In January 1969, a natural gas blowout on an oil rig miles off the coast of
Santa Barbara, California, spilled 80,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean
and onto surrounding beaches. Twenty years later, in March 1989, the Exxon Valdez
oil tanker struck a reef and spilled 10.4 million gallons of oil into Prince
William Sound, Alaska, affecting 1,300 miles of shoreline.
These two great oil spills are perhaps the principal sources of public antipathy
toward offshore drilling for natural resources. Images of spilled oil bubbling
to the oceans surface and covering birds and other wildlife have firmly
cemented in much of the public mind that offshore drilling is dangerous, that
it inflicts tremendous environmental harm, and that its costs are not worth
its benefits. Thus the means by which the U.S. obtains about 25 percent of the
nations natural gas production and about 24 percent of its oil production
have become, understandably, linked to environmental degradation.
A majority (64.4 percent) of respondents favored expanded offshore oil drilling,
while 31.8 percent opposed it. Over 42 percent of those who opposed it believed
that the U.S. already uses too much oil. Interestingly, even smaller percentages
of those who opposed expanded drilling cited concerns that offshore drilling
is the major cause of oil spills into the ocean (17.5 percent) or that oil rigs
damage the environment (26.6 percent). Perhaps many are aware of offshore drillings
successful track record.
1975, offshore drilling in the Exclusive Economic Zone (within
200 miles of U.S. coasts) has a safety record of 99.999 percent,
meaning that only 0.0001 percent of the oil produced has been
spilled. With regard to the Outer
Continental Shelf (U.S. waters under federal, rather than
state, jurisdiction), between
1993 and 2007 there were 651 oil spills, releasing 47,800
barrels of oil. Given 7.5 billion barrels of oil produced
during that period, one barrel of oil has been spilled in
the OCS per 156,900 barrels produced.
Research published in 2000 by the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS)
documents the decreasing occurrence of crude-oil spills in the OCS. Revising
previous estimates first published in 1994, the authors analyzed data through
1999 and concluded that oil-spill rates for OCS platforms, tankers, and barges
continued to decline. Additionally, the number
of oil spills from platforms, tankers, and pipelines is small, relative to the
amount of oil extracted and transported. Even so, oil spills remain an unpleasant
reality of offshore oil drilling. Certainly, any amount of oil spilled into
the ocean is undesirable, but offshore oil operations contribute relatively
little of the oil that enters ocean waters each year.
For example, ocean floors naturally seep more oil into the ocean than do oil-drilling
accidents and oil-tanker spills combined. (However, such seepage generally does
not rise to the surface or reach the coastlines and, thus, is not as apparent
as oil-drilling spills.) According to the National Academies National
Research Council, natural processes are responsible for over 60 percent of the
petroleum that enters North American ocean waters and over 45 percent of the
petroleum that enters ocean waters worldwide. Thus,
in percentage terms, North Americas oil-drilling activities spill less
oil into the ocean than the global average, suggesting that our drilling is
comparatively safe for the environment.
Ironically, research shows that drilling can actually reduce natural seepage,
as it relieves the pressure that drives oil and gas up from ocean floors and
into ocean waters. In 1999, two peer-reviewed studies found that natural seepage
in the northern Santa Barbara Channel was significantly reduced by oil production.
The researchers documented that natural seepage declined 50 percent around Platform
Holly over a twenty-two-year period, concluding that, as oil was pumped from
the reservoir, the pressure that drives natural seepage dropped.
Offshore oil drilling is carefully monitored for environmental safety. Using
state-of-the-art technology and employing a range of procedural safeguards,
U.S. offshore drilling has a track record of minimal environmental impact. Modern
oil drilling is even designed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms. According
to the MMS, 3,050 of the Gulf of Mexicos 4,000 platforms and 22,000 of
the 33,000 miles of the Gulfs pipelines were in the direct path of either
Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita. The hurricanes destroyed 115 drilling platforms,
damaged 52 others, and damaged 535 pipeline segments, yet there was no
loss of life and no major oil spills attributed to either storm.
All forms of energy production come with risks, both to humans and to the environment.
Offshore oil drilling is no exception. Spills from offshore drilling and tankers
undoubtedly will continue to occur, but they are rare and are decreasing in
frequency; and the amount of oil spilled from rigs and tankers is small, compared
with the amount of oil extracted and with the amount of oil that enters ocean
waters naturally from ocean floors. As technology continues to advance, and
as companies find themselves accountable to a public increasingly concerned
about environmental stewardship, drilling for oil in our coastal waters will
continue to be conducted in a safe and environmentally conscious manner.