Leaders of the Senate Energy Committee will introduce legislation next week to allow limited drilling in a disputed area off Florida s western coast in the Gulf of Mexico where the government has suspended energy exploration, aides to the lawmakers told Reuters on Friday. The area, know as Lease Sale 181, was shut to drilling after Florida officials complained that an oil spill or other exploration accident could foul beaches and hurt the state s multi-billion-dollar tourism industry.

Florida s two US senators introduced a bill earlier this week to keep the offshore area permanently closed to drilling. However, energy companies and other lawmakers believe energy exploration should be allowed in the area to increase natural gas supplies and help lower high prices paid by consumers and businesses.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Pete Domenici, and ranking Democrat Jeff Bingaman will sponsor legislation early next week to open the bottom part of the 181 area to drilling, aides said. To ease Florida s concerns, no drilling would be allowed within 100 miles of the state s coastline. That would prohibit energy exploration in the top part of the Lease 181 area that is a slender rectangular-shaped parcel known as the "stovepipe," the aides said.

It is the bottom round part of the disputed area, known as the "bulge," where drilling could occur. A smaller eastern part of the bulge that could affect space used by the military would be off limits to drilling, unless allowed by the US defense secretary.

The entire bulge area holds an estimated 6 trillion cubic feet of gas, but the area that would be opened holds 4.8 trillion cubic feet and the area that would be under the military s control holds 1.2 trillion cubic feet. The United States is forecast to use 22.5 trillion cubic feet of gas this year.

If the legislation is passed by the Congress and signed into law, the Interior Department s Minerals Management Service (MMS) would have to begin leasing tracts to energy companies within one year. Aides said they expect the bill will clear the energy committee, but would not speculate on whether the legislation could clear the full Senate or the House of Representatives, where Florida s large congressional delegation would likely fight the bill.
(Planet Ark, 06/02/06)