Gulf Of Mexico Essay

When oil was first discovered it was “Discovered of the spindle top oilfield near Beaumont in January 10, 1901 marked the opening of the prosperous phase of the business in Texas.” But not long after discovering in Texas it would soon be discovered in Oklahoma in 1905. Shortly after 1910 more oil was being founded and more was coming out of Texas. By the end of the Progressive Era in 1920’s “Texas was producing 85,000,000 barrels per year with even more dramatic increase

In 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, causing millions of barrels of crude oil to be leaked out into the Gulf of Mexico. The extensive oil spill created a lot of pollution and far-reaching effects on the tourism industry. The resultant damage to marine wildlife such as fish will continue to be felt for many years to come. Weeks after the event, and while it was still in progress, the Deep Water Horizon oil spill was being discussed as a disaster that will impact global economies, markets, and mining policies. The potential consequences included structural shifts in energy policy, insurance marketplaces and risk assessment, and financial liabilities to be incurred by BP. The law that affected the operation of BP’s business was the Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants in US’s waters (EPA, 2008). Following the oil spill, regulations have been put in place to regulate oil drilling operations. The Obama administration proposed new regulations on offshore oil and gas drilling. The regulation focused on oil and gas drilling companies to use stronger blowout Preventers that have the capability to close an offshore well in case a drilling breach occurred accidentally.

Environmentalists are one the biggest critics against the notion of increasing domestic oil drilling. By increasing the amount of drilling we do in the United States, we increase the risk of disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters are hardly the only source of economic damage either, to find oil reserves under the ocean, seismic waves are generated into the ground. These waves bounce off the ground back up to the ship, where computers and scientist can use the results to make educated guesses on whether or not oil is located under the surface. These seismic waves can wreak havoc with marine animals like whales; where in one case over 100 whales beached themselves to get away from the painful experience (Nixon). Using seismic waves does not even guarantee that oil might be located underneath the surface, the only way to tell is to actually drill into the potential finds causing even more destruction for what might be for no gain. Once oil is found and drilling has begun, the amount of damage done to the environment can become unimaginable. The recent example is that of the Deepwater

Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.

With the development of the act, laws and regulations addressing issues associated with the prevention, responds and payment of oil pollution were put in place. Such laws and regulations mandated new requirements for companies and their associated personnel involved in the shipment or extraction of oil, such as prevention and response plans, routine documentation and licensing renewal, and evidence of personnel’s competency and knowledge. The act also revised the staffing standards of all foreign shipment vessels, thereby requiring all foreign vessels to meet U.S standards to gain entry into U.S territory. Additionally, these prevention laws and regulations required new standards for shipment vessels and routine inspections. Due to the extreme

Did you know that oil companies are demolishing North Dakota’s environment by dumping drilling waste onto the land and in waterways? First, oil companies are taking truckloads full of drilling waste at a time and just dumping it to the side of the road illegally! This is mainly happening in the western corner of North Dakota but will most likely affect all of North Dakota. Eventually, this will affect all of North Dakota, by the drilling waste killing the animals or plants that other animals need to eat to survive. Then, oil companies also go and dump the drilling waste into the waterways. So, pretty soon all the western corner of North Dakota won’t have freshwater lakes and rivers. They have been doing this since 2014, so who knows what

There were two bans on offshore drilling raised during 1980s in the United States, in response to the damage

(First Oil Well in Louisiana. (n.d.). Retrieved October 07, 2016, from http://dnr.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder) So, Clement spread the word to neighbors and friends about his findings which eventually lead to Jennings, an oil man, hearing about Clements findings. (First Oil Well in Louisiana. (n.d.). Retrieved October 07, 2016, from http://dnr.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder) Jennings linked up with W. Scott and his brothers, and also Dobbins and all of them arranged a contract and came up with the company name of Jennings Oil Company. (Louisiana Oil & Gas History. (n.d.). Retrieved October 07, 2016, from http://loga.la/loga/louisiana-oil-gas-history/) In the beginning, Clement was fine with the company drilling for oil. (Louisiana Oil & Gas History. (n.d.). Retrieved October 07, 2016,

The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is a human problem, like most other disasters. What this means is that once the place thrived and was ecologically balanced, but we tipped the balance slightly and wrecked havoc upon the environment. It has been noted to occur since the 1950’s and is ongoing. The reason that this dead zone occurs is because of a phenomenon known as eutrophication. Eutrophication is when there is an excessive amount of nutrients in a body of water and it causes an abundance of plants to grow. In this case the nearby farms had been using nitrogen in their fertilizers. The nitrogen got carried into the ocean through rain and other forms of

There are many renewable and nonrenewable resources that are being harmed in this world. One resource is oil. In 2010, there happened to be an explosion of oil in the Gulf Of Mexico which killed 11 people. 87 days after that happened, there was an estimate of 3.19 million barrels of oil leaked into the gulf. There were many problems about the Gulf Of Mexico oil spill but solutions are being made to help.

America must wean itself off of dependence on foreign oil, and one valid solution to this problem is offshore oil drilling and production. America’s economy is heavily based on petroleum, as though it is the nation’s blood; a necessity for survival. About 25% of oil produced in the U.S. comes from offshore rigs. Most of the U.S. coastline has been off limits for oil drilling since the early 1980s. Due to environmental concerns after an oil spill off the coast of California in 1969, an offshore drilling moratorium was imposed. Since then, the U.S. has amplified its energy consumption to where it uses nearly 25% of the world's oil. Meanwhile, the U.S. produces about 10% of the world's oil. That has made the U.S. heavily reliant on imported

The issue of whether offshore oil drilling is a safe operation or not has been arguing for a long time in the United States. ( SPE International, N.D.) Drilling on water started in early 1930s in Louisiana by shallow-draft barges. Nevertheless, the first oil well on water was drilled in 9th of September, 1947 by Kerr-McGee’s unit Tender Assist Drilling (TAD) in the Gulf of Mexico (SPE International, N.D.). A year after year, oil companies used more and more sophisticated equipment to drill on water, but the number of spilled accidents has been rising since 1964 (Ivanovich, and Hays, 2008). After all, while

The canal was the best thing that ever happened to Panama. The Panama Canal was started under President Roosevelt and completed by his successor, William Howard Taft. The canal was built across an isthmus, a narrow body of land that connects two larger land areas, which connects North and South America. In some places in Panama the isthmus is only 50 miles across. The French started the canal in the late 1800’s. They had just built the then famous Suez Canal with relative ease. The Suez Canal, unlike the Panama Canal, was a straight canal on level ground, in a relatively dry climate. The French had failed in building the Panama Canal because of the tropical climate, in which deadly tropical diseases consumed their

With the huge impact of the oil spill on marine life and coastal regions, fishing and tourism industries of the places affected in the Gulf Coast severely declined. In the fishing industry, the incident led to an approximate $2.5 billion loss, while tourist industries experienced a loss of a predicted $23 billion (Jarvis, 2010). In addition, the moratorium placed on deep water drilling left 58,000 workers unemployed (ibid).

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.