API: Proposed lease sale inadequate

WASHINGTON, December 6, 2011—In testimony before the Interior Department today, API called on the department to move quickly to finalize the 2012-2017 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Leasing Program and draft a more robust plan that would get our energy and economic future back on track.

"Unfortunately, the decision to limit the scope of the 2012-2017 five-year program to portions of the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska constitutes a missed opportunity to help reach a more secure energy future for our nation," said Erik Milito, API group director for upstream and industry operations. "We risk increasing our reliance on foreign sources of energy and losing jobs and investment to energy development abroad. We need to keep our focus here at home."

Milito pointed to a number of instances where the department's reasoning behind the proposed five year plan for offshore development are inconsistent and unclear. In one example, the Pacific areas were removed from consideration citing recommendations of local elected officials, while excluding areas in the mid-Atlantic—Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. However, the public and elected officials in the mid-Atlantic support development as a path toward job creation and energy security.

"The U.S. has ample reserves of energy—some of the largest known in the world. The approach to developing our offshore resources by the Department of Interior risks setting us on the wrong course," said Milito. "By removing areas from consideration at this point in the process, the plan has short-circuited the ability of our nation to strengthen its own energy production and damaged its national security interests."

"We can create more jobs and generate more revenue if allowed to safely and responsibly develop and produce here in the United States more of the oil and natural gas we need. But more development—especially on public lands and federally controlled waters—requires that industry and government have a shared a vision of the future. We will continue to work with Secretary Salazar and the administration to strongly urge a new, more robust five-year program that will include additional OCS areas in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Eastern Gulf of Mexico that were illogically removed from consideration as part of this five-year program."

API represents more than 490 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America's energy, supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers $86 million in revenue to our government every day, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

Updated: December 6, 2011