Offshore Oil Drilling On The Environment

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.

Many seafood companies prices fluctuate because a whole number of reasons. Have you ever thought why though? They even have to take some foods completely off their menus. A lot of the time this is because of an oil spill that kills so much of the environment that a lot of the sea animals die or even become endangered. The BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 is a great example of this. It spilled 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 87 days. The area of the spill alone had over 8,000 species, which already had 39 endangered species and added 14 new species to the endangered list. Not only did we lose animals but “Eleven people died as a result of the accident and 17 others were injured”(BP Staff).

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

Offshore oil drilling is a big contribution to obtaining oil for the U.S., but it is also a big controversy to continue offshore drilling or to stop the drilling. most of the world’s energy comes from the use of oil, even though there are other resources to use oil is the most commonly used, But there is a shortage in oil especially in the U.S. so they suggest drilling for oil in the ocean to reach unexplored oil wells. There are benefits in offshore oil drilling such as jobs, domestic fuel, and environmental benefits. Those that argue the U.S. should expand the offshore oil drilling believe that the benefits drilling brings will help the U.S. out of its foreign oil dependency. Although the side effects are have big impacts just like the benefits. The side effects include environmental risks, oil dependency, and whether or not there is enough oil. Offshore oil drilling is a subject not many know about, there is a lot of research that still needs to be done and a lot of research that still does not give positive conclusions. All in all I believe Energy Efficiency is the best solution to offshore drilling an example would be using electric cars, using solar, and wind power for electricity, and changing how we obtain energy altogether.

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

The U.S. should invest in alternatives to oil, and drill on the United States grounds because it will assist the economy, preserve energy and fix the world’s environmental problems. The supply and demand for oil is always on the rise, and problems are contemplated with the use for oil. Those problems are starting to catch up to the modern world, and something needs to change before the world enters a black out. Experts can predict that there is estimated to be somewhere around 61 years of oil left for us to use at our current rate. The demand for oil is always rising. People in today’s modern society rely so heavily on oil, that they would not know what to expect if it

Another reason against drilling much research has shown that all the oil that will be produced will only last for about six months. The fact that the British Petroleum has greater potential to produce more oil and natural gasses (Markey 2004) than ANWR so why bother with it , supporting the case that drilling is pointless. Then there is the percentage that after oil production of ANWR, the foreign oil dependency will only drop from 56% to 50% (Markey 2004).Then the oil produced would reach the market ten years later after it was produced, leaving the gas price decrease to one percent(Lamar and Markey 12). There was also the reality of natural gases. ANWR does not confirm any sign of them, when President Bush ordered exploration for natural gasses (Klyza and Ford-Martin 1).Again proving drilling pointless.

We have the resources in North America to become self-sufficient on our oil instead of Middle Eastern oil. Oil was first discovered in America in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. (Klare). 155 years later we still are getting oil from countries halfway around the world. Without discovering oil in the US, it would not have given rise to large multinational companies like John D Rockefeller Standard Oil, the big three auto factories, DuPont, airlines/freight industry, and other chemical companies. These companies employed most workers of the last century (Klare). Why can’t we do this now? If we drill here at home, it will trigger a domino effect to every job. For example, a well driller needs a truck to get to work causing him to buy gas;

This report presents information regarding the industry, the primary operator of oil and gas field properties. The industry fuels its key buyers, the Natural Gas Distribution (22121) and the Petroleum Refining (32411) industries, with crude oil and natural gas. The industry continuously battles a shortage of available oil. In addition, many major oil fields have been in use for decades, slowly waning. Currently, the industry grosses among the most profitable in the US despite these and similar obstacles. The benefits of investing here

Before even drilling into the Arctic, just granting approval to a company like Shell increased their stocks by three percent (Investmentu.com “The Pros and Cons of Arctic Oil Drilling”). This bounce in the company’s stock could be due to factors such as an increase in oil or gas demand, not just directly linked to being approved to drill in this area. In fact, not just production from the United States would benefit from the Arctic, but production factories all over the world would indulge in this supply just as much. As the United States is estimated to max out their production nine million six hundred thousand barrels per day (MMb/d) in 2019, this number would clearly grow higher from Arctic drilling. Since their supply would go up for a number of years, more and more consumers would go up over time resulting in the United States supply of oil to drastically decrease as there is no such thing as an unlimited source of fossil fuel (Hotair.com “Are we sitting on unlimited fossil-fuel resources?”). Together with increased production, environmental problems would be off the charts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) levels and soot. Also, job openings would then further open up for more and more workers to find jobs. This would then be a choice instead of working at part-time jobs with decent pay to go to companies that offer full-time, maybe even months at a time staying overseas working with much better

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

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

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:

Oil Drilling has many effects on the environment from the air we breathe to the oceans that inhabit many species. While one of the outcomes of oil drilling is money, it is forgotten that money won’t help repair all of the damage that is done to mother nature. Not only does the outcome of drilling for fossil fuels affect the oceans, rainforest, etc. it also has an effect on local business’ and the health of humans. If people want change, they need to be the

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.