MAREX RESPONDS TO OBAMAS OIL PLAY BY ECONOMIDES & GLOVER

Yesterday the MarEx Newsletter published an OP-Ed by Michael J. Economides and Peter Glover and as expected the response was massive. But, from this point on there is going to be a heated debate in this country about offshore drilling and the MarEx intends to be in the middle of it.

Today, the US imports 60% of its oil consumption. It is obvious the US economy is addicted to oil and that’s something that is not going to change in the immediate future. It is staggering to think we import 547 billion barrels each year at a cost of $437 billion. The political climate in this country is charged and disoriented as the left and right stake out ground while the vicious rhetoric flies back and forth without a semblance of political resolution. Recent Pew and Rasmussen reports conclude 60% of Americans favor offshore drilling and, in my book that’s a majority.

Billions of barrels of oil lay just offshore and the Obama plan will grant the oil industry access to the vast oil resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The administration has already invested millions in alternative energy projects such as wind, solar and biofuels, and coastal drilling is the next logical step to energy independence. For the oil and maritime industries, the potential for new offshore drilling is a welcomed stimulus package. It’s more than just about jobs and deficit reduction, what is at stake is a balanced energy policy that will successfully help the U.S.

While, China and India consume every available barrel on the market, our choices become much clearer; we can continue to send our energy dollars to Riyadh, Lagos, or Caracas or become energy independent and send those dollars to Washington and build an American energy infrastructure beyond the whims of foreign agendas that can hold us hostage.

Conservative estimates by the MMS state there is about 17.84 billion barrels of oil and 76.47 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to be recovered in the areas the Obama administration currently wants to open. Exploration, drilling and delivery of these natural resources will take many years to get to market. Let's not waste another moment in political chaos and bureaucratic gridlock. Today, the Gulf of Mexico has 3,820 platforms that produce nearly 1.3 million barrels of oil per day and almost 8 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. Since 1992, production activities in the GOM have steadily moved into deeper waters, and deepwater oil production has increased by 820 percent and gas production increased about 1,155 percent. Moreover, the oil industry has proven its ability to work safely in US coastal waters.

If the rumors are true and the Russians are in fact going to begin drilling in Cuban waters, the environmentalists and anti-drilling concerns have a lot more to worry about than Big Oil working in the southern/mid-Atlantic and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. The debate about drilling in US coastal waters is about to turn ugly, and if the commentary by Economides and Glover ruffled your psyche, the nation is about to enter another economic debate that will take place in politically grid-locked Washington. A few weeks ago, it looked like Obama was going to delay granting new leases in the OCS, but his announcement this week is more than ‘throwing a bone to the Right,’ it’s about creating jobs, stimulating a struggling economy and putting a stake-in-the-heart of foreign oil dependence.

The time is now! The agenda is before us and the debate is on. Let’s fill our shipyards, Jones Act vessels and offshore platforms with lots of American jobs and, once again, begin to invest in the good old USA. More importantly, we want to hear from you and we’ll forward your comments onward to Washington.

Sincerely,

Tony Munoz
Editor-in-Chief