Of course, this does not include such amenities as drilling exploratory wells, the cost of pipelines and floating facilities, such as oil platforms from which most of the drilling takes place. However, several important advantages linked to this discovery and to similar oil endeavors is that oil companies "will have to pay the U.S. less taxes, royalties, oil payments and other levies" as compared to drilling for oil within the national water boundaries of other oil-producing nations" (Gold, 2009, Internet), many of whom are members of OPEC.

In addition, there are plans for exploring a second Lower Tertiary site in the Gulf of Mexico known as the Chinook and Cascade Prospects which was discovered by a Brazil-based oil exploration company earlier in 2009. However, as compared to the BP discovery, this site will require a hugely expensive floating production platform which will be used for storage and as an off-loading...
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