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“The withdrawal of this proposed rule by the U.S. Coast Guard is long overdue. After sitting on the shelf for nearly 20 years, the provisions contained in the proposed rule have long ago been rendered obsolete by an industry that prides itself on embracing technological advances.

Today’s Interior announcement is gratifying in that industry concerns have been heard and the resulting regulation encourages energy development while still remaining vigilant about protecting the environment from unnecessary methane emissions.

The International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) recently donated a kiosk loaded with interactive educational information about the upstream oil and gas industry to the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum and Education Center in Galveston, Texas.

The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources passed three bills that will eliminate delays in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) onshore permitting process. IADC supports today’s passage of H.R. 6087: Removing Barriers to Energy Independence Act; H.R 6088: Streamlining Permitting Efficiencies in Energy Development Act and H.R. 6107: Ending Duplicative Permitting Act.

ADC honored 30 Senators and Members of Congress with the first IADC Legislator Awards, which recognized support for the drilling contractor industry in the 115th Congress.

“As the owners and operators of drilling rigs and blowout preventers, IADC members have been acutely impacted by some provisions of the rule. Far from advocating scrapping the entire well control rule or other rules issued after Macondo, as some opponents of today’s proposal have argued, IADC has asked that the well control rule’s requirements be appropriately refined to increase their effectiveness while removing those provisions that add unnecessary costs without increasing safety, and it sounds like this is exactly what BSEE has done through its surgical approach in its revision of the rule."

“Today’s sale, with 159 bids from 33 bidding companies on the 148 tracts offered, reflects the oil and gas industry’s improving market conditions and a regulatory environment which is favorable to the safe and responsible development of the vast amount of U.S. offshore natural resources.

“The State of Florida often points to its beaches and thriving tourism industry as justification for its exclusion from drilling activity. The reality is that outdoor tourism and offshore oil and gas exploration and production can coexist, and we believe that they should. The Eastern Gulf of Mexico alone, at 64.5 million acres, is projected to contain 3.6 billion barrels of oil, which would in turn support 230,000 jobs and contribute $18 billion per year to the economy. And for Florida, the available data indicates that the recoverable resources lie 100 miles or more off the coast; far from the beaches and the view of tourists who can only see 3-12 miles out on the horizon.”

International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) President Jason McFarland issued the following statement regarding Interior Secretary Zinke’s announcement that the 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil & Gas Leasing Proposed Program will exclude waters offshore Florida: