Oil companies increase offshore production. The world demands it, they argue

Oil companies are increasing their presence in the Gulf of Mexico. According to them, mining in very deep waters is much better for the planet than drilling on land. The New York Times draws attention to the intensifying activity of energy companies on its website.

A report last year by the National Oceanic Industries Association (NOIA), which brings together offshore oil, gas and wind companies, found that greenhouse gas emissions associated with extracting a barrel of oil from the Gulf of Mexico are up to a third lower than emissions from producing a barrel of oil from fields in American soil.

According to the NYT, Shell, BP, Chevron and other companies are protecting themselves with this news and explaining that they intend to expand their activities in part because they will help the planet. At the same time, it will fulfill the needs of the world economy, which cannot yet live on green energy alone. “By the way, the world will still need oil, even in 2050,” Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell, said in a recent interview.

Sawan mentioned 2050 because American political and corporate leaders have pledged to reduce global warming emissions to zero by 2050. But oil companies like Shell are convinced that the world will need oil and gas for decades to come, and that’s why they need to expand their drilling in ever-deeper waters to meet the growing demand for energy that powers cars and power plants.

The Biden administration planned to limit the sale of leases for oil drilling in the Gulf, which environmentalists say will help protect endangered Rice’s whales, which live only in the Gulf of Mexico. But last November, a US appeals court rejected those plans, and a month later oil companies offered nearly $400 million for the right to extract more oil and gas.

Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico fell for several years after BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in 2010, causing the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

However, in the last decade, oil production has been increasing (the US recently set records for oil production and produced more than any other country), especially in deep water where there is a lot of oil and gas, making drilling in these places very efficient and profitable.

This is evidenced by the fact that the number of deep-water rigs has increased dramatically over the past three decades, while the number of shallow-water rigs has declined, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

Federal government analysts now estimate that while oil production in the Gulf of Mexico will increase through 2027, natural gas production in the Gulf will largely stagnate until the early 1930s.

We’ve already been burned once by Deepwater Horizon, so the concerns and concerns (about the expansion of offshore drilling) are valid.

But rising oil production in the United States worries climate activists and scientists, who want the energy industry to shift more quickly to cleaner fuels and technologies like wind and solar power and electric vehicles, according to the NYT. “We’re not talking about stopping oil production today,” Brettny Hardy, a lawyer for the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, told The New York Times. “But it is urgent to accelerate the shift to clean energy. The things the industry is doing now will not help this transition,” he stressed.

Holly Hopkins, vice president of the trade group American Petroleum Institute, tries to reassure the professional public that “offshore oil and gas exploration and production is the safest it’s ever been.”

But Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at South Carolina’s largest state university who investigated the 2010 oil spill, disagrees. “We’ve already been burned once in the case of Deepwater Horizon, so the concern and the concern are reasonable,” he said.

Shell is currently the largest producer of oil and gas in the waters of the region. The London-based global energy giant now operates nine active platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Its largest “work”, which can accommodate up to 180 workers, is the Appomattox oil platform, which the company built together with CNOOC Petroleum Offshore in 2019. The platform stands in place, and the ships open wells near it – which are then connected by pipelines to the platform, on which separates oil, natural gas and water.

Shell is not alone in expanding its offshore operations. BP, Chevron and other energy giants are also expanding or planning to expand their activities in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We want it to be as safe, affordable and as low-carbon as it can be,” Andy Krieger, vice president for the Gulf of Mexico and Canada at BP, which has five platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, emphasized to The New York Times.