EID

Investing In Our Environment

So far, we’ve learned that rapid advances in modern science and technology have allowed America’s oil and gas producers to produce more energy from fewer wells, all while keeping our water safe, our air clean and disturbance of land to an absolute minimum. Of course, none of these advancements came without extraordinary effort – and extraordinary investment.

In the past 20 years, U.S. energy producers have invested more than $175 billion in efforts to protect and preserve our environmental, averaging more than $9 billion a year for the last decade. The environmental expenditures of the production sector alone have amounted to over $31 billion over this same time, averaging nearly $1.9 billion per year for last decade, an increase of more than 100 percent since 1990.

Indeed, $14 billion was spent by America’s oil and gas operators on environmental preservation in 2007 alone, with $11.9 billion used to implement new technologies, create cleaner fuels, and fund ongoing environmental initiatives. An additional $1.9 billion went toward research and development, corporate environmental awareness programs and spill remediation efforts.

What have we gotten in return for this investment? Consider:

• Based on data compiled by the U.S. Coast Guard, the volume of oil spilled in U.S. waters declined by 59 percent between 2001 and 2005. Similarly, the number of spills over this same time period decreased by 60 percent. All told, energy production accounts for only one percent of oil pollution in North American marine waters. Natural seepages account for 62 percent.

• Since its inception in 1993, American energy producers involved in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s voluntary Natural Gas STAR program have eliminated 417 billion cubic feet (BCF) of methane from the atmosphere.  The entire industry, including the production, processing, transportation, and distribution sectors, has eliminated nearly 677 Bcf since 1993. One recent study estimated that the overall oil and gas industry has spent $42 billion between 2000 and 2006 to reduce methane emissions.

• Approximately 57 percent of the industry’s environmental expenditures in 2007 targeted air pollution abatement, meeting or surpassing the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act.

Investment Priorities by Sector

The business of finding, developing and delivering American energy for the American people tends to be divided into four major areas: exploration and production, refining, transportation and marketing. What follows is a brief overview of what specific energy sectors are doing right now to protect and preserve our environment into the future.

• Exploration and Production: The U.S. is the world’s third-largest oil and natural gas producer, with nearly 910,000 producing oil and natural gas wells operating onshore and approximately 4,900 oil and natural gas platforms operating offshore in U.S. state and federal waters. These wells produce almost 1.9 billion barrels of oil and 23.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas annually – energy for America that’s being generated with far fewer wells, far less disturbance of land, and far fewer emissions of methane and carbon dioxide.

• Refining: The nation’s 149 refineries, which process more than 17 million barrels of crude oil every day, are upgrading their operations to produce ever-cleaner fuels and meet the growing variety of state and local mandates for fuel formulation.

• Transportation: Petroleum products move from well to refinery to market through a network of tanker ships, pipelines, barges and tanker trucks. Among the industry’s key environmental investments in this segment: By 2015, all tankers and barges operating in U.S. waters will feature double hulls, which help to contain cargo and prevent spills in the event of a collision or grounding.

• Marketing: There are more than 164,000 service stations operating across the United States. In recent years, the energy industry has made a major investment to upgrade underground storage tanks and install leak detection devices, helping to protect communities and groundwater supplies.

• Other: Non-sector specific corporate programs such as planting trees or junking old cars. It also includes research & development expenditures to reduce pollution and emissions.