The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a setback for President Barack Obama's bids to draft a balanced energy policy that is a middle ground between oil companies and environmental groups; this would be done by opening new areas off the U.S eastern seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico for exploration and drilling. In reality, the U.S administration's goal is to rely more and more on domestic oil production, and to reduce its reliance on imported oil. However, the oil spill that is yet to be contained in the Gulf of Mexico will stir the debate about this once more, and more sharply this time, between the U.S oil industry and environmental conservation groups. The spill was the result of a blast that took place in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig operating in a British Petroleum (BP) exploratory well. On April 20, an explosion occurred on the platform resulting in the oil spill and a fire, and two days later, a second explosion took place. As a result, 11 crewmen were killed out of the oil platform's total 126 workers. It seems that the blowout containment devices had failed to activate. The oil rig was operating in deep waters, up to five thousand feet in depth, and 40 miles off the shore of Louisiana. According to official information, five thousand barrels per day of crude oil are leaking out into the sea. However, there are other reports which indicate that the leakage is four to five times more than this figure. But whatever the leakage rate may be, the U.S government has declared the resulting oil spill to as a ‘national disaster', and demanded that BP bear the legal liability for the losses, which are estimated at billions of dollars. In truth, the spill has now reached an important ecological area close to the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico, an area full of marine bird habitats and fish and shrimp farms. But in addition to the human and environmental costs of the incident, it is expected that there will be some significant reactions to the incident involving the oil industry, especially from the U.S government. This incident took place at a time when the energy policy in the United States was going through a general review, including the issue of offshore oil production. In this regard, Obama was poised to submit his five-year offshore oil production plan for 2012-2017 to the Congress. However, this will probably be delayed in light of the oil spill disaster. Nevertheless, Obama stressed that U.S domestic [oil] production is a vital priority for U.S national security, something that emphasizes the importance assigned by the U.S administration to discovering new oil reserves, especially in submerged areas where finding oil is much more likely than finding it onshore. However, the U.S administration, at the same time, cannot dismiss this ‘national disaster' and the ongoing broad debate on environmental policies, and energy and oil production policies, especially those involving the Gulf of Mexico. As Obama ordered an investigation to be completed within a month into the accident's causes and damages, he also stressed the importance of local oil production as a necessity of U.S national security. This is in addition to mobilizing the navy, the various scientific agencies and the competent U.S government departments to mitigate the environmental damage of the oil spill. In truth, the pollution resulting from the oil spill may lead to shutting down many oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (about 10 percent of the production of the Gulf of Mexico comes from the areas north of the sunken platform, and hence, the rigs in these fields will be exposed to pollution and the possibility of subsequent shutdown). Moreover, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port is located to the west of the sunken rig, and if the spill is not prevented from reaching the port area, it will adversely affect around one million barrels per day of crude oil that the United States imports, and subsequently, the balance of supply and demand for oil in the U.S. This could in turn contribute to further hikes in oil prices. *. Mr. Khadduri is an energy expert
