Energy Security
A Must Read: David Brooks on Shale Gas
For those who are following the debate in this country on shale gas development, as I am, today’s column by David Brooks in the New York Times is a must read. In balanced terms, Brooks summarizes the future energy and economic potential of America’s enormous shale gas endowment – and the current debate surrounding its safe and responsible production. The benefits of shale gas development in terms of economic growth, job creation and energy security are without question, as he points out. The only question is whether our political leaders will permit these benefits to be realized.
How Keystone XL will fit into the vast U.S. pipeline network
To hear the opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline project, you might think this was the first pipeline to be built in the United States, and the first built to carry crude oil from Canada to the United States. While critics and protestors try to portray the Keystone XL pipeline project as something new and unnecessary, it’s simply not true. There are thousands of miles of pipeline carrying Canadian oil from Canada to the United States, and for good reason: Canada, by far, is the largest supplier of imported oil to the United States.
U.S. jobs from Canadian supplies
There’s been some interesting commentary of late about how energy development in Canada could provide a genuine stimulus to the U.S. economy. Recently, an editor at the Wall Street Journal wrote “Canada’s Oil Sands are a Jobs Gusher.” In that piece, Mary Anastasia O’Grady made a compelling point about how Alberta, a center of oil sands production in Canada, has handled the global economic slowdown better than most due in part to the Canadian government’s commitment to oil sands production.
ExxonMobil-Rosneft partnership another step forward in meeting future energy demands
As you may have read, ExxonMobil recently signed an agreement with Russian oil company Rosneft to jointly explore for and produce oil in Russia, the United States and other parts of the world. For more than 15 years, we’ve partnered with Rosneft on the successful Sakhalin-1 project, which has produced hundreds of millions of barrels of oil for export to world markets since start up. We look forward to further achievements with Rosneft in this latest venture, which not only benefits our two companies, but also the growing number of energy consumers around the world who depend on affordable and reliable supplies of energy.
Julia development planning – taking time to get it right
News outlets have been covering ExxonMobil’s request for a court to review the U.S. Interior Department’s rejection of plans to develop our Julia oil discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. I don’t plan to argue the case here. What I do want to talk about today are the headlines about a significant oil discovery and the questions from media and others about why we didn’t trumpet it from the rooftops when we made the find several years ago.
During these challenging economic times, there are plenty of facts and figures to show how the U.S. oil and natural gas industry is creating jobs and economic opportunity across the United States. But just as powerful, I think, are the real-life stories from where the job growth is actually taking place. And it’s happening in places you might not expect.
