Destin Dome

[30ashopper]

Heard about this on Fox tonight and did a little research. Turns out we're right in the cross hairs on the whole drilling issue as we have one of the largest untapped natural gas reserves in the country, 30 miles off our beach!

There's an interesting story behind this site, it was sold to Chevron back in the 80's and some exploratory wells were drilled. In the late 80's drilling was banned by Bush Sr., and a great deal of litigation ensued. In 2001 Bush Jr. bought the rights back from Chevron to resolve the litigation. Now everybody is talking about drilling it again.

I found an original doc online from Chevron dating way back before they even started drilling -
http://www.etf.energy.gov/pdfs/chevron_11_13_01.pdf

A couple interesting notes - the Destin Dome does not contain oil, it contains natural gas, so the risk of spills is minimal. Also, the state would share in the revenue, generating a ton of money for other state services.

Here's a blub about Bush Jr buying back the rights -
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/news/drilling2002.html

Some history from a recent blog (please ignore the anti-obama rantings, but it does detail the history pretty well) -
http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0508/0508truthgasprices.htm

 

[Miss Critter]

Haven't yet read the links, but let me see if I understand this. Just before leaving office, Mr. Bush proposes lifting the ban on drilling in the gulf, and just HAPPENS to own the rights to (perhaps) one of the largest domestic offshore gas wells?

 

[traderx]

Haven't yet read the links, but let me see if I understand this. Just before leaving office, Mr. Bush proposes lifting the ban on drilling in the gulf, and just HAPPENS to own the rights to (perhaps) one of the largest domestic offshore gas wells?

Bush as in the Interior Dept, not Bush personally.

So, when the state receives "revenue" from the gas, Florida will lower taxes, right?

 

[30ashopper]

Bush as in the Interior Dept, not Bush personally.

So, when the state receives "revenue" from the gas, Florida will lower taxes, right?

Sounds good to me. They could fund schools and state universities better too.

 

[30ashopper]

The Florida survey also found that McCain currently leads Obama in the state by a 47% to 39% margin. Six percent (6%) said they would vote for some other candidate while 8% are undecided.

However, after voters were told that McCain favored offshore drilling and Obama opposed it, McCain?s lead increased to eleven points, 49% to 38%. While a three-point net gain is not stunning, it is significant that the issue didn?t push voters towards Obama. All of McCain?s gains on the offshore drilling issue came from male voters.

Interesting stats from Rasmussen on Florida -
http://rasmussenreports.com/public_...a/election_2008_florida_presidential_election

 

[Matt J]

Haven't yet read the links, but let me see if I understand this. Just before leaving office, Mr. Bush proposes lifting the ban on drilling in the gulf, and just HAPPENS to own the rights to (perhaps) one of the largest domestic offshore gas wells?

Almost, see Bush Jr. got the tax payers to buy it back from Chevron, thus funneling tax dollars into the oil companies pockets. If it was in fact bought for the purchase price then fine, no issue.

So, since it's natural gas (would it be natty gas light if it was off of PCB) how does that help someone driving? Other than the post office there aren't to many natural gas vehicles out there.

 

[30ashopper]

Almost, see Bush Jr. got the tax payers to buy it back from Chevron, thus funneling tax dollars into the oil companies pockets. If it was in fact bought for the purchase price then fine, no issue.

They bought it back because Chevron paid the government for it, then declared they couldn't use it for anything. Plus, it's probably worth a heck of a lot more today than it was in 2000, so in the end if its sold again we all profit from a deal.

Note, in the same deal they also bought up tons of everglade land for conservation purposes. Most people don't remember this but Bush was cheered by the environmentalists when the deals went through. That was early in his first term.

So, since it's natural gas (would it be natty gas light if it was off of PCB) how does that help someone driving? Other than the post office there aren't to many natural gas vehicles out there.

It wouldn't, but it would bring down heating costs for folks up north, and Florida and Alabama would profit handily from it.

 

[Smiling JOe]

...Natural gas also is much cleaner burning than our most burned resource of energy in the US, coal. As I understand it, they've known about the abundance of natural gas off shore, also great deposits in the Atlantic, but the problem is that they don't currently have the the systems figured out as to how to go about harvesting it. Can you imagine an explosion of the largest deposit of natural gas? Florida might get wiped out by the mega-wave.

 

[Matt J]

They bought it back because Chevron paid the government for it, then declared they couldn't use it for anything. Plus, it's probably worth a heck of a lot more today than it was in 2000, so in the end if its sold again we all profit from a deal.

Note, in the same deal they also bought up tons of everglade land for conservation purposes. Most people don't remember this but Bush was cheered by the environmentalists when the deals went through. That was early in his first term.



It wouldn't, but it would bring down heating costs for folks up north, and Florida and Alabama would profit handily from it.

I'm just curious if they are going to do what they did to LA and drill just outside of state waters thus depriving the actual state of the income?

 

[30ashopper]

I'm just curious if they are going to do what they did to LA and drill just outside of state waters thus depriving the actual state of the income?

Looks like the answer is a tentative "yes" if the reserves are that far out. Found this -

The biggest prize in Florida is estimated to be the Destin Dome, where 39 exploratory wells drilled in the 1970s and '80s showed vast reserves of natural gas, some of it accompanied by a light, low-grade crude oil, from Pensacola to Tampa Bay.

Little is known about the extent of the oil and gas reserves off Florida's coast. The federal Minerals Management Service estimates that the reserves within the first 100 miles of Florida's coast would produce only natural gas and not oil, because the discoveries have been too deep for oil -- 20,000 feet or more -- and are under temperatures too high for oil to exist.

The National Petroleum Council estimates the eastern Gulf might hold 36.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 5.2 billion barrels of oil. Others doubt those numbers but say there is no way to know without further exploration.

Environmentalists warn, however, that Florida's multibillion-dollar tourism industry, its fisheries industries and its soaring coastal real estate market are as much at risk as the environment if drilling anywhere in the Eastern Gulf is allowed.

Federal environmental regulators acknowledge that drilling discharges harmful drilling fluids and cuttings, disturbs delicate marine life and poses a threat to endangered sea turtles.

For those and other reasons, Florida politicians from both parties have considered the endorsement of oil drilling as a ''third rail'' of political issues to be avoided. They have worked to keep the drilling ban in force along Florida shores for more than 25 years.

But Crist, by echoing McCain, has decided that economics trumps the environment this election year.

''We have to be sympathetic to the pocketbooks of the people of Florida and what they are paying at the pump for gas and balance that with what our state might be able to contribute in terms of resources,'' Crist said.

He cited recent polls that he says show ``people are much more favorably inclined to this idea so long as it's done safely, it protects our state and if that could help us lower the price of gas at the pump.''

States that allow drilling off their coasts receive a cut of the royalties from oil and gas reserves that lie close to their shoreline. The federal government collects the royalties for production in the waters beyond that.

http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/573350.html