The sale of offshore oil and natural gas leases recently in the western Gulf of Mexico highlights the benefit of allowing development in the 87% of the Outer Continental Shelf the federal government has placed off-limits, API Upstream Group director Erik Milito said in a statement.

“Today’s lease sale is a reminder that opening new areas to offshore energy exploration and production could create nearly half a million American jobs and raise tens of billions of dollars to help fund the government,” Milito said, according to the statement. “The western and central sections of the Gulf of Mexico remain important areas for domestic oil and natural gas production, but they have been continually explored for decades while the vast majority of U.S. waters are kept off-limits.

“Tremendous potential exists for job creation and energy development in the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Eastern Gulf of Mexico. We should seize the opportunity to further America’s energy renaissance by exploring and producing in new areas offshore.”