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Witness Testimony
The Honorable Max Sandlin
Ultradeep Water Research and Development: What Are the Benefits?
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Boucher, distinguished members of the subcommittee- First, I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today. It is indeed a pleasure to join with the distinguished Majority Leader, Mr. DeLay, in advocating what we all know to be a truly non-partisan policy goal-a comprehensive and innovative national energy strategy. This morning, in particular, I am here to express my support for the Ultra-deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Program included in the Conference Report on H.R. 6 as passed by the House last year. This provision is substantially the same as that contained in the bill that I was proud to co-sponsor with Chairman Hall in the last Congress. I commend you, Mr. Chairman, for your persistent efforts to pass this provision through the Congress. I believe that it is important to the Nation for economic and security reasons to develop our domestic resources to limit, as best we can, our dependence on imported energy. The measure we discuss this morning would establish and fund new programs of research, development, demonstration, and commercial application of technologies for unconventional onshore and ultra-deepwater natural gas and other petroleum resource exploration and production, including safe operations and environmental mitigation. The legislation authorizes the Department of Energy, in partnership with industry to advance the science and technology available to domestic onshore unconventional natural gas and oil producers, particularly independent producers, through advances in technology for production of unconventional resources. The legislation also establishes a program to benefit small producers by resolving issues associated with complex geology, low reservoir pressure and unconventional oil and gas reservoirs. In addition, the legislation authorizes a program to develop technologies to produce natural gas and oil reserves in the ultra-deepwater of the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico, with a focus on improving, while lowering costs and reducing environmental impacts, the safety and efficiency of the recovery of ultra-deepwater resources and sub-sea production technology used for such recovery. These new programs are designed to help the nation meet its growing energy supply needs in the near and mid-term. In the 1st District of Texas there are many independent producers and many small producers who could produce much more oil and gas if they could afford the research and development that is needed to resolve the technical issues that they face in the field. This legislation will dramatically improve their opportunities to be successful and deliver new, domestic natural gas and oil supplies to the nation. Natural gas and other petroleum resources in the unconventional onshore and ultra-deepwater reserves can provide a significant portion of the incremental supply of energy needed to meet growing demand over the next 20 years if the economic and technical impediments to development are minimized. Modeling (by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas) shows that, over the next 15 years, with a well-funded program to develop advanced technology to increase production from the unconventional onshore and ultra-deepwater resources, we could economically add average productive capacity of at least 4.3 Tcf of natural gas per year. To offer another perspective on the extent of this resource: the unconventional onshore and the deepwater and ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico resources are the largest opportunities remaining in the United States in areas that are currently available to be developed. There is a clear and significant public purpose for the development of domestic resources. The costs and risks associated with this development are sufficiently high that without a strong and focused public/private partnership these resources will not be economically producible to meet our mid-term energy needs. In order for our industry to develop these domestic resources to meet the nation's energy requirements over the next ten to twenty years, it is critical that we provide federal R&D investment through public/private partnerships to lower the cost, increase the safety and mitigate the environmental impact of producing from these areas. For these reasons, among so many others, I hope that we are able to enact this critically important legislation as soon as possible. With kind regards, I submit these comments Respectfully, /s/ Max A. Sandlin, M.C. Related Documents |
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