Senate Hearing Underscores Need to Lift Deepwater Drilling Moratorium

Today’s hearing by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship offered strong bipartisan concerns that the deepwater drilling moratorium is harming the Gulf region and weakening our nation’s energy security. API’s President and CEO Jack Gerard offered this reaction after the hearing:

“Following the unfortunate incident in the Gulf, deepwater drilling rigs were appropriately subject to, and have already passed thorough government inspections. The industry continues working hard to enhance safety and is ready to be put back to work.

“We, therefore, welcome calls from Senators on both sides of the aisle to lift the continuing moratorium on deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The moratorium jeopardizes the jobs of tens of thousands of workers and could substantially reduce our domestic energy production.

“Oil and gas companies are doing everything possible to hold onto these jobs and retain the highly skilled workers necessary to operate. However, they must now make long-term capital expenditure decisions, and the current level of uncertainty about the openness of the Gulf of Mexico for development could threaten that investment and send capital and American jobs overseas. Unfortunately, the moratorium has already forced companies to move drilling rigs out of the Gulf.

“We strongly encourage the Department of Interior to establish a solid timeline for putting our companies and highly skilled employees in the Gulf region back to work.”

API represents more than 400 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports more than 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.5 percent of the U.S. economy, and, since 2000, has invested nearly $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives, while reducing the industry’s environmental footprint.