First oil

“I’m proud to be a part of the industry that is energizing the world and bettering lives.”— Susan Cunningham, Senior Vice President, Exploration and Business Innovation, Noble Energy.

All of us in the oil and gas industry should be as proud as Susan Cunningham for the truly noble work that our industry has performed for more than 150 years, to provide energy for the world. Sustaining this positive feeling is increasingly hard these days, when the industry is under assault from misguided environmentalists of all stripes. Our industry is portrayed as a dirty fossil fuel producer that is polluting the land, waterways and the skies.

Obama administration. For the last six years, President Barack Obama’s administration has made no effort to mask its contempt for the coal and oil and gas industries. The shale oil and gas revolution, which has made a significant contribution to the recovery of the U.S. economy, occurred on private lands, in spite of the Obama administration. The six-month moratorium after the Gulf spill was an unnecessary setback to the offshore oil and gas industry. The stringent wellbore integrity and spill containment requirements could have been imposed, as they were developed. The latest assault is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandate to reduce GHGs from powerplants 30% from 2005 levels, by 2030. This reduction is already taking place through the steady substitution of coal powerplants by natural gas-driven electricity generation. Therefore, the EPA’s executive mandate appears to be political grandstanding at its worst.

Greenpeace disruptions. One of the leading environmental groups has embarked on childish behavior by boarding drilling rigs that are about to launch Arctic drilling operations. In September 2013, Greenpeace activists boarded a Gazprom rig about to start drilling at its Prirazlomnoye field and were promptly arrested by the Russian Coast Guard. In late May, Greenpeace undertook a similar offensive against a Statoil rig bound for the Barents Sea and had to be forcibly evicted by the Norwegian Coast Guard. The oil and gas industry understands the risks of drilling in the Arctic and is chastened by the environmental and economic damage caused by the Gulf spill. The cause of environmental protection would be better served if Greenpeace participates with the oil and gas industry in a collaborative, scientific effort to allow safe economic activity in fragile environments.

Disinvestment in fossil fuel industries. Another environmental folly is the Divest Harvard campus organization that is campaigning for the university to “immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuel companies, immediately divest direct holdings from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies, and divest indirect holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies within five years.” Harvard President Drew Faust made an appropriate response: “Given our pervasive dependence on these companies for the energy to heat and light our buildings, to fuel our transportation, and to run our computers and appliances, it is hard for me to reconcile that reliance with a refusal to countenance any relationship with these companies through our investments.”

Economic revolutions. The coal industry was responsible for the industrial revolution that began in the 19th century. The transportation revolution in the 20th century could not have been possible without the oil and gas industry. Additional benefits of petroleum products include fertilizer to grow crops, heating and air conditioning to support population growth throughout the world, and synthetic materials for a wide array of industrial and consumer products.

Those of us in the energy industry understand the need to reduce GHGs. We’re working every day to reduce the environmental impact of our E&P activities. Meanwhile, Divest Harvard students need to understand that without fossil fuels, they would have had to abandon their ivory towers to gather wood to feed their families.