Guest “I couldn’t make this sort of schist up if I was trying” by David Middleton

Shaheen, Warner: Oil Companies Need to Increase Production, They’re Sitting on Oil to Increase Price

By IAN HANCHETT 3 Mar 2022

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) argued that oil companies are not producing as much as oil as they could to keep the price high and these companies need to increase production to help combat Russia’s energy wealth.

After both Senators called for an embargo on Russian oil, Shaheen said, “I know there’s hardship on the American people and on everybody who is affected by these high gas prices, but the other thing we need to do is we need to call on our CEOs of the major oil companies to stop sitting on production and increase production. They’ve been sitting on the amount of production because they want to keep the price high. Well, the world needs them to respond now as well. They need to do this so that they can support the free world as we’re trying to fight this tyrant who is trying to put — capture the democracies of the world. And so, we need to all stand together here.”

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Breitbart

Does this mean that these two Senators now support reopening leasing on federal lands and waters? How about opening up the Atlantic OCS? ANWR?

Do they really think we can just “dial up the volume” on oil wells? Competent operators produce oil wells at the rate that maximizes the volume of recoverable oil. We don’t dial the volume up and down in an effort to control uncontrollable oil prices. When prices rise, we have more cash flow to spend on additional drilling. This increases oil production, which eventually lowers prices. Production will increase in response to higher prices, but it’s not an instantaneous thing.

However, there are limitations to how much we can increase production without access to new areas for exploration and production. These two senators represent states which border the Atlantic OCS leasing area. This area has not been open for leasing and drilling since the early 1980’s. Forty six exploration wells were drilled from 1979-1984. These wells were drilled before modern 3d seismic surveys were available and constituted little more than stratigraphic test wells.

While the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico OCS areas are technically open, the Biden maladministration and a corrupt Democrat federal judge have unlawfully blocked new leasing since November 2020.

To his credit, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) did support opening the Atlantic OCS back in 2011.

On the other hand, in 2019, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced a bill to ban all offshore drilling along the North Atlantic OCS.

Shaheen, Hassan & Coastal New England Senators Introduce Bipartisan Offshore Drilling Ban
MAY 03, 2019
Bill would protect ocean economy that generates $17 billion annually in the region

(Washington, DC) – Yesterday, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) reintroduced legislation to bar oil and gas drilling off the New England shoreline with a bipartisan group of New England Senators led by Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). While the Trump administration has stalled on releasing the next draft of its 5-year offshore leasing plan, it has not fully abandoned efforts to open areas of the Atlantic continental shelf to offshore drilling. Oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic puts vital coastline at risk, threatening a central economic engine for New England.

[…]

Jeanne Shaheen US Senator for New Hampshire

Oil and Gas Potential of the US Atlantic OCS

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) 2014 estimate of technically recoverable Atlantic OCS hydrocarbon potential to be 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 38 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas.

While much of this is rank frontier exploration, the northern boundary of the US Atlantic OCS is adjacent to Canada’s very active Scotia Basin.

Canadian oil companies currently produce 233,000 bbl/d from their offshore Atlantic areas…

ATLANTIC CANADA HAS A THRIVING OFFSHORE OIL AND NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY, WITH FOUR PRODUCING PROJECTS AND ONGOING EXPLORATION ACTIVITY IN THE AREA.

Atlantic Canada produces more than 233,000 barrels of oil per day, representing five per cent of Canada’s total crude oil production. To date, development of oil and natural gas production in Atlantic Canada has mainly occurred offshore Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

In addition to current projects, the Atlantic region has seen significant exploration activity in recent years. Exploration is key to the future of the offshore industry as it leads to new discoveries and potential developments.

The offshore industry has had a major impact on Atlantic Canada’s economy thanks to the royalties and taxes the industry pays to governments, and the creation of jobs and expenditures related to industry activity. Oil and natural gas companies in the region also contribute significantly to the communities where they are active.

CAPP

Instead of unleashing the US oil industry and reestablishing energy dominance, Democrats just badger oil companies and double down on stupid.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. needs to decrease its reliance on foreign oil by switching over to renewable energy, not increasing domestic production.

Fox News, February 27, 2022

Jen, maybe you should have checked with the Department of Energy…

A few days later, Jen proceeded to triple down on stupid…

Q We also know, you know, the President, as recently as yesterday, talked about increasing domestic manufacturing to bring down prices on inflated items like goods. So why not apply the same logic to energy and increase domestic production here?

MS. PSAKI: Well, there are 9,000 approved oil leases that the oil companies are not tapping into currently. So I would ask them that question.

Q Is there nothing that the administration can do to get those providers back to pre-pandemic levels?

MS. PSAKI: Do you think the oil companies don’t have enough money to drill on the places that have been pre-approved?

Q Just asking.

MS. PSAKI: I would — I would point that question to them. And we can talk about it more tomorrow when you learn more.

Q Do you think that opening the Keystone Pipeline and having more energy-friendly policies might do that?

MS. PSAKI: The Keystone Pipeline has never been operational. It would take years for that to have any impact. I know a number of members of Congress have suggested that, but that is a proposed solution that has no relationship or would have no impact on what the problem is we, here, all agree is an issue.

Q So during that — those years where it would, you know, take to bring down prices, as you’re saying, we should just continue to buy Russian oil?

MS. PSAKI: Well, again, Jacqui, I think you’re familiar with a number of steps we’ve taken: a historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Q But that didn’t bring down prices — last time or this time.

MS. PSAKI: Well, we can — well, let me finish. What we can do over time and what this is a rema- — reminder of, in the President’s view, is our need to reduce our reliance on oil.

The Europeans need to do that; we need to do that. If we do more to invest in clean energy, more to invest in other sources of energy, that’s exactly what we can do to prevent this from happening in the future.

We welcome any Republicans from joining us in that effort.

Go ahead.

Q As long as we’re buying Russian oil, though, aren’t we financing the war?

MS. PSAKI: Well, Jacqui, again, it’s only about 10 percent of what we’re importing. I’ve not made any announcement about any decision on that front, but our objective here and our focus is making sure that any step we take maximizes the impact on President Putin and minimizes it on the American people.

And anyone who’s calling for an end to the carveout should be clear that that would rise — raise prices.

Go ahead.

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, March 3rd, 2022

Just substitute “Jan” for “Jane”…