Bill Bush | 202.682.8114 | bushw@api.org

WASHINGTON, November 15, 2011 – API Upstream and Industry Operations Group Director Erik Milito said in a briefing today that the Department of the Interior's newly proposed offshore five-year plan for oil and natural gas development would greatly limit where such development can occur over the next five years – and therefore misses an important opportunity to help the nation better prepare for its energy future:     

"While U.S. oil and natural gas production is increasing today, this is largely due to the development of shale oil and natural gas on private lands in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and elsewhere – and because of leasing and development on public lands and federal waters initiated many years ago.   

"We need a robust strategy for future development of offshore areas and BLM-administered lands because they are and will continue to be important to the nation's oil and natural gas production.  We need to be doing the right things today to be able to meet our nation's energy needs for tomorrow.     

"More development requires that industry and government share a vision of the potential benefits and act as partners to fully realize them.  The Department's new plan maintains the status quo.  It limits what we could and should be doing to secure more domestic energy for our future, create jobs for Americans, and generate revenue for our government.  We hope there will be opportunities to move the administration's offshore proposal closer to the proposal it issued in early 2010."  

API represents more than 480 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 more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.  

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 Remarks by Erik Milito (as prepared for delivery)
Size: 84 KB | Date: November 15, 2011 | License: Free