2. Introduction
• Offshore drilling is searching for
petroleum and gas below water
surface, mainly in seas and oceans.
• It started in 1891 in Grand lake st.
Marys, Ohio.
• Since then, the number of offshore
wells increased dramatically in the US,
until the number of wells in the Gulf of
Mexico ONLY reached an increasable
3858 wells.
• Drilling in the USA takes place in many
places, which are Alaska, California,
Gulf of Mexico (Texas, Louisiana,
Alabama, and Mississippi), And the
great lakes at Michigan*.
3. Benefits
• Offshore drilling is the US is
accounted for producing about
27% of the oil and 14% of the
gas in the entire nation.
• In 2007, offshore wells produced
492,000,000 barrels of oil,
however, by 2013 it is expected
that the gulf of Mexico ALONE
will produce 686,000,000 barrels.
• Petroleum is one of the industries
that needs high employment
rates, so in addition to the oil
price, investments will offer a lot
of jobs to American people.
4. Costs
• Petroleum is a costly industry
in the first place.
• Offshore drilling is more costly
due to various reasons(?).
Shallow water drilling costs 1
~15 M$, it can reach* 30M$ in
medium depths and even
100M$ in high depths.
• The deepest well in the world
is recorded by 3 B$ until it
started producing. “Pardido,
Texas”
5. US Federal-State Regulations
• Every country in the world own the waters until 22 Km from the
shores, and it can mine in those waters freely.
• US federal government in the beginning was the supervisor of all
the offshore wells in the USA.
• In 1953, the congress passed a law called “The Submerged Land
Act” that gave the state the ownership of wells till 6 Km from the
shore (Except for Florida and Texas,17 Km), and another law called
“The outer Continental Shelf Act” gave the Federal government the
owner ship of deeper wells.
6. Restrictions on Offshore Drilling
• In jan,28th 1969 a blowout happened off coast of California, leading
to prohibit farther drilling in California and Florida as well, and the
prohibit continues…*
• In 1972, A bill passed to ban offshore drilling to protect marine life,
over the time the congress adding more paces to the ban until it
covered the west, east coast, and eastern gulf of Mexico.
• In 1990, Bush Sr. issued an executive order to ban federal waters
from drilling at Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and parts of
Alaska, Clinton extended it till 2012, yet Bush Jr. rescinded it.
• In 2002, a bill banned drilling in the great lake, and in 2005 t
became permanent.
• Until 2022, large parts of the gulf of Mexico is off-limits.
8. Debates in Offshore Drilling
• Energy Independence
Argument
• Fuel Price Argument
• Military Training
• Oil Spills Argument
• Endangered Species
• Alternative resources
• Relations With Cuba
9. Brazil Offshore Drilling
• In 2011, Obama made his
first visit to Latin America
by visiting Brazil.
• In a speech addressing
the President Dilma
Roussef and the Brazilian
Nation, Obama stated
that they will help Brazil
in drilling, and when they
extract Oil US will be their
best costumer!!
10. Brazil Offshore Drilling
• In addition to that, Barack Obama gave an
order to the Import-Export bank to send
Brazil 2 Billions U$ for their drilling.
• This caused a lot of debates, some people
say that it is better than the middle east,
while the others say that USA is still an
energy slave….SO what do you think?
