Bush lifts ban on offshore oil drilling despite opposition, OPEC weekly oil prices drop

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-15 02:33:21 Print

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush lifted on Monday an executive ban on offshore oil drilling, while calling on Congress to act as well.

"The American people are watching the numbers climb higher and higher at the pump and they're waiting to see what the Congress will do," Bush told reporters at.

"Now the ball is squarely in Congress' court," said the president. "The time for action is now."

"Failure to act is unacceptable," he said, noting Americans are "paying at the pump."

There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by former President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

Bush, in his final months of office, has repeatedly urged the Democrats-dominant Congress to lift legislative restrictions on such activity before they begin a recession in August.

The U.S. economy suffers from gasoline prices hike that has reached over 4 U.S. dollars a gallon (3.785 liter), and U.S. Congress and the White House are stressing different ways to ease the oil crisis.

The White House insisted that increase in U.S. oil drilling will help to deal with the soaring gas prices.

"Crude oil prices are up and one reason crude oil prices are up is because demand is outstripping supply," the president said last week.

"Now the only thing standing between consumers at the pump and the increased American energy they are demanding is the Democrat leadership in Congress," also said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. "We should act and act now."

However, many Democrats in the Congress refused to lift the drilling ban, noting oil companies already have 68 million acres under government leases they can drill and any new oil from now-closed offshore areas would not be available for five to 10 years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has renewed her request to President Bush for more government-held oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be released onto the market to check prices, which has been always resisted by the president.

"Right now the president has 700 million barrels of oil. He can release a small percent of it, less than 10 percent of it; have immediate impact on the price at the pump now, within 10 days, not within 10 years," Pelosi said.

"Let's be clear: Democrats support increasing the domestic production of petroleum and other energy resources," also said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer last week.

He said the legislation would speed up development of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and reimpose a ban on foreign export of Alaskan oil.

Bush's move was immediately condemned by environmentalists who said drilling would not end U.S. dependence on oil or cut the prices at the pump.

"The solutions to this problem are not off our coasts," Athan Manuel, director of lands protection for Sierra Club, said. "The U.S. does not contain enough oil to influence the world market."

Earlier Monday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said initially the president wanted to lift the executive ban in concert with Congress but decided to go ahead alone due to strong opposition from the Democrats.

"It has been nearly a month since the president urged the Congress to act to expand environmentally-friendly and responsible exploration for American energy," Perino told reporters.

"Congress has not moved forward despite calls from constituents and the continued pressure of record high energy prices," she said.

Editor: Yan Liang

OPEC weekly oil prices drop

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-14 20:29:47

VIENNA, July 14 (Xinhua) --

The weekly average oil prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped 2.24 U.S. dollars to 136.07 dollars per barrel (dpb) last week, said the Vienna-based cartel Monday.

After the daily prices touched the historic high of 140.73 dpb on July 3 they dropped on the following four trading days to 133.16 dpb, then jumped back to 133.68 dpb last Thursday and surged 6.17 dollars higher last Friday to 139.85 dpb.

Experts say the geopolitical crisis in Iran was the main reason for the large-scale surge of the prices last Friday. Iran began testing missiles since last Wednesday, which escalated the geopolitical tensions and deepened global concerns on the future stable oil supply of OPEC.

The U.S. and some western countries criticized Iran's nuclear program, and hinted at possible military attacks on Iran. In response, Iran reiterated that its nuclear program is for peaceful use and threatened to block Hormuz Strait to cut down oil shipments if its nuclear facilities were attacked by the U.S. or Israel.

Iran's OPEC representative Mohammed Ali Khatibi warned recently that a military attack on Iran would affect the oil exports of both Iran and other producers including Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which would also deeply affect the global oil trade.

World oil demand this year is forecast to grow to an average of87 million barrels per day, OPEC said on April 15. Once the Hormuz Strait is blocked, the global oil supply would be cut by nearly 20million barrels a day.

Meanwhile, OPEC released its World Oil Outlook (WOO) 2008 on July 11, saying the oil supply was more than enough on the current market and lowered its global oil demand forecast for the year 2030 to 113.3 million barrels per day (mb/d), which was 4.3 mb/d lower than the WOO 2007 estimate.

It suggested that OPEC would not increase oil output now, which could lead to growing nervousness in the oil market. The new development of the market show that the upward trend of prices has not changed, according to analysts.

Editor: Sun Yunlong

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