WASHINGTON, January 10, 2012 – The 2010 moratorium and continued slow pace of oil and natural gas project-permitting in the Gulf of Mexico are harming investment in new oil and natural gas projects and eliminating thousands of jobs, a study released today by API concludes.
"The economic impacts of the moratorium are still being felt," said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. "We're not doing what we should be doing to help meet our nation's energy needs, deliver revenue to our government, and create jobs. This is not just hurting people in the Gulf, it's hurting people across the country."
The study, "The State of the Offshore U.S. Oil and Gas Industry," says that the downturn in permitting cost some 90,000 jobs in 2011, and resulted in 11 drilling rigs leaving the Gulf for other countries such as Brazil, Egypt and Angola. The study calculates that lost investment related to the departing rigs could amount to more than $21.4 billion through 2015. If permitting could return to pre-moratorium levels, the study says, by 2017 offshore oil production could increase by about 13 percent over where it is currently headed.
"Energy policy needs a course correction," Gerard said. "Our industry has a vision of an energy future that will support and create millions of jobs and strengthen our energy security. It is based on smart, realistic deployment of all of America's energy assets, including our ample supplies of oil and natural gas."
Quest Offshore Resources, a Sugar Land, Texas, consulting firm, prepared the study for API. To view a copy, please click on the link below:
The State of the Offshore U.S. Oil and Gas Industry
API represents more than 490 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America's energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested over $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.