U.S. Continental Shelf Oil Facts
- The continental shelf is an underwater plain that extends outwards from the continent, lying between it and the ocean's depths. The shelf may extend out to sea for several miles, or may be nearly nonexistent. At the edge of the continental shelf is the continental slope, where the ground falls away towards the bottom of the sea. Under United Nations laws, countries are limited to where they may place their outer boundaries according to the location of the continental shelf's outer limits.
- Oil deposits in America's outer continental shelf are found in the Gulf of Mexico, off the shores of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Also in the continental United States, oil is found along the east coast in the Atlantic Ocean and off the west coast in the Pacific Ocean. In Alaska, continental shelf oil is found in the Pacific and Arctic oceans.
- The Minerals Management Service (MMS) is a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Its role is to manage the United States' oil, natural gas, and other mineral resources that are located on the outer continental shelf. In 2006, the MMS completed an assessment of natural resources, and concluded that the oil deposits on the outer continental shelf range from 66.6 to 115.3 billion barrels of oil. The MMS bases its estimates on using conventional oil recovery methods.
- As of 2010, the way that offshore oil is recovered is through drilling. Fixed platforms can be placed at relatively shallow offshore sites, up to around 1,500 feet deep. Compliant towers can be used up to 3,000 feet. Beyond those depths, most offshore platforms are floating platforms that are anchored to their location with cables or tension legs. SPAR platforms can be used for ocean depths of up to 10,000 feet. Oil companies use a rotary drill to make a hole, or wellbore. Conventional drilling is vertical, but sometimes slant or directional drilling is used, where the drill is used at an angle.
- A great deal of controversy surrounds the subject of offshore drilling. Many environmental groups, such as Oceana, oppose offshore drilling because of the amount of pollution that such operations cause. Catastrophic spills, such as the Santa Barbara spill in 1969, create widespread pollution problems when they do happen. However, newer drilling techniques are much cleaner, and today spills from offshore operations contribute only 2 percent of the oil pollution found in the oceans. Still, on a daily basis, the drilling muds, deck runoff water and contaminated brine wastewater on drilling platforms all contain oil residues that find their way back into the ocean.
