Oil Industry

MONTEREY, Calif. -- President Clinton, navigating a middle course between environmentalists and oil companies, announced yesterday a 10-year extension of the current moratorium on oil drilling off virtually all American ocean coastlines.Clinton also placed several existing marine sanctuaries permanently off-limits to oil exploration. The areas include the Channel Islands and Monterey Bay sanctuaries in California, the Florida Keys, Gray's Reef in Georgia and the Olympic Coast sanctuary off Washington state.

It isn't hard to recognize an example of false economy in the average household budget. The vegetable gardener who spends $500 on supplies to produce $12 in produce, the inexpensive home repair that falls apart in a month or the avid shopper who saves $5 online but pays an extra $20 in shipping and handling. Yet for some reason many of us are blind to the false economy of providing gasoline at the cheapest price possible regardless of its impact on our lives and society. To put it bluntly, humans have been subsidizing the cost of gas by accepting - without direct charge - the air pollution gas-burning vehicles generate.

The latest statistics on the American oil industry make it sound as though the oil patch has discovered time travel. Oil imports are at their highest levels since 1978 and domestic production has fallen to where it was back in 1961, the American Petroleum Institute said last week.And the number of oil and gas drilling rigs at work in the country recently hit a low not seen since records began to be kept 50 years ago.As for the future of the U.S.-based oil industry, it appears to be somewhere abroad, where companies are drilling with a vengeance.

The Obama administration is expected to propose new rules today that would slash the amount of sulfur in gasoline, one of the most significant steps the administration can take this term toward cutting air pollution, people with knowledge of the announcement said. The new rules would bring the rest of the country's sulfur standards in line with California's gasoline program. The oil industry has warned of resulting price increases and has been joined by members of Congress from oil states in criticizing the standards as onerous with few health benefits in return.

ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Alaska -- Bracing himself against the cool breezes sweeping off the Arctic Ocean, Dave Hite holds up a piece of dark brown rock as if it were an omen."

I am a shareholder in BP PLC who is concerned about the company's prospects, especially with its leadership issues. - K.L., via the Internet The giant oil company, formed by the merger of British Petroleum Co. and Amoco Corp. in 1998, has set the bar high with production growth targets that exceed those of its competitors. It has an impressive portfolio of deep-water oil and gas projects and in liquefied natural gas, while its chemical operations are especially strong in Asia. A consistent performer, it hasn't had an unprofitable year in the past decade, and its disclosure of financial information has been admirable.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The new civil administration in Iraq named two Iraqi oil officials and a former American oil executive yesterday to lead the country's oil industry, offering the first glimpse into how such a crucial economic sector might be run. At a meeting at the Iraqi Oil Ministry attended by top managers of the country's various oil facilities, Thamir Ghadhban was introduced as the new chief executive of the interim management team for the oil sector,...

WASHINGTON -- Oil industry executives summoned to Capitol Hill are expected to receive a grilling this week - perhaps unlike any they have received before - about their record profits at a time of high oil prices. But the questions won't just be coming from the usual critics. Some of the industry's traditional Republican allies are eager to show that they, too, share their constituents' anger over high prices and record profits. The hearing, ordered by Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, illustrates the political pressure that is driving Republicans to make a show of getting tough on an industry that has been a major source of GOP cash.

The Obama administration's latest move to permit testing for oil and gas off Maryland and other Atlantic coast states is drawing flak from both environmentalists and the oil industry. Speaking at a lightly attended public hearing Wednesday afternoon in Annapolis, some residents said they feared the testing might hurt whales and dolphins, disrupt fishing and damage tourism. They also warned that the risks of a spill were too great to warrant even looking for oil. "Avoiding activities that will harm or kill any more marine mammals is significantly more important to me than succumbing to today's frenzied pressures to reduce gasoline prices by a mere 3 cents [er gallon]

Making money is supposed to be a foundation of American capitalism, and it's crucial to keeping investors happy. But U.S. oil companies are finding that record profits haven't helped their image, not with consumers angry about higher gas prices and politicians searching for short-term cures. Oil businesses are trying to explain why their profits aren't a bad thing. The price of mangling that message could be steep: Some in Congress are discussing added regulations as well as a windfall profits tax that the industry fears could send it into a skid.

Harry Alford's March 7 commentary, "Anti-fracking legislation is premature," had me scratching my head. It completely ignored the serious and documented environmental and climate issues caused by hydraulic fracturing, the very issues the bill would address. Instead, Mr. Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, touts the economic benefits of fracking for Maryland and for the U.S. as a whole. He even hints that this bill, designed to protect Maryland from unsafe fracking, could lead to "interfering with the shale gas boom elsewhere.

