SAFE Commends Movement Toward Lifting Ban on Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Production

SAFE Commends Movement Toward Lifting Ban on Offshore Oil and Natural Gas
Production

WASHINGTON, June 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two years after recommending an
end to the federal moratorium on oil and natural gas production in the Outer
Continental Shelf as part of a comprehensive plan to reduce oil dependence,
Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE) today praised President Bush's
proposal to achieve that goal and noted widespread public support for
increased domestic production of oil and natural gas.

"Two years ago, we put forward a comprehensive plan to improve America's
energy security," said Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of
FedEx Corporation and Co-Chairman of SAFE's Energy Security Leadership Council
(ESLC). "Last year, Republicans and Democrats joined together to enact a
major part of that plan: the first improvements in fuel economy standards in
three decades. Now, with Americans facing record high gas prices and with oil
imports accounting for an astonishing 40 percent of our trade deficit, both
Republicans and Democrats are facing a moment of opportunity. It is time to
again come together to support another major piece of the energy security
puzzle: increasing domestic production in an environmentally sound way."

In its 2006 Recommendations to the Nation on Reducing U.S. Oil Dependence, the
ESLC called on policymakers to "Increase access to U.S. oil and natural gas
reserves in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) with sharply increased and
expanded environmental protections." Today, the president echoed that
recommendation by calling on Congress to lift the more than 25-year-old
federal moratoria on areas of the OCS that are estimated to hold as much as 20
billion barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. Recent
polls have showed strong majorities of Americans now support increased
offshore production.

"As we said long before the current skyrocketing oil prices, increasing our
domestic supply of oil and natural gas in a safe, sound manner is crucial to
our economic and national security," General P.X. Kelley (Ret.), 28th
Commandant of the Marine Corps and Co-Chairman of SAFE's ESLC said. "We
cannot drill our way out of oil dependence, but we can alleviate some of the
consequences while we move toward more permanent, longer-term solutions, and
we can do it in a responsible manner. Three years ago, Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita roared through the Gulf of Mexico, destroying 115 platforms and damaging
countless others--yet not a single drop of oil was reported to be spilled. We
have the ability, we have the technology, and most of all, we have the
necessity. It is time for Republicans and Democrats to put aside partisanship
and, as they did with last year's energy bill, act together to secure
America's future energy."

Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE) is an action-oriented, nonpartisan
organization that aims to reduce America's dependence on oil and improve U.S.
energy security to bolster national security and strengthen the economy.

OCS Production Fact Sheet

-- In 2007 (before today's record prices), the United States imported
65 percent of the crude oil and refined product it consumed at a cost
of
nearly $300 billion.[1]
-- Net petroleum imports represented 41 percent of the total 2007
U.S.
trade deficit.
-- Producing an extra 1 million barrels per day of domestic crude oil
would have reduced America's import costs by $26.4 billion in
2007.

-- The U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) estimates that the federal
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) holds billions of barrels of oil and
significant quantities of natural gas.[2]
-- For more than 25 years, 85 percent of OCS acreage--containing an
estimated 20 billion barrels of oil and 83.5 trillion of cubic
feet
of natural gas--has been off limits to oil and gas exploration and
production due to federal moratoria.[3]
-- Additional oil and gas resources are believed to exist due to
favorable geological conditions in many areas of the OCS, but a
precise inventory with modern equipment has not been conducted in
over two decades due to the uncertainty created by federal
moratoria.

-- Overwhelming evidence indicates that offshore drilling in the U.S. can
be carried out in an environmentally-sound manner.
-- According to the U.S. Department of Interior, offshore operators
produced 7 billion barrels of oil from 1985 to 2001 with a spill
rate of only .001%. In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed
115 Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and damaged 535 pipeline
segments, but there were no major oil spills attributed to either
storm.
-- Any exploration of the OCS would be undertaken under the
supervision
and within the constraints of American environmental standards,
which are far more stringent than those in many parts of the
world.

-- Benefits of increased U.S. energy production would be wide-ranging.
-- In 2007, the Minerals Revenue Management Service reported $11.4
billion in total royalty revenue from domestic energy production
on
federal land and water.[4]
-- Of this total, $6.7 billion was disbursed to the general fund of
the
U.S. treasury; $2.0 billion went to producing states; $1.5 billion
went to the Reclamation Fund; and $900 million to the Land and
Water
Conservation Fund.
-- Opening the federal OCS to environmentally responsible development
of oil and gas will increase revenues for many states as they
confront looming budget deficits.

-- Increasing domestic supply is only one part of the energy security
equation but it is a significant one.
-- Based on geological and historical precedent, opening the federal
OCS to development could yield maximum crude oil production levels
of between 1.0 and 2.0 million barrels per day in the coming
years.
-- By comparison, lawmakers' recent action to suspend filling the
U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve placed an estimated additional
60,000 - 80,000 barrels of crude oil on the market each day.

1. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/info_glance/petroleum.html;
http://tse.export.gov/
2. U.S. Minerals and Management Service, Assessment of Undiscovered
Technically Recoverable Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation's Outer
Continental Shelf. (2006)
3. Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), Untapped Potential:
Offshore Oil and Gas Resources Unavailable to Leasing. (2006)
4. http://www.mrm.mms.gov/MRMWebStats/Home.aspx

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Robbie Diamond
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SOURCE Securing America's Future Energy

Jonathan Grella of Securing America's Future Energy, +1-202-461-2369