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Domestic drilling? No, thanks to Obama!

leanin' H

Well-known member
Sen. Bennett trying to make Obama open drilling in Utah
May 1st, 2009 @ 7:47pm
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he can't reopen a decision about leases to drill for oil and gas near national parks in Utah until Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett releases a hold on his department's nominees.

Salazar months ago scrapped 77 of the drilling leases that the Bush administration left on his desk and said Friday they were too close to Arches and Canyonlands national parks -- the parcels had already been put on hold by a federal lawsuit.

Salazar said he's willing to reconsider if Bennett, R-Utah, releases a hold that makes it harder for his nominees to get confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

"I can't get to it until I have people to work with," he told reporters.

Salazar, who brought his "listening" tour to Salt Lake City on Friday, got an earful from some oilmen upset over his voiding of the leases.

One of the aggrieved bidders, Daniel Gunnell, said Salazar was beholden to "Hollywood and environmental extremists" in a veiled reference to Robert Redford, who condemned the December auction.

"Everybody has my ear," replied Salazar, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat from Colorado to join President Barack Obama's cabinet. "I will listen."

Gunnell, managing partner of Twilight Resources LLC of Orem, and a business partner lost 28 drilling parcels to Salazar's decision.

The partner, Kimball Hodges of Par Five Exploration LLC of Orem, said the government returned a check for $600,000 for the parcels.

"Our problem is the leases we won are not being issued," Hodges said.

Bennett, among other demands, has insisted Salazar launch an environmental review of the 77 leases that could justify putting some of them up for auction again.

Bennett defended his hold on Hilary Chandler Tompkins, a nominee of President Barack Obama for solicitor or chief legal adviser at the Department of the Interior; and David Hayes, who if confirmed would be the deputy Interior secretary. The hold means it would take 60 votes of the Senate to overcome Bennett's objection.

"DOI keeps changing the rules. It changed the rules on the oil and gas leases and now is changing the rules on the department's review of the secretary's unilateral decision to cancel 77 oil and gas leases in Utah," Bennett told The Associated Press in a statement Friday.

Salazar said he tried to reach out to Bennett but hasn't heard back, and invited the senator to join him at Friday's "community" meeting. It was held at the Utah office of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that conducts the oil-and-gas auctions for drilling on public lands.

Bennett didn't show up, but released a copy of a letter he sent Friday to Salazar outlining his demands. He told a radio station in Salt Lake City that Salazar was driving natural-gas producers out of Utah.

Stephen Bloch, a staff lawyer for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said gas producers are leaving or plugging wells because of the plunging market price for natural gas, not because of any government action.

Oil and gas producers have plenty of land in Utah they can develop. They are sitting on three million acres of leases on public land that have yet to be developed, with another 1 million acres under production, Bloch said.

"That's the reality. It has nothing to do with this argument the senator is making," he said.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Faster horses said:
Blackmail.

Happens everyday in politics/Congress- and used to be the way of reaching compromise for the betterment of the country....Before everything became so bitterly divided politics....

Salazar does have an interesting and valid point tho-without deputies- and legal counsel its pretty hard for him to do a reevaluation of the sites.. :wink:
 

fff

Well-known member
Another meaningless post. Drilling in this country down. With oil down to $50 or less a barrel, the drilling companies aren't all that interested in actually putting the bit in the ground. They're setting on thousands of acres of leases now that they haven't bothered to explore.

North American Rotary Rig Counts

The U.S. rotary rig count was down 20 at 955 for the week of April 24, 2009 and is 48.2 percent lower than last year.

The number of rotary rigs drilling for oil was down 3 at 202. There are 158 fewer rigs targeting oil than last year. Rigs currently drilling for oil represent 21.2% percent of total drilling activity.

Rigs directed toward natural gas were down 18 at 742. The number of rigs currently drilling for gas is 731 less than last year's level of 1,473.

Year-over-year oil exploration in the US is down 43.9 percent. Gas exploration is down 49.6 percent. The weekly average of crude oil spot prices is 60.4 percent lower than last year and natural gas spot prices are 66.9 percent lower. Daily crude oil and natural gas futures and spot prices are available on our site.

Canadian rig activity* was down 9 at 65 for the week of April 24, 2009 and is 23 (26.1%) lower than last year's rig count. Canadian drilling falls rapidly in the spring to avoid environmental damage during the spring thaw and rainy season.

*The Canadian drilling industry experiences wide seasonal swings and even year over year comparisons can lead to incorrect conclusions.

More:
http://www.wtrg.com/rotaryrigs.html
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
$50 was a very profitable price point in the past, what has changed since then

«here in alberta, they are thinking that if costs go down a little more, they will once again begin drilling, and the oilsands projects on the drawing board will go ahead
 
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