Video: Untapped Potential in the Gulf of Mexico
The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) has released a new web video illustrating the potential energy and economic benefits to the United States if the Eastern Gulf of Mexico were opened to offshore oil and natural gas development. The video follows the release last week by NOIA and the American Petroleum Institute (API) of two new economic studies on the benefits of increased access to the outer continental shelf (OCS), both in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific.
The video can be found at: http://youtu.be/jQDoGDBg6cg?list=PL7cR1BHO3_C5wUVJYXHuvqepUDFB2nbx1
All three areas – the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific OCS and the Atlantic OCS – are currently almost entirely off-limits to offshore oil and gas development but could be included in the federal government’s next five-year leasing program. If the federal government begins holding lease sales in these regions in 2018, the three studies show that by 2035:
- Pacific OCS development could create more than 330,000 jobs, spur nearly $140 billion in private sector spending, generate $81 billion in revenue to the government, contribute over $28 billion per year to the U.S. economy, and add more than 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in domestic energy production.
- Eastern Gulf of Mexico development could create nearly 230,000 jobs, spur $114.5 billion in private sector spending, generate $69.7 billion in revenue for the government, contribute over $18 billion per year to the U.S. economy, and add nearly 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to domestic energy production.
- Atlantic OCS development could create nearly 280,000 jobs, spur $195 billion in private sector spending, generate $51 billion in revenue for the government, contribute up to $24 billion per year to the U.S. economy, and add 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to domestic energy production.
- Development in all three study areas -- the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific OCS, and the Atlantic OCS – could, by 2035, create more than 838,000 jobs annually, spur nearly $449 billion in new private sector spending, generate more than $200 billion in new revenue for the government, contribute more than $70 billion per year to the U.S. economy, and add more than 3.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to domestic energy production.
NOIA said it is also developing a video illustrating the untapped potential of the Pacific OCS to be released in the coming weeks.
