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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/1242317-p2.html »
An energy group is mounting a renewed push to overturn Florida's ban on offshore drilling during the next legislative session, after an effort earlier this year failed.
``I'm not going to tell you what we think, but Coastal says they did not drill deep enough and did not drill in the right places,'' Daniels said. Asked if Coastal - which ended up suing Florida and losing - is part of the Florida Energy consortium, the lawyer blurted, ``God, no!''
JOB POTENTIAL
The only place where lots of oil has been found in Florida is onshore: the Jay oil field in the Panhandle. Over three decades, Exxon pumped more than 425 million barrels from that field. The geologist who found it in 1970, Charlie Meeks, is now working for Florida Energy Associates.
``We think there's a lot of opportunity for production there,'' Meeks said. ``The geology is all solid. But you know how oil is - you got to find it.''
Daniels says if the prediction of 16 billion barrels is accurate, that would create 231,000 new jobs.
Most of those would be on the rigs as crew members. Phillips said each rig would need about 150 people. But supervisors need to be experienced, so they would be imported from existing crews elsewhere in the gulf, Daniels said.
There are also jobs supplying the rigs. These rigs would be too close to shore to justify using helicopters, he said, so instead boats would carry supplies and people back and forth. Phillips said there would be ``a huge demand for divers'' to inspect the rigs, too.
Many oil industry jobs are in refineries, but ``there's no refineries that's going to be built onshore'' in Florida, Daniels said. Instead, he said, the oil would be refined at existing facilities in Louisiana.
PIPELINE RISK
Getting the oil there will require building pipelines, which means construction jobs. The pipelines are the source of most of the 3,898 barrels of oil that, on average, spilled from U.S. offshore drilling every year between 1998 and 2007, according to Doug Morris of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association. The pipelines off Louisiana are particularly old and in need of repair, he said.
Depending on where around Florida's coast the drilling occurs, the pipelines could either bring the oil onto land here to be piped overland to Louisiana, Daniels said, or a pipeline could be built to hook up with existing pipelines now off Louisiana. There would still be a need for onshore facilities. Pipe companies ``will be setting up yards to sell all of the various kinds of pipe and fittings the industry needs,'' Phillips said.
Meanwhile rigs often produce as much water from underground as they do oil, which means a need to build a plant to separate the oil from what the industry calls ``produced water,'' Daniels said.
Loaded with chemicals and heavy metals, produced water is the oil industry's largest toxic by-product. Once it's separated from the oil, it's either trucked to desalinization and treatment facilities or pumped into wells deep underground for disposal. Finding an area to build such a plant - perhaps at Port Tampa or Port Manatee on Tampa Bay - and getting the permits for disposing of the radioactive produced water, could pose a challenge for oil companies.
Another option: Drilling diagonally from an as-yet unselected onshore location to the offshore lease site. That puts the rig on land -- again, in an industrial area. Phillips said no one would see it.
``Here in Texas we are drilling in school yards in downtown Fort Worth and other than during the month or so drilling phase, you would be challenged to even find the locations,'' Phillips said. ``There are hundreds of people playing golf right now through courses with wells on them that they don't even know exist.''
According to Florida Energy Associates, the state's residents should embrace a future of nearshore drilling.
``We really do want to do for Florida,'' Phillips said, ``what oil and gas has done for Texas.''
St. Petersburg Times staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.
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