WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. legislators are weighing the prospects of oil and gas development in the Atlantic Ocean, where an industry group expects major resource production by 2035.
The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources scheduled a hearing Friday to review plans for seismic exploration that would provide a better understanding of the resource potential in the Atlantic Ocean.
In October, Tommy Beaudreau, director of the U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said his agency should have enough information on hand to consider the area in a five-year lease plan beginning in 2017.
National Ocean Industries Association, an industry group lobbying for more offshore work, said in a December report about 1.34 million barrels of oil equivalent per day could be produced from the Atlantic basin by 2035 and most of that would be in the form of natural gas.
In a five-year lease plan outlined in 2011, BOEM said the oil and natural gas potential in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf is not well understood and surveys of these areas are incomplete and out of date.
