Not sure I should wade back into this somewhat political and convoluted discussion, but there are points being made all over the place that just seem a bit out of whack. First off, as I mentioned somewhere up above, I worked in the oil & gas industry for about 20 years, first as a research scientist, then an organic geochemist, then as a business intelligence director, and finally as a management consultant for exploration strategy, production planning, mergers and acquisitions, and financial planning. Lots of hats that saw many aspects of how things work. Not bragging, just setting my background a bit.
Couple of things John (jlm) mentioned in his summary that could tolerate some adjustment:
- companies are in business to make money
- the "industry" is created to help companies leverage operations, and as a result of government requests, requirements, and regulations, to create acceptable operating standards for safety and efficiency
- the government's role is to manage the resources of the land for its people, and to both recover remuneration (royalties and taxes), as well provide guidelines and regulations plus enforcement for safe operations both for workers and the environment
The rest of the "motive" part is more politics and speculation.....no offense, but "roles" and "motives" are not the same thing, but both are important when it comes to each doing their job.
As things stand, there are many useful regulations and requirements in place, and most are followed. However, most of the environmental and safety things were put into place around 1978 or so. The royalties and responsibilities stuff has been around much, much longer. They are very different, but closely intertwined things. Companies are granted permits to explore, drill and recover minerals under rather specific sets of conditions between the landowners (in this case, the US) and the operators. There is lot of contractual stuff, as you can imagine, and it keeps growing. Unfortunately, many times corners are cut or trimmed or ignored in order to expedite things (both to get wells drilled more quickly, because they cost a lot of money, as well as to get entire projects completed before lease rights expire in some cases). It is not a clean and simple process by any means, and having the revenue collection and safety management operations under one operation (MMS) is not a very good idea, as it is ripe for corruption, bribery, favoritism, and all the other bad stuff that we will be hearing more about as this gets gutted in the public.
So, going back to something that I mentioned earlier.....all parties are at some degree of fault in this mess. The companies that failed to follow safety and inspection requirements, the operator for pushing timetables for a cost/money reason, the government agencies for failing to carry out their duties properly, both with respect to revenue and royalty collections, as well as safety inspections and disaster recovery plan approvals, to say nothing of having equipment and competent personnel working to enforce and help protect the people's resources and environment.
There are ways to do a lot of this exploration and production more safely, but it will cost more time and money in some cases. The companies, in the interest of their profit requirements, are always looking to cut things as close as possible on costs, and they do. The industry works to help the companies, and lobbies the government to gain concessions in that area. The government is supposed to be collecting all the revenues, and enforcing all the rules and regulations, but has been failing to do this adequately. Much of this has had a blind eye turned toward it when the first oil price shocks underscored just how dependent the US is on imported oil, so there was a very concerted drive to find and exploit more of our own resources....the easy stuff was found long ago and used up long ago also, and politicians were hearing loud cries from folks standing in long lines for high priced gasoline. Not all that long ago, was it? Once the companies and industry looked to be the "hero" by finding more of our own oil and gas, regulations and even royalty requirements were "relaxed" to encourage more exploration and production. That was the beginning of the long and steady slide down a slippery slope.
Sorry for the perspective check, but arguing about who was or was not more responsible is a waste of time. We all are responsible. The part about who should pay for fixing this mess.....we are all going to be paying for it directly and indirectly for a long time. Future oil prices will be going up....we will pay there. Since oil is a global commodity, the prices are set that way. The only way companies can make big profits is to recover oil more efficiently (technology, location, etc.), or with fewer encumbrances (royalties, other taxes, penalties, reduced safety and hazard clean-up requirements, etc.) Drilling in 5,000 ft. of water 50 miles from shore is not cheap from a logistics and operational perspective, so where do you think corners are going to be trimmed?
LJ