On the 13th, U.S. President Barack Obama demanded that Congress allocate 90 million U.S. dollars to reform the supervision of the oil and gas industry. Following the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the recent explosion of a natural gas pipeline in California, the United States had to tighten its nerves on the safety of oil and gas. Some analysts believe that a series of regulatory tightening measures, including the US deep-sea oil drilling ban in the long run, may have a certain effect on the world's oil supply.
Severe accident prompted tightening of supervision
The treatment of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has not yet delivered a satisfactory response. The explosion of the high-pressure natural gas pipeline in the suburbs of San Francisco, Calif., exploded on the 9th. According to an Associated Press report, the United States currently has thousands of natural gas pipelines that are exposed to the danger of explosion or leakage due to aging. As the government assigned inspection and maintenance responsibilities to the company, the company was reluctant to spend excessive fees, which led to many years of disrepair.
In this context, Obama on the 13th asked Congress to allocate 90 million US dollars for the reform of oil and gas industry supervision.
According to Agence France-Presse’s report, Obama expressed in a letter to Congress in the week that more than 90 million U.S. dollars will come from doubling the offshore oil and natural gas inspection charges, while the rest will be applied for more budgets and offsets for other regions. Oil and gas regulatory fees to achieve.
According to the 2011 fiscal year budget amendment proposal, Obama hopes to increase inspection fees from US$20 million per year to US$45 million, and the increased charges will be used to strengthen the supervision of offshore oil and gas operations projects. The change in this cost will not affect the overall budget, but it will make up for the inadequacy of mining tax revenue and help reorganize the marine energy management supervision and enforcement agencies.
In addition, Obama also asked the Congress to provide another 9 million US dollars for the prevention of deepwater oil and gas oil pollution strategy research funds.
Oil company will take more responsibility
After the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP was pushed to the cusp, and it was difficult to predict the cost of processing. This led to speculation about bankruptcy. At present, after 87 days of leakage, the leakage point has been blocked, but permanent sealing work is still ongoing. BP on the 13th said that due to bad weather, a month-long decompression well drilling has resumed, and there are still 50 feet to complete.
Citigroup said in a report on the 13th that BP, the CEO of BP who will take office on October 1st, revealed that because the leakage point has been blocked, the uncertainty of leakage losses is decreasing, and BP has established The $20 billion in independent compensation ** is likely to exceed the amount claimed, and reiterates that the related expenditures for the oil spill are expected to be US$32 billion, including other expenses such as oil spill clean-up.
BP on the 8th announced the internal investigation report of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, emphasizing that the oil spill accident was caused by multiple mistakes, after which Fitch raised its rating to "A". However, the report was considered to have suspicions of evading responsibility and quickly caused dissatisfaction among US oil well contractors and politicians.
Some analysts believe that the relevant US agencies are currently rushing to investigate the causes and responsibilities of the oil spill accident in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is still facing the possibility of losing its operating license in the United States, and it should properly handle the following issues and compensation. With the tightening of oil and gas supervision in the United States, oil companies will face more security responsibilities.
Triggering oil supply concerns
The impact of oil and gas security on the market has become increasingly evident. The price of light crude oil delivered by the New York Mercantile Exchange in October was above US$78 per barrel on the 13th and was closed at US$77.19 per barrel on the 13th, driven by the continued closure of important oil pipelines in the United States.
The tightening of oil and gas supervision in the United States has also raised concerns about future oil supply. Some analysts believe that regulatory tightening, including deep-sea oil drilling bans, may lead to a decline in offshore oil production. Although the global oil supply will not be reduced in the short term, its impact in the long term cannot be ignored.
The deep-sea oil ban promulgated by the United States in April will be extended until November 30 this year. It aims to force oil companies to fully fulfill their safety responsibilities and avoid the recurrence of similar tragedies like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Shelle, the CEO of Shell, said on the 13th that due to the high oil production in Saudi Arabia, the impact of the US deep-sea oil ban on global oil production has not yet appeared, but once the ban continues to prolong, The resulting drop in oil production may create a global oil supply from 2015 to 2020, and it may then be necessary to make up for the deficiencies by using natural gas.