The American Petroleum Institute (API) – a national trade associate in for the oil and gas industry in the US – said it will ask the Obama administration to allow for the maximum acreage of offshore drilling in the next five-year plan to be issued by the Department of the Interior.
The API issued its statement ahead of a public hearing in Washington DC on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) proposed lease plan for the period 2017-2022.
The body cites maximal offshore production as being integral to long-term national security.
In March the government announced a U-turn, cancelling plans to allow drilling offshore in the Atlantic. That followed protests from coastal communities and from the Pentagon.
The original plan, announced in January 2015, had been to allow auctioning of drilling rights in waters off of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
The API is lobbying for there to be no further reductions in offshore leases for sites in the Gulf of Mexico and off of Alaska.
API needs to know that the people along the east coast do not want offshore rigs in the Atlantic. We value clean water and pristine beaches much more than we value oil company profits. Leave us alone, please.