Plan to Drill for Oil and Gas Off Mid-Atlantic Coast

[LuckyLady]

to bad we still don't have any rigs off our coast yet and no new refineries and we are paying 3-4 dollars a gallon for fuel and the sh it hole environmentalist have us by the short hairs even worse.

Its very sad that we here in the US have not taking steps further in this direction to support our own oil needs... Makes me sick to fill the cars up anymore. I just ignore it until there is a major change

[fishbreath13]

We need updated fishing pic's from you!!!

[Capt Lindsay]

It seems no one remembers but there were drilling rigs working off New Jersey for about 5 years in the late '70s.

There was one at the south end of the long middle Finger at the 40 Fathom Fingers that was there for two full seasons. Amerada Hess was the operator. It was exactly 60 nm from the old Beach Haven Inlet Bell Buoy. The fishing was outstanding. In all of the days that we fished around one rig or another, we never saw any pollution in the water. Not even a sheen on the surface.

Keep in mind that the damage caused by the BP spill last year was broughyt under control and the scientists are finding that the long term damage to the Gulf is far less than expected. In fact, the amount of oil that leaked was far less than the annual leakage from natural seeps in the oceans.

[LuckyLady]

We need updated fishing pic's from you!!!

haha take me fishing lol

[LuckyLady]

It seems no one remembers but there were drilling rigs working off New Jersey for about 5 years in the late '70s.

There was one at the south end of the long middle Finger at the 40 Fathom Fingers that was there for two full seasons. Amerada Hess was the operator. It was exactly 60 nm from the old Beach Haven Inlet Bell Buoy. The fishing was outstanding. In all of the days that we fished around one rig or another, we never saw any pollution in the water. Not even a sheen on the surface.

Keep in mind that the damage caused by the BP spill last year was broughyt under control and the scientists are finding that the long term damage to the Gulf is far less than expected. In fact, the amount of oil that leaked was far less than the annual leakage from natural seeps in the oceans.

Wow wasnt aware of that a little before my time. Why did they do away with them?

[Capt Lindsay]

They found commercial quantities of gas off New Jersey but not much oil. At the time, prices for gas did not support building a collection system and a pipeline to Rhode Island, of all places. So they capped the wells and moved on. None of those wells were within 50 miles of shore.

Considering that gas prices are low and getting lower, the finds off New Jersey may still not be commercially valuable. However, drilling methods have changed immensely over the close to 35 years since those rigs were drilling off New Jersey so I would not be surprised to see an exploratory rig there to check things out.

Several years ago while fishing in the Toms Canyon, there was a research vessel towing a very long cable. They don't use explosives much any more to send sound waves but use loud sound pulses from powerful air guns. The sound reflects off subterranean features and the towed cable listens for those reflections. Much like what submarines use to listen for other subs.

Some information about the prospecting that was done many years ago can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/stalnaker/swlgs-january-2010.

Another reason to favor offshore drilling is that worldwide oil reserves are not as large as originally thought. The reserves in Saudi Arabia peaked 10 years ago and engineers there find it more and more difficult to keep pumping at the level they do. A great book to read on the issues with Saudi oil is "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy" by Matthew R. Simmons. Not only does the decline in the Saudi ability to produce enormous quantities of oil affect world supplies but the geopolitical issues of the reducing revenues to Mid-East regimes will create great instability. Saudi uses its oil largess to support many other regimes in nthe Mid-East plus their own people don't work all that much. They live off government handouts funded by oil revenues.

[fishbreath13]

haha take me fishing lol

No problem.....Will be in touch when it's Bikini weather.......