More big finds in Gulf oil drilling

Houston Chronicle:

Despite a tough economy that forced cuts elsewhere, oil and gas producers in 2009 continued their push into the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, and many of their efforts were rewarded.

So far this year, there have been 12 discoveries in at least 1,000 feet of water, representing some 1.35 billion barrels of oil equivalent, the most found there in a single year since 2002, according to an analysis by Wood Mackenzie, an energy industry consulting firm.

Announcing discoveries were oil majors including BP and Chevron Corp. as well as independent producers including Anadarko Petroleum Corp., all of which rode out the recession and huge commodity price swings in hopes of a big score.

The discoveries won't get the U.S. to energy independence anytime soon. The nation still imports about two-thirds of its oil needs, and probably will after the new fields come online.

And getting them online will require meeting the huge technical and cost challenges of developing the fields.

Well over half the volume of oil and gas discovered in 2009 is in a frontier area known as the Lower Tertiary play — miles below the sea floor in an outer rim of the Gulf between Texas and Louisiana — where extreme pressures and temperatures present new obstacles.

...

What these discoveries demonstrate is the potential in offshore drilling that is being strangled by Democrats who resist drilling off both the East and West coasts as well as the Alaskan coasts. The resistance is irrational in the extreme and it is costing the US in both jobs and royalty income as well as national security.