Testimony: Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources

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Good afternoon. I'm James T. Hackett, Chairman, President and CEO of Ocean Energy, Inc.

Ocean Energy is a Houston-based independent oil and gas exploration and production company with a market capitalization of $4.5 billion dollars. Two thirds of its reserves and production are in the United States. It has a large commitment to growing our natural resource base as it spends nearly $1 billion dollars in 2001 on exploration and development, especially deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling in these water depths(of up to two miles deep) costs from $20 to $100 million dollars per well.

On behalf of the twenty-two large U.S. independent natural gas and oil exploration and production companies of the Domestic Petroleum Council, thank you for inviting us to be here today to discuss the importance of access to federal government lands if we, as a nation, are to have the future natural gas supplies that will power the new internet economy and fuel our industry, and keep our homes and businesses warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The DPC companies are all very concerned about this issue. We produce one-fifth or more of the nation's natural gas. We are responsible for most of the wells that U.S. independents drill. We know as well as anyone the challenge we face in having access to the gas resources we'll need to find and produce in the future.

I'll cite examples of that challenge, and some policy and implementation changes that will help us meet it.