Although a majority of North Carolinians appear to support offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, they don’t live on the coast next to the 200-mile planning area, a university lecturer told a group of about 50 people at Bald Head Island on Monday.
Roger Shew, who has more than two decades of experience in the petroleum industry, outlined the pros and cons of drilling at a forum sponsored by Bald Head Association and Bald Head Island Conservancy. He said an Elon University poll found 66-percent of residents supported drilling, while a Harris poll put support at 71-percent.
“Coal is still the biggest source of North Carolina energy,” he said, and it is the worst for the environment. About 9.5-percent of North Carolina’s energy comes from renewable resources. State law mandates that 12.5-percent of energy come from renewable sources by 2021. Shew called that a “meager goal.”
Drilling would be restricted within 50 miles of the coast. Shew said even if rigs are built off the North Carolina coast, residents shouldn’t expect to see a lot of economic development.
“The Gulf (of Mexico) has all the infrastructure; there is none here,” Shew said. “Norfolk (Virginia) and Charleston (South Carolina) will see the most activity. We don’t have the deep water port with infrastructure.”
Eight companies currently want to survey off the North Carolina coast, he said. The best spots are 35 to 45 miles offshore along the slope of the Continental Shelf, he said. Under current rules, drilling could not happen before 2021 and it would be 2026 before production wells would be operational, he said.
He estimated there is the equivalent of five-billion barrels of oil in the North Carolina area under consideration.
Seismic testing will cause “incidental harassment” of marine mammals but will not injure or kill thousands, as some have claimed, Shew said.
The University of North Carolina at Wilmington lecturer took a moment to contrast drilling rigs with wind turbines.
A wind-energy turbine “would not bother me if it was next door,” Shew said, adding that they would visible perhaps 30-percent of the time at proposed locations. Some folks don’t want to see them at all, he acknowledged.
The state is asking that wind turbines be at least 24 miles offshore—a request that would effectively eliminate them from two proposed areas off Brunswick County.
Shew said large, modern turbines spin slowly and are designed to deter birds. There’s been no indication that they have caused harm in Europe, where they are widely used. “I actually think it would be a tourist attraction,” Shew said.
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