speech after the spill, he makes a claim that offshore drilling must be more strictly regulated, and a shift towards clean, renewable energy must be made. In light of this disaster this is a controversial claim due to the United States current reliance on offshore drilling and the scandalously close relationship between oil companies and the agency that regulates them. Although Americans benefit from offshore drilling with cheaper oil prices and affordable energy, and companies benefit from loose regulations with high profitability, ecosystems and natives suffering through the spill would argue that these benefits do not outweigh the cost. When President Obama claims that strict regulation on oil drilling and a shift toward renewable energy through policy implementation, he threatens a powerhouse market that is a major player in the economy. He also creates a divide in schools of thought over the reach government through regulation. This paper
First I want to talk about the Oil Industry and the process of getting oil to the pump that people then use for fuel. Crude oil can be found miles below earth’s surface in pockets called reservoirs. It is made from Hydrocarbons, Organic compounds, and small amounts of metal. These