Mike Conaway: “The traditional offshore lease needs to be at least 10 years because from start to finish--we have got some graphs here…”

“The traditional offshore lease needs to be at least 10 years because from start to finish--we have got some graphs here that we can show you the logical, businesslike progression that companies have to walk down. What is not mentioned so far is all the litigation costs that are associated with these leases, particularly in the Rocky Mountains. If a company is able to win a lease, they are immediately sued by environmentalists to prevent their exploring for it. This current price of gasoline and crude oil is a product of supply and demand. About 86 million barrels a day of production, about 85 million barrels a day of usage, and that varies from day-to-day. Inventories start dropping. That means demand has gone beyond the current production supply. The most immediate area for quick relief in this regard would be Iraq. The Iraqi government has recently reached out to ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron to ask them, ask the experts, the folks who have the money to be able to do it, to come into Iraq and help them increase the amount of production that Iraq produces from oil and gas.”