Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
I just came across this item:
The oil spill that damaged the Gulf of Mexico's reefs and wetlands is also threatening to stain the Obama administration's reputation for relying on science to guide policy.
Academics, environmentalists and federal investigators have accused the administration since the April spill of downplaying scientific findings, misrepresenting data and most recently misconstruing the opinions of experts it solicited.
I wouldn't be at all surprised, in principle. But the line that caught my attention was this:
"There are really only a few people that know what they are talking about" on offshore drilling, said Ford Brett, managing director of Petroskills, a Tulsa, Okla.-based petroleum training organization. "The people who make this policy do not."
All I really know about offshore drilling is that I don't know the first thing about it. I might recognize an offshore drilling rig. Or I might confuse it, from a distance, with a large seagoing bird.
I don't even know enough to evaluate the claim that "only a few people" know what they're talking about when it comes to offshore drilling. Is this science really that much of a black box?
How many people--in the world--actually do know a lot about offshore drilling?
Anyone on Ricochet know enough about it to be able to say?
Apart from stating my general willingness to believe the charge that the Obama Administration has no idea what it's doing, I guess I have no other opinion about this. I'm just kind of curious: Is offshore drilling really such a difficult policy brief to master? Or is this guy just exaggerating for effect?
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Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
I'd love to hear from readers who do know what they're talking about on this subject, or who can put me in touch with such people. I want to write more about the natural gas exploration off Haifa and am in search of people who know their stuff.
Aug '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
If offshore drilling, a mechanical activity with generally understood physics principles, is beyond the grasp of policy makers... how on earth are they going to be able to handle policies in complex theoretical areas like economics and financial regulation?
Jul '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
Hey Claire,
In keeping with your approach I haven’t read your comment but I think Oil good too much government bad. Full disclosure I make my living in the Oil industry in Texas so I only think I know what Im talking about.
Keep up the good work. I love the approach.
Aug '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
I saw a comparison that said the amount of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico was equivalent to a can of beer in the Astrodome. And it is an organic substance isn't it ? Anytime I see the words academics, environmentalists,and federal investigators lined up together, I tend to get overly skeptical.
Tempest in a Teapot. Real experts are out making money, the rest are faking it for the green government.
Aug '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
I'm not an expert, but I play one on Ricochet.
Seriously, these are the facts: There are thousands of drilling rigs in the coastal oceans of the world, and if the U.S. dropped out, many other nations would just rush in to fill the gap. We would only hurt ourselves.
Cuba has signed contracts with foreign countries to allow drilling, and there are many pending contracts worldwide now. The technology is highly advanced, and oil is more accessible now than ever before. The accident rates are minuscule considering the total number of rigs in operation.
There are shallow water rigs and deep water rigs. It's safer and easier in shallow water, but draconian regulations in the U.S. make it impossible to do. Oil rigs off the Santa Barbara coast of California have been operating safely for decades. There was an accident over thirty-five years ago, but the environmental effects were small. Natural oil oozes out of the ocean floor and finds its way onto the beaches in places, so drilling can be seen as helpful to the environment.
Offshore rigs are havens for fish, and the Coast Guard constantly chases off fishermen from rig waters.
Sep '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
I know only slightly more than you when it comes to this subject. I don’t think I would refer to it as a science for it envolves combining several scientific disciplines in an ever-changing and unforgiving environment. I believe Brett was hinting that the people who really know about this subject are the ones who have done this successfully over a period of years and that these people seldom, if ever, are the ones making policy.
Oct '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
The beauty of "complex theoretical areas" as opposed to concrete science is that speculative BS can be passed off as authoritative fact.
May '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
My dad was a petroleum geologist working on Gulf wells for over thirty years. I'd agree that it's a field that requires a lot of technical knowledge to understand at any depth.
One thing that's commonly misunderstood is the financial risk involved. As a geologist, my dad's role was to review seismological data, core samples and other data to make an educated guess on where to drill. It was only ever an educated guess, millions of dollars being necessary to find the answer. It's like predicting weather. A meteorologist compares the data to knowledge of similar scenarios and combines that with an understanding of the natural processes to calculate probability.
