Today, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held an oversight hearing on America's offshore energy reserves and future development. Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) issued the following statement in response:

"The United States has an abundance of oil and gas reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf, yet the full potential of these resources remains inadequately understood. As adversarial nations like China and Russia ramp up the production of their own resources, the United States has lagged behind. It is imperative that we accelerate exploration of our own undiscovered resources to sustain competitiveness and restore American energy independence, which is why I was glad to hold this hearing to identify solutions that help the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management better assess these offshore resources. By identifying more areas for responsible energy production, we will not only become energy independent once again, but we will unlock jobs and prosperity for countless American families."

Background

The U.S. has robust oil and gas reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), but much is still unknown about the true resource potential of most offshore regions. Ensuring access to offshore domestic resources and developing accurate resource assessments are increasingly important as OPEC nations, China and Russia, have ramped up production and consolidated efforts to diminish U.S. market share and increase global reliance on their resources. 

The Department of the Interior publishes a report every five years inventorying U.S. OCS oil and natural gas resources. In recent years, however, this report has failed to include updated information on our nation’s true resource potential and instead merely recycled old data. This is another example of the Biden administration’s war on American energy. President Joe Biden has also released the worst schedule of offshore lease sales in history, leading to the unprecedented absence of an offshore sale in 2024. This made it the first year without a sale in over 65 years.

The importance of an accurate understanding of our nation’s energy resources cannot be overstated, especially given the global landscape of energy markets. The global offshore energy landscape is diverse and complex, with varying degrees of transparency and discovery across nations. As we consider the intricacies of America’s offshore potential, it is also vital to compare our work with the offshore activities of other key nations. 

Enhancing the accuracy and reliability of our domestic resources assessments requires new seismic surveys, exploratory drilling and other techniques to fill our current knowledge gaps. Today's hearing allowed members to hear from experts in the field and learn more about the potential solutions to improve the information we have about our energy resources and ensure that the United States maintains its competitive edge in the global energy market, leverages its natural resources effectively, and achieves greater energy security.