Editorial
Nearly a dozen people are missing and presumed dead after the huge explosion aboard a deep-water oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident provides further evidence that despite advances in technology, oil drilling poses big environmental and human risks.
The explosion occurred just weeks after President Obama decided to open parts of America’s coastal waters to exploratory drilling. This tragedy is not reason enough to reverse that decision. A balanced energy strategy will have to include the search for conventional fuels even as the country moves quickly to alternative energy sources.
So far, the oil seems contained in the well, but that could change. And the explosion is one more reminder of why the administration must proceed with great care as it broadens the search for domestic oil supplies. That is especially true in the Arctic where brutal weather conditions would make spills even more difficult to contain.
The Deepwater Horizon, an exploratory rig, was drilling an 18,000-foot well 50 miles off the Louisiana coast when an explosion — apparently caused by a blowout in the well — set the rig ablaze. More than 100 workers were rescued.
The accident has provided new fodder for Congressional critics of proposals to expand coastal drilling that are likely to be part of a Senate energy bill. Senators Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey have already said that they would oppose such a bill. Even though drilling is likely to be banned off New Jersey, they fear that oil spills from rigs further south could end up on the state’s beaches.
Drilling has long been accepted in the Gulf of Mexico, which provides nearly a third of the nation’s production and where neighboring states (Florida being the lone exception) welcome drilling as vital to their economies. Elsewhere, offshore drilling largely has been banned since the devastating 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. There have been no major spills from American platforms since then, because of tighter regulation and improved technology. Oil tankers present a far greater risk.
Drilling is dangerous business. Since 2001, there have been 858 fires and explosions, 1,349 injuries and 69 deaths in the gulf. Unfortunately, that is not surprising in an area with 35,000 people working on 90 big rigs and 3,500 production platforms. A major leak could revive memories of Santa Barbara and more opposition. But, so far, this accident is not an argument for abandoning a strategy of careful, disciplined exploration.
The New York Times is one of the most influnecial American daily newspapers, founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.
Editor's Note: This commentary was originally published by The New York Times, April 23, 2010 . Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers
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Petroleumworld News 04/26/2010
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