Is Offshore Oil Dangerous?

Paul Bickell says in his article" Offshore oil safe and plentiful" that the USA has some resources and they should take the benefit from it. He says that the USA oil production has declined 18 percent since 1995, and they import it from the Middle East and other countries. He says that "The Minerals Management Service, a branch of the Interior Department, estimates that these offshore areas hold 4 billion barrels of oil and 33 trillion cubic feet of natural gas". Then this decline is not because the USA running out of oil, but because the USA government is afraid of some environmental disaster, especially since most of these sources are under water. He says that does not affect the environment, because, "According to the U.S. Coast Guard, from 1980 to 1999, about 7.4 billion gallons of oil was produced offshore, yet the amount of oil spilled was so vanishingly small less than 0.0001 percent".

The United States and other countries should take care of the environment in the world. Oil production, especially that under the water has some bad effects on the environment and it affects the ecosystem in the oceans and specifically in the Pacific coast, because it is the biggest one and the Pacific has been injured from the oil spills more than other oceans. There are three things that affect the environment, governments, the oil that is exploration under the water, and its transportation.

First, there are many governments that have bad effects on the environment in the Pacific and cause the pollution. There are some governments that support the industry and forget about the environment like what happened in Russia when the nuclear reactor exploded. As result, there are many governments that give a statement of some refineries and factories to be near the coast. For example, there are some factories near the coast around the world.

Second, the oil that explored under the water affects the environment for many reasons. Any machine broken or stalled will have some leak and that cause environmental problems. For example, if a car has some problem in the machine, it usually has some oil leak. Moreover, the oil that is explored under the water may have some natural problem like storms and hurricanes, and this may cause many environmental problems, specifically if the oil that is explored hit by these storms and hurricanes.

Third, the oil that is explored under the water requires some transportation and this may cause environmental problems. The ship could be hit by the storms and hurricanes and this leads to spilling the oil in the ocean, as like we have heard in the news. In addition, these ships also could be broken, and this may have some oil leak, or could lead to burn the ship and this affect, the environment by spilling the oil on the ocean.

In conclusion, then the United States government should take the responsibility about saving her environment and not take the risk and not try to search for the oil, especially that which is under the water. I hope that all countries take care of the environment and make it a higher and the most important than anything else.



Reference:
Paul, W. (April 11, 2007). Offshore oil safe and plentiful. Retrieved June 25, 2007 from Lexis Nexis