A petroleum geologist knows what geologic conditions are most likely to contain oil or natural gas. If he's willing to gamble on a spot, then he must coordinate with physicists and engineers to determine the best way to drill that particular well. There are usually surprises and challenges when the drilling begins. And, of course, rig workers are called "roughnecks" because the actual drilling is dangerous work.
Government would need insiders to understand the industry.
Jul '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
I forget what this phenomenon is called.
You open the newspaper (ha!) and you read an article in which you have some expertise. You digest the first few paragraphs and it's clear that the journalist and his sources are wildly off-base. Then you turn to another story in another section of the newspaper and you read something and declare, "Oh, good things are happening in the Congo!"
Oct '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
Michael Tee: I forget what this phenomenon is called.
You open the newspaper (ha!) and you read an article in which you have some expertise. You digest the first few paragraphs and it's clear that the journalist and his sources are wildly off-base. Then you turn to another story in another section of the newspaper and you read something and declare, "Oh, good things are happening in the Congo!" · Nov 11 at 8:45am
I'm not sure what it's called, either, but John Allen Paulos wrote a whole book based on the concept: A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper.
May '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
I recently listened to my dad and another oil retiree laugh at the recent stories about fracking. Fracking has been done for half a century and rarely results in damage to water tables. The industry takes measure to ensure such damage does not occur. As usual, the Left is trying to portray rare examples of failure as the norm to smear the entire oil industry.
Though he has yet to join, it sounds like I've convinced at least one retired oilman to join the Ricochet cult. Hopefully, he'll be as quick with jokes online as he is in person.
Aug '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
Claire Berlinski, Ed.: I just came across this item:
How many people--in the world--actually do know a lot about offshore drilling?
Anyone on Ricochet know enough about it to be able to say?
Captain John Konrad over at http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/ is the man you are looking for. He just wrote the book on the Gulf Oil Spill and he founded GCaptain, an essential site for professional mariners it has heavy OffShore representation.
He is very 2.0, Facebook and Linkedin are right near the top.
You could even join gcaptain, start a forum and let the experts come to you.
May '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
The aerospace comoany I used to work for made thestabilization systems that keep floating platforms level. Here are two other very good resources for the unitiated:
1) Jonathan Rauch's Atlantic piece from 2001, the best I have seen on off-shore exploration, including nice descriptions of visiting a rig; it illustrates why we can just keep on finding more and more of the stuff when we think it is running out:
http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/the_new_old_economy/
2) Popular Mechanics' piece on the ways BP violated every rule when making decisions on their own Deepwater Horizon site. Had a different company been running this, there would have been no problem:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/how-the-bp-oil-rig-blowout-happened
May '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
Interesting article, Duane. This part says a lot:
It's a risky business.
Fossil fuels are ultimately finite resources, but I expect we have centuries to discover and improve alternative energy technologies. Oil companies will lead the way developing those technologies.
Edited on Nov 11, 2010 at 6:19pmMay '10
Re: Offshore Drilling: I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About
Aaron Miller: Interesting article, Duane. This part says a lot:
It's a risky business.
Fossil fuels are ultimately finite resources, but I expect we have centuries to discover and improve alternative energy technologies. Oil companies will lead the way developing those technologies. · Nov 11 at 6:15pm
Edited on Nov 11 at 06:19 pm
Yer dern tootin'! And we already know how to make crude oil- we do it just the way God does it (I've watched one professor here do it in his lab). Take carbon-based waste (which always has hydrogen involved) and apply heat and pressure to crack carbon bonds, then refine in the stack. Build nuke plants for heat and power, and you can mine landfills (or peat bogs, or coal mines) for another 200 years.
But I suspect that we will not need to come to that. If we do solid research for a while, something is going to come up and there will be plenty of energy, provided that the wacky wealthy greens who love humanity and hate people don't outlaw everything.