The Regional Director for the Gulf of Mexico OCS Region of the Minerals Management Service, Chris Oynes, will present a talk to a joint meeting of the Houston Geological Society and Houston Petroleum Area Landmen (HAPL). He will review several recent key events in the Gulf of Mexico and summarize the recent oil and gas lease sales and their contribution to the growth of the deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration and development. Deepwater exploration (greater than 1,000 feet of water depth) and ultra-deepwater exploration (greater than 5,000 feet of water depth) have added large reserves to the Gulf of Mexico OCS in recent years and provide a substantial portion of the total production and a large percentage of the total domestic U.S. production. Mr. Oynes will provide insight to future trends in leasing and potential exploration and production areas.

Two of the most significant events in 2005 were the landfall of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Mr. Oynes will provide an overview of the destruction caused by these hurricanes and discuss their impacts on the OCS production. Both hurricanes destroyed numerous drilling rigs and broke a significant number of rigs free of their moorings. Mr. Oynes will discuss the hurricanes’ impact along with the Minerals Management Service’s research activities to the review of design standards for platforms and drilling rigs.

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