March 31, 2010. Copyright 2010, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Obama’s offshore oil and gas plan

LONDON, March 31, Graphic News: President Barack Obama is to propose the opening of vast expanses of water along the U.S. Atlantic coastline, the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, and the north coast of Alaska for oil and natural gas drilling.

The proposal -- a compromise that will please oil companies but anger environmental groups and residents of affected states -- is seen as a way to create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

For over two decades, drilling has been banned in most offshore areas of the United States, outside the Gulf of Mexico, because of concerns that spills could harm the environment. Under the plan, the coastline from New Jersey northward will remain closed to all oil and gas activity, as will the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to the Canadian border.

A George W. Bush-era decision that oil and gas leases in Alaska's environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay would be offered in November 2011 will be cancelled, affecting companies like Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP and Statoil which have all expressed interest in the region. However, a previously scheduled lease sale in neighbouring Cook Inlet will proceed.

Lease sales along Alaska’s northern coast in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas will be eligible for exploration and drilling after extensive scientific studies.

The new lease areas off the Atlantic coast could hold up to four billion barrels of oil and 37 trillion cubic feet of gas, while the Pacific Coast has an estimated 10.5 billion barrels of oil and 18 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
/ENDS