McCain campaigns for off-shore drilling on Gulf rig

ABOARD THE CHEVRON GENESIS (Reuters) - Republican John McCain took his campaign high above the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, visiting an offshore oil and gas rig and predicting many more like it along the U.S. coasts if he is elected president.

Hoping to highlight his support for new offshore drilling, a hot political issue as Americans face rising energy costs, McCain climbed around open-air platforms, peered at the giant drills and chatted with workers over the roar of machinery.

"We need to start drilling offshore on advanced oil rigs like this one," he said on board the 9-year-old Chevron Genesis hull/spar facility. "New drilling has got to be part of our energy solution."

McCain claimed his Democratic opponent Barack Obama, whom he faces in the November 4 election, opposes new drilling.

However, Obama recently said he would back limited offshore drilling as part of a broader package in an attempt to bring down gas prices and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Dropping his blanket opposition to expanded offshore drilling, the Illinois senator signaled support for a bipartisan compromise in Congress aimed at breaking a deadlock on energy that includes limited drilling.

Opinion polls show a majority of the public supports expanded drilling to try to battle rising gas prices, although federal officials say it would take years for any oil to be produced from new drilling, and experts say perhaps a decade before the drilling would have any effect on prices at the pump.

Chevron's Genesis facility, some 100 miles offshore and 140 miles from New Orleans, produces 10,000 barrels of oil a day and 15 million cubic feet of natural gas, officials said.

McCain had planned to visit the rig in July but canceled the trip when Hurricane Dolly threatened the Gulf of Mexico.

McCain was accompanied on the hour-long visit by a small cadre of media who followed him along the vertigo-inducing open platforms 150 feet above the water. A school of bluefish and a barracuda were visible in the 2700-foot-(823 meters)deep water below.

He rode out on a helicopter over wetlands, levees and homes still scarred from Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

McCain said conservation, alternative energy such as solar and wind and traditional sources such as clean coal and nuclear power should be combined with new offshore drilling efforts.

"When I'm president, there will be a whole lot more like them, not only here in the Gulf but also off of our East and West Coasts," he said. "We need to drill offshore and we need to do it now."

The proposal in Congress would open additional areas in the Gulf of Mexico for development and allow drilling off Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia if those states give permission. Production would still only be allowed 50 miles (80 km) from shore.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason; editing by Patricia Zengerle)