Oil exploration vs Bio-degradation
Earlier I used to wonder isn't is better for US and the world that US starts tapping its huge oil reserves in Gulf of Mexico. The fuss about environment and others are a small thing compared to the savings that oil production in Gulf of Mexico can provide. The BP oil rig incident brings the justification behind the same.
On April 20th when the rig went on fire, BP said that the oil spill may be 1000 barrels per day. Then they increased it to 5000 barrels per day, and now the projections are that the leak may be as high as 60,000 barrels per day. (BTW 1 barrel ~ 160 lts of Oil). So per day, the spill is expected to be around 9,60,000 lts!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gulf of Mexico is considered one of the single largest locations of oil production in the world. They come next to the Mid-west Asia in terms of the aggregate oil production. The oil production from the rigs in Gulf of Mexico nears around 2 million barrels per day. That's a huge number!!
From the above figure, it is quite obvious that the impact of Gulf of Mexico on the environment is huge considering all the pipelines, oil rigs and the spill overs etc.
This region is considered one of the most bio diversified regions in the world with endangered species and huge variety of fisheries. Also, in terms of maintaining the global temperatures this region plays a significant role with the warm waters from the Southern Atlantic exchanging the heat with the cold waters from the Northern hemisphere, thereby regulating the climate across the continents.
So, in a region like this, with such bio hot spots, and with potentially cyclone prone area, there are more than 1000 oil rigs producing around 2 million barrels per day and the chances for further exploration are sought at.
Hopefully this disaster will infuse strength into the environmentalists call for higher regulation on oil exploration!
On April 20th when the rig went on fire, BP said that the oil spill may be 1000 barrels per day. Then they increased it to 5000 barrels per day, and now the projections are that the leak may be as high as 60,000 barrels per day. (BTW 1 barrel ~ 160 lts of Oil). So per day, the spill is expected to be around 9,60,000 lts!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gulf of Mexico is considered one of the single largest locations of oil production in the world. They come next to the Mid-west Asia in terms of the aggregate oil production. The oil production from the rigs in Gulf of Mexico nears around 2 million barrels per day. That's a huge number!!
Compare this with India's biggest oil discovery by Reliance in KG-D6 block, which is expected to produce a peak oil of ~45,000 barrels per day.
The BP's oil rig is not the only rig present in the Gulf of Mexico region. When I just googled, I was surprised to know that there are more than 1000 active rigs in that region alone. In the image below, all the green ones are the oil/gas rigs location in the Gulf of Mexico region.
This region is considered one of the most bio diversified regions in the world with endangered species and huge variety of fisheries. Also, in terms of maintaining the global temperatures this region plays a significant role with the warm waters from the Southern Atlantic exchanging the heat with the cold waters from the Northern hemisphere, thereby regulating the climate across the continents.
So, in a region like this, with such bio hot spots, and with potentially cyclone prone area, there are more than 1000 oil rigs producing around 2 million barrels per day and the chances for further exploration are sought at.
Hopefully this disaster will infuse strength into the environmentalists call for higher regulation on oil exploration!
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