Exploring America's Energy Future

America needs a balanced, fact-based energy policy that promotes energy efficiency and conservation and greater supplies of all forms of energy, including domestic oil and natural gas. Congress must act to expand access to the abundant supplies of domestic oil and natural gas that have been off-limits to drilling for decades.

• Oil and natural gas are vital to our energy and economic future. Right now, companies are not allowed to drill where the best prospects for oil and natural gas may exist.

• 85 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the lower 48 states is off-limits to development. These inaccessible lands contain an estimated 18 billion barrels of oil and 76.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service.
• Only 17 percent of non-park, non-wilderness federal lands administered by the federal government is open to energy development under standard lease terms. Lands unavailable for development hold an estimated 19 billion barrels of oil and 94.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
• Federal lands hold an estimated 650.9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, enough to meet the natural gas needs of 60 million households for 160 years (60 million households in the United States are fueled by natural gas).  They also hold an estimated 116.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil, enough to produce gasoline for more than 60 million cars and fuel oil for 3.2 million households for 60 years.

• The industry has proven it can safely develop oil and natural gas resources in all areas, including federal lands. With new technologies, the industry has and will continue to reduce the environmental footprint of exploration and production by drilling fewer wells to access greater amounts of production.
  
• Production of oil and natural gas on federal lands has brought billions of dollars of revenue into federal and state treasuries.  Expanding access to additional non-park federal lands and federal waters could put billions of additional dollars into federal and state budgets.

• Oil and natural gas leasing and development on non-park federal lands and in OCS waters have generated in excess of $200 billion since 1953 through bonus bids, royalties and lease rental payments. The U.S. government received $3.7 billion from company bids in a single Gulf of Mexico lease sale in March 2008.
• Revenues from oil and natural gas activities represent a significant revenue source to the federal government.
• Revenues from such development go to both the federal government and to states to help pay for vital programs.
• Beginning in 2008, states that allow development in federal waters off their coasts receive additional revenues from oil and natural gas operations. The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 authorizes sharing of 37.5 percent of all revenue collected by the MMS, from all Gulf leases issued – including bonus bids, rentals and production royalties – between Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The first lease sale under this provision netted over $24 million in immediate revenue for the four states.

• Expanding access to additional non-park federal lands and federal waters could add high-paying jobs to America’s employment rolls.

Sources:

MMS, “Oil and Gas Resources in the OCS Areas Unavailable for Leasing and Development.” May 2007.
BLM, “Inventory of Onshore Federal Oil and Natural Gas Resources and Restrictions to Their Development.” June 2008.
MMS, Minerals Revenue Management, various tables.
MMS, “MMS Incorporates Revenue Sharing Rules.” May 27, 2008.
US Department of Labor,  Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Employment given is total jobs in four sectors comprising the upstream oil and gas industry (oil and gas extraction, NGL extraction, drilling oil and gas wells, and support activity for oil and gas extraction)
US Department  of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.