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Energy Awareness Month - 2004

Graphic - Energy Awareness Month, 2004This October, as the nation observes Energy Awareness month, the issue of searching for sources of energy is on virtually every American’s mind.  The MMS and other Federal agencies face an ongoing challenge of meeting today’s energy needs. 

Ninety percent of new energy plants coming online in the next decade will be powered by natural gas.  Today, 56 million American homes are heated with natural gas, and over two-thirds of all new homes being built use natural gas for cooking. 

The Gulf of Mexico currently supplies about 30 percent of the oil and 23 percent of the natural gas produced in the U.S., with those numbers on the increase.  Yearly Gulf production is approximately 605 million barrels of oil and 4.45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The number of producing deep water projects in the Gulf has increased by about 50 percent in the past two years.  And two years from now the Gulf’s oil production will be twice what it was in 1995, thanks in large part to the deep water region.

Department of Energy projections indicate that the gap between supply and demand could increase by another 50 percent in the next 20 years.  And, it’s not just consumers that will be hard hit.  Natural gas is the primary source of fuel in the industrial sector, accounting for 38 percent of total consumption.

The Department of the Interior’s MMS and others are working to secure America’s energy future.

By managing energy exploration in U.S. offshore areas, MMS oversees production of more than 23 percent of natural gas and 30 percent of oil resources in America.   MMS researchers report the area known as the Outer Continental Shelf, may hold as much as a 50-year supply of undiscovered natural gas and that over 50 percent of the nation’s oil and gas resources are located in offshore areas. 

Like the offshore energy supply, our oceans are a national treasure.  Protecting the environment is a critical part of MMS’s regulatory calling.  In every case, MMS conducts extensive reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws before recommending development, and monitors and inspects energy company activities in these sensitive environmental areas.

As the Nation considers its energy future during Energy Awareness Month, energy conservation practiced at home and integrated into everyday life can make a difference today.  

 


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Last Updated: 10/13/2004, 09:47 AM

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