Trump Administration Approves Ultra-Deepwater Oil Drilling Plan
Last edited Sat Mar 14, 2026, 03:32 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: NYT
The Trump administration on Friday approved a $5 billion oil drilling project in ultradeep waters of the Gulf of Mexico over protests from Democrats and environmental activists who said the venture posed significant risks to wildlife and communities.
The project by the British energy giant BP would be about 250 miles off the coast of Louisiana and is expected to start producing oil in 2029. The company projects it will deliver up to 10 billion barrels of oil by the end of this decade.
Known as Kaskida, it would be the companys first new deepwater project in the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010, which set off the worst oil spill disaster in U.S. history.
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Opponents said the extreme pressure and high temperatures required to operate in waters deeper than 5,600 feet heighten the risk of a blowout that could endanger Gulf communities and the marine ecosystem.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/climate/trump-bp-gulf-of-mexico-drilling.html
EDITING to correct the "56,000 feet" mistake the NYT originally had to "5,600 feet" which they changed it to later.
gab13by13
(32,058 posts)wnylib
(25,762 posts)oil as he is with gold.
LilElf70
(1,537 posts)Yep. It's all about the benjamins. Always has been. He could care less about humanity. He's proven it over and over and over again.
I'm pretty sure the king thinks he will die someday. You think about it more often in your latter years.
Even more reason to make it all about the money. He want's it all. And he wants it now while he's still here.
Lonestarblue
(13,453 posts)I wonder how much of a secret kickback he got to approve this deal.
jfz9580m
(17,020 posts)Stargate and all that bullshit..
Ponietz
(4,290 posts)kysrsoze
(6,438 posts)Bayard
(29,447 posts)AZJonnie
(3,644 posts)56,000 feet deep is not accurate, not that this changes the overall point. That should read 5,600 feet.
This is also wrong: "start producing oil in 2029. The company projects it will deliver up to 10 billion barrels of oil by the end of this decade."
That should be century, not decade.
highplainsdem
(61,672 posts)said in the sentence ending "by the end of this decade" - that's wrong, but it I don't know if they'd be estimating production more than 70 years in the future.
I did some googling. 10 billion barrels is the estimated total of the oil there. The company is predicting they'll get 80,000 barrels a day from 6 wells. That won't get them close to 10 billion by the end of the century. They'd need to get about 5x as much per day.
BP admits there could be a blowout doing as much damage as Deepwater Horizon.
https://earthjustice.org/feature/kaskida-bp-oil-drilling
To put that in perspective, the blowout that caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster led to the release of 4.9 million barrels and took 87 days to stop. Additionally, the company did not provide the calculations behind their projection, precluding the public from independently verifying the data.
AZJonnie
(3,644 posts)Century sounded possible if it was overall really pumping it out. Thanks for the additional research, HPD
highplainsdem
(61,672 posts)alert as I wish I were.
Timeflyer
(3,744 posts)FakeNoose
(41,290 posts)
Javaman
(65,620 posts)Expect a massive well blowout
Roy Rolling
(7,597 posts)Here in New Orleans we remember the expertise and safety of BP.
They famously produced all of the authentic B-roll for the film Deepwater Horizon if you know what I mean.