Opening the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean outer continental shelf to drilling would add 2.2 million barrels of oil equivalent a day to U.S. production by 2035, the American Petroleum Institute says in a new report. As Bloomberg reports, allowing exploration would bring on new production in 2023, according to today’s report, prepared by Quest Offshore Resources Inc. for the API and the National Ocean Industries Association.
Eastern Gulf production would be 75,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2026, rising to 1 million by 2035. The Pacific would add 50,000 barrels a day to grow production to 90,000 by 2026, rising to 1.2 million by 2035. The U.S. allows exploration and production in the central and western parts of the Gulf, and not the eastern part that extends south from the panhandle of Florida. No exploration is allowed in the Pacific shelf, though some production is still coming ashore from old wells. The U.S. produces 9.06 million barrels of oil a day, up 67% in the past 5 years.
