Reuters reports that eight deepwater drilling rigs are expected in the Gulf of Mexico this year, which would bring the active deepwater contingent to 29 – just short of the number before the 2010 Macando accident. While that will be a positive step, here are some reasons to hold off popping the champagne corks:

• The eight rigs are not yet in the Gulf, not yet working.
• While permit applications to work on Gulf jobs have been submitted, the rigs will return there only if the permits are approved.
• Given “A” and “B” above, it’s still premature to talk about Gulf drilling being back to normal or “close to pre-moratorium levels.”
• The eight rigs would bring the Gulf rig count to “just short of the level” before the administration’s permit moratorium, not equal to levels of two y... more »

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that permitting in the Gulf of Mexico in the year since the administration’s deepwater drilling moratorium ended is slightly lower than it was in the year before the 2010 Macondo accident:

“Feb. 28, 2011, was the date that the Interior Department approved the first permit for an oil company to drill a new well in more than 500 feet of water after it had implemented new safety rules. In the year since then, there have been 61 permits to drill new wells in more than 500 feet of water issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and its successor agency, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. In the same one-year period from Feb. 28, 2009, to Feb. 27, 2010, the government issued 67 such permits.”

The... more »

Kudos to the White House for today's presidential Twitter town hall - which will feature the president in the East Room this afternoon for a live webcast in which he answers selected questions submitted via Twitter. Others have their questions for the chief, below are mine. (Feel free to get in on the event by asking your own energy-related questions or retweeting these - using the hashtag #AskObama.) Five Questions for the Administration

1. The Keystone XL pipeline would create American jobs and increase our energy security. Why is approval taking so long? #AskObama

2. EIA says in 2035 oil + #natgas will supply 60% of our energy. Shouldn't we try to produce as much of it as possible here at home? #AskObama

3. By 2030 92% of our liquid fuels could be filled by secure US/Canadian production... more »

How big is the Gulf of Mexico oil find announced last week by Exxon Mobil? BIG. As in a projected 700 million barrels and as Houston-based industry analyst John White reminds us: "Seven hundred million barrels doesn't happen very often...That's a lot of oil."

Yes, and it's also a spectacular illustration of what can happen when the energy industry is allowed to search for and develop American resources - in this case a reservoir of oil more than a mile underwater, in Exxon's Keathley Canyon blocks, about 250 miles southwest of New Orleans. The discovering well is one of only 15 new wells allowed by the federal government since a moratorium on deepwater drilling was lifted in October.

Finds like Exxon's Keathley Canyon, Shell's Cardamom field (estimated 140 million barrels) and others, on a... more »

Energy isn't easy. It isn't easy to produce the affordable, abundant, safe, and secure energy our nation needs today; and it certainly isn't easy to put the policies in place to ensure that we can continue that production in the future. However, there is one thing that is easy; telling everyone what they want to hear, while actually doing nothing. And a review of recent developments indicates that some politicians are trying to protect their jobs by adopting conflicting or incoherent positions that threaten the jobs of others:

• The administration imposed a moratorium and a permitorium on offshore drilling, and then the president promoted Brazil's offshore drilling saying the United States wants to be Brazil's best oil customer.

• Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called offshore drilling a... more »