Guest “I couldn’t make this sort of schist up if I was trying” by David Middleton
Interior Department cancels offshore oil and gas leases in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico
By Ella Nilsen and Maegan Vazquez, CNN
Thu May 12, 2022
CNN — The Biden administration announced Wednesday it would cancel three upcoming offshore oil and gas leases – two in the Gulf of Mexico and one in Alaska – over a lack of interest and delays.
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However, Biden officials have also emphasized the need for more domestic oil production to combat high gasoline prices, which have angered the public and inflamed inflation.
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The administration’s decision was also criticized by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who argued that the cancellation and the administration’s failure to use the Defense Production Act or other means to compel US energy companies to produce more sends a “mixed message” as the US seeks to assist Europe with eliminating its reliance on Russian energy amid the war in Ukraine.
“I get the reason for the cancellation announced today was concerns about climate. That’s the reason. And we ought to be concerned about climate,” Kaine said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Thursday. “But it strikes me if we’re the largest energy producer in the world, and we know that at least transitionally, our European allies need energy from sources other than Russia, that us going to Saudi Arabia and saying, ‘Please, produce more energy,’ when we’re not willing to do it ourselves – I just don’t get it.”
Kaine said it does not appear that the administration has a “coherent strategy” when it comes to trying to supplant Russian energy and questioned whether the decision had been discussed across federal agencies.
CNN
When Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) is the voice of reason it must be a sign of the End Times…
While I appreciate Senator Kaine’s sentiments, using the “Defense Production Act… to compel US energy companies to produce more” oil & gas would be about as useful as mammary glands on a bull. At $106/bbl and natural gas at $7.70/mcf, US oil companies are producing as much oil & gas as we can. No amount of compelling can quickly increase production. It takes years of investment to significantly increase production.
Pressure mounts on Biden to use Defense Production Act, but it’s not a “magic wand”
Lily Jamali
Mar 14, 2022President Joe Biden is facing pressure to invoke the Defense Production Act to boost the domestic production of oil and gas.
Those calls are coming from members on both sides of the aisle in Congress and follow the administration’s ban on Russian oil and other energy imports announced last week.
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“The DPA gives the president extraordinary powers,” said Erik Gordon, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Still, “it doesn’t give him a magic wand.”
There’s no switch that the president or anyone else can flip to boost energy production overnight, Gordon said.
“No proclamation can make that happen faster than it’s physically possible. He doesn’t have the power to suspend the laws of physics.”
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[T]hat production has to go through, yes, the supply chain. And if there’s anything the pandemic has taught us, said Julie Swann, professor and department head of industrial and systems engineering at North Carolina State University, it’s this: “It takes a long time to make supply chains resilient, including for oil and gas.”
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Marketplace
While Biden could eliminate all of the barriers his maladministration has thrown up in the path of US oil & gas producers, he can’t fix this, not even with his flatulent bloviations…
SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES ARE HITTING THE OIL AND NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY TOO
BY JEFF ESHELMAN MAR. 16, 2022As the price of oil sits at record highs, consumers and businesses are struggling under the increasing burden of rising energy costs. One of the world’s most powerful tactics against rising energy costs is secure, affordable, reliable American oil and natural gas production, and as such the industry is doing all it can to ramp up domestic production.
The United States is a global leader in oil and natural gas production, and this should be encouraged, but there are significant challenges to meet the calls for immediate action.
America’s oil and natural gas companies stand ready for more responsible energy production here at home, for our nation and our worldwide allies. It won’t be immediate, but now is the time to create solutions that get the nation back on track to energy and national security.
Here are a few of the multitude of factors at play impeding an immediate response from industry:
Oil and natural gas producers face the same supply chain and workforce issues that all industries across the country are also facing.
The impacts from the pandemic have been felt by everyone and the oil and gas industry is no exception to that. There are currently months-long delays on securing the steel pipe and casing needed for drilling. Not only can a well not be drilled without adequate pipe, but the steel casing is a critical component to prevent environmental impacts.
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It’s not just materials to drill that have become harder to acquire. The transportation sector has been hit especially hard by workforce shortages and increased fuel prices.
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Fuel costs aside, the trucking industry is itself struggling to get parts to make necessary repairs, causing fleets to be out-of-service for extended periods of time. They are also facing a worker shortage with too few drivers to maintain necessary deliveries across the country, including meeting the trucking needs of the oil and gas industry.
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Energy In Depth
via Watts Up With That?
May 12, 2022
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