WellPoint Systems' Blog

The term “Big Oil” is thrown around routinely in the media and generally draws a visceral reaction from the public, invoking images of an all-powerful cabal secretly pulling the levers that control the flow of oil. But in reality, America’s independent natural gas and oil producers develop 90% of US wells, produce 82% of US natural gas, and produce 68% of US oil.

Although “Dallas” has been off the air for many years, J.R. Ewing remains for many the symbol of America’s oil and gas industry. In reality, however, the workforce comprising the oil and gas industry is quite diverse. In June of this year, women working for America’s oil and natural gas companies in 11 states were on Capitol Hill to meet with policymakers to discuss their concerns with major issues affecting the industry. Geologists, petrophysicists, land professionals, refinery workers and others from Louisiana, Illinois, Texas, Arkansas, Alaska, and beyond — all active, contributing members of their communities and their states, are using the opportunity to talk about how legislation under consideration would affect them, their communities and all American consumers.

Louisiana native Aisha Ragas, a senior geologist with Anadarko Petroleum, said she believed it was important to let members of Congress see the oil and natural gas industry for what it is. “The oil and gas industry is many faces. It’s not just middle-aged men. It’s women too. We are from all different ethnic backgrounds, different socio-economic backgrounds. We have different career paths — some are scientists, others are managers, some are field or rig workers. But all of our jobs are valuable, and we all care about what everyone else cares about: doing our jobs well, taking care of our families, and giving back to the community.”

Environmental record
The public perception of the oil industry’s environmental record is that the oil and gas industry has done a dismal job of protecting the oceans, the land and wildlife from oil spills. That spills are routine occurrences rather than rare accidents. The truth is that the oil industry lives with a focus on safety for the environment, wildlife, and people. For starters, as with health of humans where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, cleaning up pollution is far more expensive than preventing it. Avoiding a catastrophic disaster, such as the Exxon Valdez accident or the blowout and spill at Union Oil’s platform off in the Santa Barbara Channel off Los Angeles in 1969, is a major factor in oil companies’ dedication to operating in safe and environmentally sound manners. Failure to prevent such an accident would cost the company billions. In fact, according to API, only 14% of the oil in the sea is directly attributable to the world’s oil industry, with two% occurring from exploration and production spills and the remaining 12% attributable to accidents involving oil tankers. In contrast, 46% of oil found in our oceans is from natural oil seepage according to the National Research Council of the US Naval Academy of Sciences.

There is also the perception that the industry is somehow in favor of increased greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. In reality, the US oil and natural gas industry is spending billions of dollars developing new advanced energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while still meeting future energy needs.

Between 2000 and 2008, the industry invested more than US $58 billion in new low- and zero-emissions technologies. This represents 44% of the $133 billion spent by all US industries and the federal government combined. These large investments are critical to provide the low-carbon energy we will need in the years ahead. And to help meet future US energy demand growth and to diversify the US energy portfolio, US oil and gas companies invested an estimated $121.3 billion from 2000 through 2007 on emerging energy technologies in the North American market. This investment represents 65% of the estimated total of $188 billion spent by US companies and the Federal government.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Oil & Gas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.