Will drilling for oil off the Florida coast help reduce gas prices?

If so how long will it take to see the results?Will drilling for oil off the Florida coast help reduce gas prices?
just wait 2-3 years...


then all iraqi oil is ours....


trust me...our companies signed long period deals with iraq..


it'll be ours 4 next 30-40 years...Will drilling for oil off the Florida coast help reduce gas prices?
The answer is no.





We are talking, of course, about the Protected Areas, I imagine. As there are areas which are not protected and they can drill now, if they wanted.





First of all, the Oil Companies would have to make a huge investment just to find out if its financially attractive to drill. And it would only be attractive if Oil prices remain very very high. The problem is that extracting petroleum from these areas is very expensive.





On the other hand, according to the government's own agency, the Energy Information Administration, in the best of cases Oil wouldn't start to come out until 10 years after the protection is lifted. And it would reach a peak 25 years after. And even then, the EIA says that the effect, if any, would be ';insignificant';.





If in 25 years we haven't found an alternative source of energy, we will be in trouble anyway because we will have a huge oil debt. And if we have found it, drilling in the coast of Florida wouldn't make any sense.



If you folks would slowdown and use a little common sense. You would know you're being sold a bunch of blarney. Why would it take seven to 10 years, or one drop of oil to be seen in this country. If drilling starts tomorrow. That is the dumbest statement. I have ever heard. Also, the oilfields off Florida are one of the largest in the world but not only do we have that. We have the oil bearing Shale in Montana that has enough oil in it to provide enough oil for this country for the next 110 years. And you people that knock Bush are idiots,I am not a bush lover but have you forgotten, Congress provides oversight. How many shares of oil do you think the members of Congress have? Just how many shares do you think Nancy Pelosi has? The gas prices in this country are not just because of high oil prices but also because of lack of refineries. The oil companies are not really for opening up more oilfields. They like the high prices and large profits. So why should they increase supply? If you want to place blame place it on the greenies. They are the ones who will not allow drilling, who don't want logging, who don't want nuclear energy who don't want coal fired power plants heck. They don't even want wind generators. So you see, blame Congress for being bought by the greenies(Sierra Club etc.) They allowed all this to happen with their constant bickering fighting and failing to work together for the people that elected them.
';Even people in the oil industry say drilling won't ease the oil pinch. Matthew Simmons is head of Simmons and Company, among the largest banks investing in energy. ';We basically wasted away 20 years,'; he said. ';Now, basically, it's a terrific idea, but we ran out the clock. It's really misleading to hold that out as a panacea. It won't work. It might work for our grandchildren.';





Geologists have identified reservoirs or undersea ';structures'; that might contain oil. But Simmons says that's guesswork. ';We don't have any idea whether any of it is there,'; he said.





But first, the government has to lease the offshore sites to oil companies. The companies then have to probe the seabed to find out what's there. Then there are years of exploratory drilling, says Simmons 鈥?if anyone can find rigs to do the drilling.





';The problem is that the worldwide capacity to build rigs now has a backlog going out until about 2013, and we won't add enough rigs to even start to replace the very old rig fleet that we have,'; he said.





All of that before any oil actually comes out of the seabed.





Some in the oil business are more optimistic. Scott Smith is vice president of the energy engineering and construction company Black and Veatch.





';I think it's short-sighted, in my opinion, to say it's not going to make a difference,'; Smith says. ';This is just one piece of the puzzle. We know that there's a lot of uncertainty around how much reserves and production it will bring to bear, but having additional options makes more sense than keeping them off the table.';





Smith says it isn't likely that oil companies will actually recover the 18 billion barrels the government estimates is out there. But he says oil exploration is full of surprises.





';As you drill, you learn more about the geology in the region. You tend to find there's more resources there than you first thought,'; he said.





He also says drilling is only half the job; America also needs to curb its thirst for gas by making vehicles more fuel-efficient.';
The industry estimates have ranged from 5 to 12 years for a atimeline as to when there MIGHT be some impact. As it stands right now oil companies hold leases to over 40 million off shore acres. To date they have done no exploration or drilling. If off shore drilling is the answeer then why have they not drilled in areas they have had access to for years?





As for any price impact, theer is a great debate on that and no clear answers. Many feel this is a supply based crises we are experiencing. If so then there may be some minimal impact within 5 to 7 years. More economists believe this is a consumption based problem. They believe as long as we over consume the prices will reamain high. If that is the case then additional oil will just serve to feed our overconsumption with little drop in the price. I personally believe it is a combination of the two and that we will see little or no positive impact on drilling. And, that is if the oil companies really do begin drilling.





mjmayer: The President dropped the Presidential ban (the one his father imposed). However, the Congressional ban is still in place so no additional offshore sites have been opened. The price drops are due to a lot of things but they are not due to the ban being lifted. It is still in place.
It is better than not doing anything. Until they can produce alternative forms of energy why not go after the oil we have, If not to for now but for the future of our children, Not doing anything and fighting over whether or not to do it is foolish, We were foolish for not doing it 20 years ago. And for not developing alternative energies. Its the price we pay for looking at the now instead of in the future.
The first issue is to determine whether viable hydrocarbon reserves exist and are worth extracting. To have a ';debate'; without having any pertinent details is absurd politicizing at its best.





Present estimates suggest a minimal reduction (6-10 cents/gallon) and not until 7 years or so before any output would be realized.





Further, a big issue is whether or not it is in our best interests to rapidly consume our remaining oil reserves or whether we should have a more frugal approach in our use of this resource.
Depends on whom you talk to and what ';experts'; are on the news but the simple fact is the speculators that caused the sharp rise in the prices would know that supply will eventually increase and would then not count on shortages and sell off some their ';stock'; so the prices would automatically go down.
nope. We can not refine any new oil wells, we do not have the capacity.


Our capacity is at 96 percent now and a major interruption to any refinery would drive the price back up over night. More capacity to refine oil into gas will take 10 years to build.. Republicans are just liars..
The amount of gas and oil the USA consumes every day is so massive, that the little bit from any drilling here won't make more then 2 cent difference.


The answer is not more oil and gas, its getting of high consumption and we knew that since 1970.
Yes, it will. Demand around the world is growing while supply is stagnant. It may not take too long to get the oil off Fl since the infrastructure is there. I've hear it could take any where from less than a year to 3-5 years.
No, it's believed that most of whats off Florida's coast is natural gas and not crude. It will take 7 to 10 years to produce a drop of oil and rigs take a few years to build. This is just Bush's last attempt to help his Big Oil puppet masters.
We've already seen an impact from the POSSIBILITY of drilling. Oil prices are based on FUTURE supply demand as well as current, the impact on pricing would take place rather soon.. even if it wasn't a huge amount.





But more importantly, it gives us more domestic production.. wish makes us less reliant on supplies from hostile nations.
Initially it would cause speculators to lower the futures on the price of oil, thus lowering the short term price, look what is happing now less then 1 month Bush removed oil drilling off the US. long term more oil less demand, lower prices.
Yes, increase supply and prices will come down.





When? You are already seeing some effect. GWB repealed the ban on off shore drilling and prices started to come down. Imagine what they will do when we actually sink a well.
Yes it will as any increase in the world supply will help lower prices. They could probably have oil flowing in about two years..
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It will increase supplies, and in theory should reduce prices if consumption is held at bay.
We better get there now before China sucks all the oil up from their Cuban waters oil drilling goes full force!
I doubt it. The increase of oil prices are in my opinion due to the war in the Middle East.
sure it will,except for a monopoly, more volume of anything means less price
for the time being.
We believe that it will reduce prices momentarily (not for long) and it will take about 7 years to come in full effect.