TAOS, NM – U.S Senator Pete Domenici, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today issued the following statement regarding two forecasts issued by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) on the status of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico:

 

            “Two recent reports by the Minerals Management Service have confirmed that the Gulf of Mexico holds great promise for domestic production of fossil fuels.  MMS is forecasting that oil production in the Gulf is expected to increase over the next years to a possible high of 2.1 million barrels of oil per day.  In addition, MMS reports that more than half of the active oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico are in water depths of over 1,000 feet, making further deepwater exploration worthwhile.

 

            “These developments show that Congress was right to expand the area of exploration last year in the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.  As the Senate moves to debate an energy package over the coming weeks, we should seriously consider taking steps to increase our supply of domestic oil and gas.  By producing more of our own oil, we will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which makes sense from both an economic and a national security standpoint.”

 

            The two reports, Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Production Forecast: 2007-2016, and Deepwater Gulf of Mexico 2007: Interim Report of 2006 Highlights, are available online at http://www.gomr.mms.gov/PDFs/2007/2007-020.pdf and http://www.gomr.mms.gov/PDFs/2007/2007-021.pdf, respectively. 

 

           

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