Drilling: Pull your weight, America
By THOMPSON AYODELE

April 18, 2011

More Print Turmoil in the Middle East is once again causing a spike in US energy prices, along with the usual hand- wringing over how the country can feed its oil addiction in the years ahead. With quick stops at alternative fuels (not a serious, large-scale option for decades to come) and nuclear (hello, Fukushima Daiichi), the debate quickly comes back to America's own domestic oil production: To drill or not to drill?

And here some global perspective may help Americans find a way out of a blisteringly politicized discussion that generates, literally, more noise than light.

As a Nigerian who is proud of his country's contributions to the world's oil supply -- we are the single largest producer of oil in Africa, and one of the top five exporters to your nation -- I wonder how it is that Americans never seems to ask yourselves one fundamental question: What if all countries restricted access to their oil and gas reserves the way you do? Where would the world -- let alone the United States -- get its energyfrom?

America's unwillingness to tap its oil reserves would be defensible if you were equally conservative with your consumption. But, sorry, you consume roughly a quarter of the world's oil. Meanwhile, you severely restrict or outright forbid access to oil bounties along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the Alaskan tundra.

If countries in the Middle East, South America or Africa were to adopt a similar attitude, America would be left gasping for energy.

The arguments against tapping US oil reserves are familiar. Most popular is the refrain that there are barely enough "proved reserves" of oil beneath the US to last more than three years or so. But that statistic is based on a set of criteria set by the Society of Petroleum Engineers that is itself defined by the restrictions on exploration.

These "proved reserves" count only the oil that is "commercially
recoverable" under "current economic conditions, operating methods and government regulations" (emphasis added). In other words, the term defines how much oil your government allows access to, not how much is actually there.

If you ease restrictions on drilling, the amount of US "proved reserves" will magically increase.

Meanwhile, tapping those reserves would mean significant economic growth, increased energy security and lower US energy prices. Developing the oil and natural-gas reserves now kept off-limits by Congress could mean another $1.7 trillion in government revenue, according to a study from the American Petroleum Institute. Not to mention millions of good-paying jobs in states that could use an influx of employment right now.

In Nigeria, oil and gas exploration now accounts for 40 percent of our GDP, as well as 98 percent of export earnings and about 83 percent of federal-government revenue. We are a developing nation, but we manage to access our reserves in a safe, environmentally sound way despite our challenges. Were America to enter full-scale production, it would force producers everywhere -- including Nigeria -- to be more competitive, thereby making energy cheaper for consumers worldwide.

In March, the Obama administration awarded its first permit for a newdeep-water drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico (with beefed-up safety regulations) since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This is a step in the right direction -- but dozens of permits still await consideration, and the current snail-like pace of approval only exacerbates America's energy anxiety.

President Obama has earned global good will for his efforts to make
America a better international partner. Those efforts shouldn't exclude his country's obligation to kick in its share of the heating bill.

Thompson Ayodele is executive director of Initiative for Public Policy
Analysis (www.ippanigeria.org), a policy think tank based in Lagos,
Nigeria.

...More