Page 28: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2026)

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WASHINGTON WATCH NOIA © karlstury / Adobe Stock

EXTENDING

THE GULF OF

AMERICA’S ENERGY

ADVANTAGE

Te Gulf of America produces roughly 2 million barrels of oil per day, supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, and runs on decades of accumulated infrastructure, expertise, and investment. A new report from NOIA and API, prepared by EIAP, makes the case for what comes next, and the numbers behind it are hard to ignore.

By Erik Milito, President, National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) pening the South Central Gulf of America to Those fgures also refect something the raw numbers don't development could support more than 133,000 fully capture: the South Central area would be developed by a jobs, generate over $11 billion in GDP, and add workforce and supply chain that already exists, already knows more than 470,000 barrels of oil equivalent per the Gulf, and are ready to safely build more projects.

O day in production by 2040, all incremental to what the The case for moving forward isn't just about the upside.

Gulf already produces today. The area sits adjacent to exist- It's about understanding how offshore development actu- ing infrastructure, which means development there draws ally works. From lease award to frst production can take on the same workforce, supply chain, and technical capa- a decade or more. Projects require large, long-term capital bilities already supporting current operations, more eff- commitments. Companies make decisions on multi-year, cient, more predictable, and considerably less costly than or even multi-decade, timelines, and they gravitate toward building from scratch somewhere else. regions where resource potential is strong, infrastructure 28 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM