Steven Shank

Eng 2010-426

Information Effect

Offshore Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a vast region of ocean sitting off the southern coast of the southeastern

United States that contains large reserves of natural resource as well as unique marine and coastal

ecosystems. The United States has been utilizing these domestic reserves of gas and oil by allowing

companies to drill into offshore federal land to extract them. Federal land in the Gulf of Mexico that sits

above this oil and gas is sectioned off into plots of specifically outlined areas, and then those plots are

sold to contractor energy resource companies to extract the resources. The Gulf of Mexico has been an

asset to the United States economy due to its employment opportunities and its abundance of valuable

natural resources.

Under the Trump Administration, the United States has been more aggressively pursuing

domestic oil and gas exploration and production. One way this being is done is by increasing the

number of leases of federal lands that contain these resources to oil and gas companies. An article by

the Pipeline and Gas Journal (PGJ) titled “Interior Department Proposes 73-Million-Acre GOM Lease

Sale,” elaborates on the opening of new section of federal land for leasing, and its projected economic

benefits. Trump’s Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has proposed opening up 73 million acres in the

Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas production. The article goes on to describe how oil and gas exploration on

the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in 2015 had provided nearly 500,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly,

and provided $5.1 billion dollars to federal and state governments, as well as the Land and Water

Conservation Fund and Historic Preservation Fund (PGJ).

 In an article by David Paganie titled “Gulf of Mexico oil production forecast to reach record

high,” David points out that the oil and gas exploration in the gulf provide a large contribution to the

overall U.S. market. In his article David quotes the U.S. Mineral Management System (MMS) Lars Herbst

saying “The Gulf of Mexico is one of the single largest suppliers of oil and gas to the US market, and

activity in deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico, we anticipate that oil production will continue to be

strong with a large portion of production coming from projects in deeper water depths.” The Gulf of

Mexico will continue to be an economic asset to the United States economy into the future due to our

ability to drill in more adverse environments where the reserves will remain plentiful.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica article

“Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010

ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER, GULF OF MEXICO,” by

Richard Pallardy, in April of 2010 a British Petroleum

drilling platform, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, was

operating over the Macondo oil prospect off the coast

of Louisiana the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig was

drilling in water nearly 5000 feet deep when it suffered a catastrophic explosion. The explosion killed 11

workers and injured an additional 17 onboard, and caused the oil rig to sink. The failsafe mechanisms

the rig had been utilizing to control the pressure of the oil was lost, resulting in the oil well discharging

the oil under its own pressure. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) article

“Gulf oil spill,” describes how over the 87 days following the explosion and consequent rupture saw 3.19

million barrels (134 million gallons) of oil released directly into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Pallardy’s Encyclopedia Britannica article goes on to describe the efforts made to cap the

hemorrhaging well head in the months that followed the incident. After multiple different failed

attempts, in July a temporary cap was put in place that slowed the rate of the oil leaking from the well.
But a government-commissioned panel of scientists estimated that by that point 4.9 million barrels of oil

had leaked into the ocean, compared to the 800,000 barrels of oil that had been recovered (Pallardy).

Then in August, BP implemented what Pallardy described as a “Static Kill” technique, forcing drilling mud

into the well head to temporarily stop the pressure. This which was followed by a “bottom kill”

technique in September that pumped cement deep into the well to permanently seal it off.

Although efforts were made to stop the leak and recover or destroy the leaked oil, the millions

of gallons and its affects had spread across the region. Pallardy writes in his “Deepwater Horizon spill of

2010,” article:

The petroleum that had leaked from the well before it was sealed formed a slick extending over

thousands of square miles of the Gulf of Mexico… Booms to corral portions of the slick

were deployed, and the contained oil was then siphoned off or burned. As oil began to

contaminate Louisiana beaches in May, it was manually removed; more difficult to clean were

the state’s marshes and estuaries, where the topography was knit together by delicate plant life.

By June, oil and tar balls had made landfall on the beaches of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

In all, an estimated 1,100 miles (1,770 km) of shoreline were polluted.

The NOAA article tells how it and other organizations worked on finding the true scale of the economic

and ecological damage done by the spill to the

affected areas. It was found that the

ecological damage was extensive, with all local

marine and coastal habitats being affected by

the spill. Marine mammals and birds suffered

adverse effects often resulting in their deaths,

and coral reef habitats were severely impacted

by the toxic oil. Over 80,000 square miles of fisheries in the area were also subsequently shut down for

health risks to the public and so clean-up efforts and ecological examination could operate after the

spill.

Despite the ecological damage that the oil and gas industry is capable of, efforts have been

made to provide habitats for the marine life in the gulf. A new program being implemented by the

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is discussed in an article by the Salt Water Sportsman

titled “Louisiana Aims to Turn Shut-Down Oil Rigs into Reefs.” These oil rigs provide an ideal habitat that

benefits and attracts fish populations, allowing anglers to target these healthy areas for productive

fishing. According to the Salt Water Sportsman, traditionally an “Idle Iron” policy required that oil

platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that surpass their operating lifespan be removed from the gulf to be

dismantled.

Since 2010, a directive from the U.S. Department of Interior has caused a major decline in total

number of oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The directive required all inactive rigs be shut

down and removed within five years (Salt Water Sportsman.) But a new “Artificial Reef Program” allows

oil and gas companies to avoid the costly removal of these rigs by turning them into artificial reefs in the

gulf instead. Oil and gas companies could opt to scuttle their retired rigs in “special artificial reef sites”

(SARS). These SARS are areas off the Louisiana coast that have been selected by the Louisiana

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries because of their strategic locations. The SARS are chosen to be

economically viable for oil and gas companies to utilize the Artificial Reef Program, as well as benefit

fisheries and fishing in the areas.

The oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Mexico have a major impact on the U.S. economy, both

from the value in the resources themselves as well as the jobs that are created because of the industry.
While the oil and gas industry is inherently ecologically damaging, the concept of creating artificial reefs

to benefit the gulf’s ecosystems as well as the fishing industry is a way to mitigate those damages. The

Gulf of Mexico is an asset to the U.S. because of what it provides, and if these resources are to continue

to be explored and utilized, diligence and attention are paramount to avoid another costly disaster like

the Deepwater Horizon incident.

Works Cited:

“Interior Department Proposes 73-Million-Acre GOM Lease Sale.” Pipeline & Gas Journal, vol. 244, no. 4,

Apr. 2017, p. 57. EBSCOhost,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=b9h&AN=1227537

00&site=eds-live.

Paganie, David. “Gulf of Mexico Oil Production Forecast to Reach Record High.” Offshore, vol. 69, no. 6,

June 2009, p. 28. EBSCOhost,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=42421812&s

ite=eds-live.

Pallardy, Richard. “Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010”. Encyclopedia Britannica, April 13, 2018

https://www.britannica.com/event/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill-of-2010

“Louisiana Aims to Turn Shut-Down Oil Rigs into Reefs.” Salt Water Sportsman, vol. 78, no. 8, Aug. 2017,

p. 12. EBSCOhost,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=124175349

&site=eds-live.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Gulf oil spill”. https://www.noaa.gov/resource-

collections/gulf-oil-spill