To Drill Or Not To Drill

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To Drill or Not to Drill

To drill or not to drill, that is the question that many environmentalists and petroleum engineers ponder over when a decision has to be made whether or not to open an area for petroleum production. It is by no means an easy decision to make. If they say, “yes”, without first researching the reservoir and surrounding land they might end up drilling a dry well. A dry well means that it is not possible to recover any petroleum (oil) out of that specific well bore. If a dry well is drilled it will more than likely cost the company millions of dollars and probably account for the firing of the advising engineer and geologist’s jobs. Furthermore, before drilling the engineers also have to take into account whether or not the industrialization of the land will harm the surrounding environment. These are basically the two major factors that have to be looked at when proposing a drilling operation.
From this it is fairly easy to conclude why discrepancies may arouse between the environmentalists and the petroleum companies. Anytime there is a chance to make a lot of money or to harm the environment people are going to come from both sides of the spectrum to support whichever side they are on. The main area of land being fought over at this time is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). ANWR is on the Northern Slope of Alaska bordering the Arctic Ocean. ANWR is a nineteen million acre wilderness, which is roughly the size of South Carolina. Dwight Eisenhower created the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1960 because of its scenic, wildlife, and recreational value (Kelly, Erin 2). However, the area that is being debated is the coastal plain, which covers about one and a half million acres (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Perspective 1). In order for petroleum companies to be able to industrialize the region the Senate has to vote in favor of it.
Indeed, ANWR will not be the first area ...