Saturday led to several oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico shutting down and evacuating employees as Tropical Storm Debby was named the first storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season.

BP Plc announced on Saturday that it had given the orders to shut down seven platforms in the Gulf as weather conditions in the area continued to worsen. According to BP:

“Those unable to evacuate will shelter in place for the tropical storm.”

To prepare for the storm oil producers were securing wells and shutting down output.

Among BP’s shutdowns is the world’s largest deepwater platform known as Thunder Horse. The Thunder Horse platform is capable of producing 250,000 barrels of oil per day and 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

At the time of shutdown announcements tropical storm Debby was 220 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving north.

While several forecasts shows Debby moving towards Florida, the consensus pointed towards the Texas coast while moving to areas directly south of Louisiana where a large majority of the Gulf’s oil and gas are produced.

Debby is expected to make land fall late next week if it remains on its current path. Debby is currently listed as a tropical storm with 50 mile per hour winds.

In the meantime the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says only 7.8 percent of daily oil and 8.16 percent of daily natural gas output has been affected by the shutdowns.

Even though only a small percentage of the area was shut down the Gulf of Mexico accounts for 20 percent of U.S. oil production and 6 percent of our natural gas drilling.

Tropical Storm Threatens Gulf Of Mexico Oil And Gas Production is a post from: The Inquisitr

Iraq may still be dealing with daily acts of violence and a hugely mismanaged government but that has not stopped the country from increasing oil production levels by 20% in 2011, a number equivalent to 2.5 million barrels of production per day.

Iraq’s government currently receives 95% of its revenue from oil and governmental officials are now hoping to push that revenue upwards by 400,000 barrels per day heading into the 2013 fiscal year.

If all goes as planned Iraq hopes to further its hold on the oil market by dramatically increasing oil production to 10 million barrels per day by 2017. While 10 million barrels daily is a monumentally huge undertaking not all experts are convinced it will even be possible, the president of BP Iraq tells the New York Times:

“Nobody has yet managed to increase oil production in their country to the extent Iraq is planning to. It’s hugely ambitious, and it will take a lot of things to work correctly.”

Iraq is following right behind Saudi Arabia and Libya’s oil production recovery, all of which have worked in unison to help push oil back down to $98.43 per barrel, the lowest cost per barrel since January 2011. Those increases have also helped OPEC exceed its 30-million-barrels per day quota by 5% despite sanctions placed against Iran which have slowed oil production in the terrorist supporting country.

Iran has practically begged OPEC to cut back production however with crippling sanctions currently levied against Iran it is likely production will continue to increase in oil providing countries as Iran’s own oil sales are already down by 12% in 2012.

Iraq Producing More Oil Than Ever, Plans Massive Daily Output Increases is a post from: The Inquisitr

Iraq’s navy was given approval in the last week to purchase unarmed surveillance drones from the United States. The move is meant to help the countries Navy keep a better eye on oil fields as tensions continue to mount in the Persian Gulf.

According to Army Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, head of the U.S. Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq.

“They understand the importance of the mission to protect its oil platforms.”

The U.S. government at this time has confirmed the sale but will not say how many drones or what models have been sold as part of the agreement.

A large portion of the world’s oil originates from the oil terminals located throughout Iraq. A large portion of Iraq’s exports move through several terminals which are vulnerable to attack from feuding countries and terrorists.

While protecting oil is a key factor for Iraq forces, the move is also being seen largely as a way to strengthen US-Iraq ties after US troops left the country in December 2011.

Iraq is already in the process of buying plenty of U.S. military hardware valued at $15 billion. Iraq’s buys are believed to include 36 F-16 fighter planes, M-1 tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq the country has boosted oil production to 3 million barrels today, that number is up from 2.5 million barrels per day before the invasion. Iraq officials say they plan on boosting that production to 10 million barrels per day over the next six years.

Iraq’s deputy prime minister for energy, Hussain al-Shahristani says of his countries long-term oil production goal:

“We’d like Iraq to be considered as a dependable long-term supplier of world energy needs.”

Iraq Purchases US Drones To Keep Watch Over Oil Fields is a post from: The Inquisitr

As gas prices have risen sharply over the last several months President Obama has drawn some heavy negative criticisms for his veto of the Keystone pipeline project and now the President has promised to speed up the approval process for at least part of that project.

Speaking on Friday the President defended his oil policy but pledged to speed up the approval process for the southern leg of the pipeline. That southern leg spans from Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico and it is expected to eliminate a bottleneck in the region.

Earlier in the year Obama was criticized for vetoing the part of the pipeline that runs from Oklahoma to Canada.

At the same time the President continues to stress that US production of crude oil is not going to be enough to send prices plummeting back down.

In the meantime Republicans are criticizing the President’s attempts as nothing more than a publicity stunt. North Dakota’s Sen. John Hoeven says of the President’s newest maneuver:

“He’s taking credit for going forward on the only portion of the pipeline that he doesn’t need to approve … This is literally straddling both sides of the issue.”

The presidents push to get production of the southern part of the Keystone pipeline underway in the meantime has drawn criticism from environmental groups who worry that rushing production could have undue consequences on the surrounding environment.

Here’s a video of Obama’s Keystone plans:

Do you think the keystone pipeline is magically going to make gas prices fall or does the United States need a new approach to energy consumption?

President Obama Promises To Speed Up Keystone Pipeline Southern Production is a post from: The Inquisitr