Yet, we already have a tantalizing hint at what could be offshore. There were a number of wells sunk off New Jersey's coastline years back, and the results were quite promising. Herb Jackson has the details:
The small box on the map is blown up to show four sections of the Baltimore Trough that were leased for oil and gas exploration and the names of the wells that were drilled.He noted back on Friday that the group the Governor put together didn't even know about those five test wells, or their findings that there might be a significant natural gas deposit offshore. Yet, Menendez is doing all he can to thwart any and all offshore drilling, which could bring natural gas to market in addition to petroleum, which also happened to have been found in the same area. It would also likely spur the state to impose severance taxes, which could help raise state revenues as well as spur industrial development jobs to support the offshore energy industry.
Five of the wells found natural gas in these amounts:
- Texaco 642-1 -- 18.9 million cubic feet of gas per day)
- Tenneco 642-2 -- 18.5 mmcfgpd -- (also found oil at 630 barrels/day at shallower depth)
- Texaco 598-1 -- 9.4 mmcfgpd
- Exxon 599-1 -- 7.9 mmcfgpd
- Tenneco 642-3 -- 5.9 mmcfgpd
The Democrats continued insistence on no drilling means one thing: higher energy costs for years to come.
UPDATE:
Sen. Menendez is quite proud of his position to drive up energy costs. He relishes it in fact. He wraps it in the guise of protecting New Jersey shores from oil spills, but the reality is that while he claims that he would want the oil companies to maximize the oil and gas leases already owned by those companies, he wouldn't let them do so with the oil and gas leases along New Jersey's shore. Or anywhere near them.
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