US Senate energy chief promises new ANWR vote

25 January 2006 17:24  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Senator Pete Domenici (Republican-New Mexico) said on Wednesday that the US Senate will soon try again to pass legislation opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas development.

 

Domenici, chairman of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, also said he will take steps quickly to get Congressional action for the opening of oil and gas leases in the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast.

 

Late last year the US House passed legislation that would have allowed oil and gas development in a small portion of ANWR, but the measure was defeated in the Senate on 21 December.

 

Citing the continuing high cost of natural gas and the burden those costs put on US households and industry, Domenici said:  “Under theses circumstances, we cannot sit idly by and not take another shot at ANWR.  We will take another shot at ANWR and soon.”

 

“We’ve got to find a way” to get ANWR development approved in the Senate, he said.  “I think there is a way, and we’ve got to do it.”  He said another Senate vote on ANWR will happen, “although I don’t know what the result of that vote might be right now.”

 

Domenici also promised that the Senate will quickly give consideration to oil and gas development in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, an area known as Lease Holding 181 (LH-181).  That area is not subject to federal moratoria that bar energy development in other US coastal areas, but strong objections by Florida politicians, environmentalists and tourism industry officials have effectively blocked development in LH-181.

 

“There is no reason to not address Lease Holding 181,” Domenici said.  “The only thing we know of that will have an impact of a positive nature on natural gas prices is to make a big dent in some of the offshore allowable regions.”

 

He said LH-181 holds as much as 7trn cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas that could be developed with due concern for the environment and Florida’s coastline.  Beginning development in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, he said, “could have an immediate impact on the price of natural gas because even though that [LH-181] reserves would not be online next week, it is a credible and substantial supply that is ready to go.”

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly