You can’t stop the entrepreneurial spirit of America’s job creators, their persistence or appetite for success. Despite the administration’s roadblocks to domestic oil production, manufacturers remain resilient and innovative, achieving new breakthroughs and continuing to find and develop new domestic energy resources.

An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal details the success of energy producers continued commitment to exploration, despite the challenges they have faced over recent years, such as the recent moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Journal notes:

The Interior Department is still issuing very few permits, only 15 for new wells since it lifted its moratorium in October, but Exxon received one of them and struck black gold at 7,000 feet below sea level and some 230 miles at sea… Exxon estimates the field contains some 700 million barrels of oil equivalent, one of the largest finds of the last decade.

The great energy irony of recent years is that governments have thrown hundreds of billions of dollars at wind, solar, ethanol and other alternative fuels, yet the major breakthroughs have taken place in the traditional oil and natural gas business. Hydraulic fracturing in shale, horizontal drilling and new seismic techniques are only the best known examples.

Oil and natural gas companies have stepped up their efforts, incorporating additional safety and environmental protections as part of their commitment to the sound, reliable production of domestic energy to lower costs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

The Journal’s editorial concludes, “The Exxon discovery is a display of the animal spirits that still live in the U.S. energy industry, notwithstanding the political efforts to stifle them. As much as Washington tries, the U.S. economy is hard to keep down.”

With the grim announcement today of the unemployment rate ticking up to 9.1 percent and only 54,000 jobs created in May, nearly 100,000 short of the estimated number, the issues of creating jobs by putting our domestic energy companies back to work is taking center stage in Congress.

Yesterday, in the House of Representatives, offshore drilling was the hot topic with three committees holding hearings on the issue. Manufacturers know that resuming drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and increasing domestic energy production will help invigorate our embattled economy and add more jobs to the payrolls.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a measure yesterday to streamline permitting for offshore drilling operations and to eliminate the bureaucratic red tape that holds up new exploration and production. According to the Committee, the measure will help create jobs and increase domestic energy supplies.

In the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Chairman Issa released a report critical of the BP/Administration Response to the Gulf Oil Spill and also held a hearing assessing the recovery efforts after the spill. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Director Michael Bromwich from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement at the Department of the Interior, both testified.

And in round three of hearings, the House Natural Resources Committee , Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a hearing on Alaskan oil and gas drilling, and the need for faster action in the permitting process. The subcommittee stressed the importance of expediting exploration and production to reduce dependence on foreign oil and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

As summer goes on and gas prices hover around four dollars a gallon, unemployment continues to tick up, the cost of goods and services rises, domestic energy production will continue to remain in the forefront of congressional debates.

From TWN, AFP, via China Post, “Cuba reveals plans to drill 5 new oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico by 2013“:

HAVANA — Cuba on Tuesday announced plans to drill five deep-water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico beginning this summer, expressing confidence that its efforts will be rewarded with major new energy finds.

“We’re about to move to the drilling phase,” said Manuel Marrero, an official with the government authority tasked with overseeing Cuba’s oil sector. “We’re all really hopeful that we will be able to discover large reserves of oil and gas,” said Marrero, who added that the ventures would be undertaken with the help of unspecified foreign companies.

There’s a new pitch: End Cuba sanctions so U.S. can import its oil!

Excerpting the reaction to President Obama’s comments on energy prices and domestic energy production on Friday.

Jack Gerard, president and CEO, American Petroleum Institute, “API to White House: Long Term Solutions Require Short Term Leadership:”

Long-term problems call for short-term leadership. Suggesting that we rely on other nations to solve our energy challenges is irresponsible and will not increase our energy security. The Obama administration continues to delay or defer action on developing our domestic resources of oil and natural gas at every turn.

The trend is alarming. The administration has postponed lease sales in offshore areas. It has cancelled lease sales in onshore federal lands. It has extended permitting timelines for current leases and added unnecessary regulatory burdens. It has chosen inaction on essential energy projects that would create jobs, drive economic growth, and boost federal revenues.

The administration is well on its way toward creating higher gasoline prices for Americans.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), “Landrieu Responds to President’s News Conference on Gas Prices“:

I share President Obama’s concern about how the current crisis in Libya and the constriction of supply in the U.S. are causing gas prices to skyrocket.  Unfortunately, this administration still doesn’t seem to understand that the best way to combat rising gasoline prices is to encourage new domestic development and production of oil.  By issuing permits in the Gulf and by opening new areas for development, we can combat the geopolitical events that affect what this country pays at the pump.

The president wants his administration to account for of all the undeveloped leases held by oil and gas companies in the Gulf.  I don’t know how the president expects companies to develop leases in the Gulf when they can’t even get permits to conduct exploratory activities.  Since new regulations went into place last year after the spill, only one new exploration plan has been approved by the BOEM – only one permit in 10 months. By contrast, in March 2010, the month before the Macondo accident, 48 exploratory plans were issued.  The president can’t hold companies accountable for development of leases when they simply can’t get permits to develop them.

Politico, “Bill Clinton: Drilling delays ‘ridiculous’“:

Bush said all the things you’d expect him to say” on oil and gas issues, said Jim Noe, senior vice president at Hercules Offshore and executive director of the pro-drilling Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition. But Clinton added, “You’d be surprised to know that I agree with all that,” according to Noe and others in the room.

Clinton said there are “ridiculous delays in permitting when our economy doesn’t need it,” according to Noe and others.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, “Upton Statement in Response to President Obama’s Remarks on Energy and Gasoline Prices“: (continue reading…)

The American Energy Alliance on Monday released an analysis of the economic impact on the Obama Administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The findings:

• Over 8,000 jobs lost in the Gulf Coast region
• Over 12,000 jobs lost across the country.
• $700 million in lost wages due to the moratorium.
• $2.1 billion in economic activity lost in the Gulf Coast region and nearly $2.7 billion lost nationwide.

The analysis, “The Economic Cost of a Moratorium on Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration to the Gulf Region,” was conducted by Joseph Mason, the Louisiana Bankers Association endowed professor of banking at Louisiana State University. In the release, Mason commented:

The data are clear. The moratorium will cost the Gulf Coast region jobs, money, and economic development. In fact, the moratorium could be more costly, than the oil spill itself. The region is already struggling from devastating losses from Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Gustav, and the nation’s depressed economy. By stifling one of the area’s primary economic engines, the administration is crippling the local economy and risking long term consequences.

Gulf Coast citizens will protest the moratorium on Wednesday in Lafayette, gathering at the Cajundome for the Rally for Economic Survival.

Mason appeared in a Bloomberg interview to discuss his finding, with the video at WashingtonPost.com here. (The Post and Bloomberg launched a new content-comingled business website this week. The Post’s business coverage had suffered after it dropped its weekday business section in March 2009.)

Nola.com, the Times-Picayune’s website, also provides an update on the litigation challenging the Interior Department’s moratorium:

Meanwhile, a lawsuit over the moratorium brought by Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. of Covington continues.

Last week, a suit which represents the interests of shallow water drilling companies, Ensco Offshore Co. v. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar et al, was consolidated into the Hornbeck suit. Shallow water drillers believe that they face a de-facto moratorium because of the ban on deepwater oil exploration.

Wall Street Journal, “Early Signs Show Gulf’s Energy Facilities Held Up”

The weakened Hurricane Gustav hit energy-producing facilities that were more rugged and better prepared to resume operations than they were three years ago during Hurricane Katrina.

Turbulent weather prevented a damage assessment Monday, and industry officials cautioned that in previous hurricanes, initial optimism soured when operators began to test equipment.

Houston Chronicle: “With little damage to oil patch, prices dip“:

The oil and gas industry breathed a tentative sigh of relief Monday after preliminary reports suggested Hurricane Gustav did little damage to energy facilities both onshore and off, helping send oil prices sharply downward.

Early updates from Gulf of Mexico drillers and oil and natural gas producers were “very promising,” with no major damage reported, said Lars Herbst, regional director for Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department office that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry.

MMS has more on its homepage. For regular updates, you can’t go wrong with The Oil Drum.