How do government decisions impact our industry?  Royalties, drilling permits in remote areas, climate change regulations, new offshore blocks on lease, etc. are in the forefront. The energy companies are among the most powerful groups in Washington.  According to the group Political Money Line, the top 10 oil companies spent $33.1million lobbying Congress in 2005.

Accessing additional prospective acreage is a critical need for the U.S. domestic energy industry and energy consumers.  Some 90% of Outer Continental Shelf is off-limits to new oil and gas exploration, including all of the West Coast, all of the East Coast except a small wedge off of Virginia and all of the Florida Coast. 

The North Aleutian Basin in the Southeast Bering Sea of Alaska was placed in a Congressional moratorium in 1990 and the same year the first President Bush withdrew the area from consideration for OCS leasing.  The Congressional moratorium was removed in FY 2004 at the request of a local native group.  The Presidential withdrawal remained as the lone obstacle preventing the MMS to evaluate the area for a potential lease sale. 

This presentation will describe the effort Shell Exploration and Production Company undertook to increase acreage access in Alaska.