Hooray for Del. Heather Mizeur for staring down oil companies over fracking in Maryland ("No studies? No fracking," Sept. 13). Delegate Mizeur is demanding solid, scientific studies of all the risks of fracking before allowing it here. The oil industry maintains that fracking is safe. But if fracking is safe, why did the oil industry seek, and get, special treatment in the 2005 Energy Bill to keep the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating fracking? This "Halliburton Loophole" is named after former Vice President and Halliburton oil chief Dick Cheney.

It was recently reported thatExxon Mobil Corp.earned $825 billion in revenue in 2011. Think about that for a moment. That is nearly one trillion dollars in just one year, made largely on the backs of hard-working Americans forced to pay $4 per gallon at the pump. And where is all this money going? No doubt to pay for fat executive bonuses and to bribe corrupt members of Congress to continue doing the bidding of the oil industry. Clearly, a change is in order, and with that in mind I propose the following: Since we are now in the business of invading countries in order to steal their oil (under the guise of a war on terror)

The Obama administration's latest move to permit testing for oil and gas off Maryland and other Atlantic coast states is drawing flak from both environmentalists and the oil industry. Speaking at a lightly attended public hearing Wednesday afternoon in Annapolis, some residents said they feared the testing might hurt whales and dolphins, disrupt fishing and damage tourism. They also warned that the risks of a spill were too great to warrant even looking for oil. "Avoiding activities that will harm or kill any more marine mammals is significantly more important to me than succumbing to today's frenzied pressures to reduce gasoline prices by a mere 3 cents [er gallon]

Gov.Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s column on American energy independence is flawed in several respects ("Road to energy independence goes through ANWR and Keystone," March 11). He argues we need to drill for more oil, construct a distribution pipeline and open up more offshore wells. But the fact is that today the U.S. is awash in crude oil, in greater quantities than ever in our history. The problem isn't a shortage of crude oil but our limited capacity to refine it into gasoline, which has led to shortages and high prices.

Pete Horrigan's letter laments the impact of the gas tax increase on Maryland families, but reading between the lines it is clear that the impact of the tax on oil companies is what really concerns Mr. Horrigan, who is president of the Mid-Atlantic Petroleum Distributors Association ("Maryland gas tax increase should be a nonstarter," Nov. 2). If the price of gas goes up, oil companies worry consumers will continue to downsize and switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles and electric cars.

VIENNA, Austria - Iraqi and U.S. officials said yesterday that they had agreed on a $1.6 billion plan to rehabilitate Iraq's oil industry over eight months. The plan would be the first step to overhauling an industry eroded by 12 years of United Nations sanctions and the past five months of war and looting, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials and industry analysts. "The rehabilitation plan is not to increase production but to take it back to previous levels," said Shamkhi al-Faraj, head of the Iraqi Oil Ministry's economics department.

WASHINGTON - Defying optimistic Bush administration projections, Iraq's hobbled oil industry might be unable to beat the production capacity of Saddam Hussein's era until sometime next year - if then, according to industry analysts. Iraq's oilfields and pipelines have been targeted since last year's U.S. invasion by bombings and sabotage that have restricted production, slowed exports and hindered reconstruction despite hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for those purposes, analysts say. Meanwhile, Iraq is in the strange position for a nation with the world's second-largest oil reserves of having to import gasoline from its neighbor, Kuwait, because it lacks the refining capacity to meet domestic demand.

Lost in all the recent furor over the federal debt-ceiling and gridlocked Washington was a major breakthrough for the Obama administration and good news for the economy, national security and environment. Thanks to an accord reached with automakers, regulators, unions and the state of California, President Barack Obama proposed vehicle fuel efficiency standards last Friday that could dramatically reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil. The new rules call for a 54.5-miles-per-gallon fleet-wide standard for cars and light trucks by 2025 - based on a 5 percent improvement each year beginning in 2017.

On the evening of Feb. 2, 1942, an unarmed tanker with 66,000 barrels of crude oil on board was steaming in the Atlantic, about 90 miles off Ocean City . Without warning, it was struck by German torpedoes. The attack set the W.L. Steed ablaze, and sank it; only a handful of the crew of 38 survived. As World War II unfolded, the Germans had moved part of their sub pack west to attack shipping along the coast. By the time the Nazis withdrew the subs in July to focus on convoys crossing the North Atlantic, they had sunk 397 ships in U.S. coastal waters.