FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2006
CONTACT: Jamie Loftus
SENATOR HUTCHISON ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT REACHED ON OFFSHORE DRILLING PRODUCTION
WASHINGTON, DC -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today announced that Gulf State Senators have reached a bipartisan agreement to open over eight million new acres for oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We can no longer stand by and neglect our own oil and gas reserves as we depend upon foreign sources of energy. Opening this new area will increase domestic supplies of energy and help consumers with the price of oil and gas,” Sen. Hutchison said.
The area, Lease 181 and the lease area south of 181, is expected to provide more than 1.3 billion barrels of oil and six trillion cubic feet of gas. Through federal royalty sharing, the Gulf Coast states will be provided a means to protect important national ecosystems and prepare themselves for unforeseen natural disasters.
With the global demand for oil and gas rising at a rapid rate, increasing domestic sources of energy will strengthen our national and economic security. The amount of oil expected to be produced from this area is more than the proven reserves in Wyoming and Oklahoma combined. The amount of gas that will be provided is six times the amount of liquefied natural gas that the U.S. imports each year.
Texas will receive 10 percent of the eligible 37.5 percent in revenues from Lease 181 and the area south of 181 for the life of production after 2007. Beginning in 2017, Texas will receive 21 percent of the eligible 37.5 percent in revenues that are allocated for new Outer Continental Shelf production outside Lease 181 and the southern lease block.
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