While the April 20 Macondo blowout in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has introduced uncertainty to the offshore oil and gas sector, IHS CERA reports that production from the region is significant and important to global oil supply.

Global deepwater production (2,000 feet or more water depth) capacity has more than tripled since 2000, according to IHS CERA, rising from 1.5 million barrels per day in 2000 to more than 5 million barrels per day in 2009. Projections before the April 20 blowout showed deepwater production capacity had the potential to rise to 10 million barrels per day by 2015—well above the expected average rate of global supply growth.

Global deepwater production exceeds that of any country except Saudi Arabia, Russia and the U.S. Deepwater oil discoveries are increasingly important to the reserve base, with volume of new oil reserves on an upward trend since the 1990s, according to IHS CERA. From 2006 to 2009, annual world deepwater discoveries (600 feet or more) accounted for 42% to 54% of all discoveries—onshore and offshore. In 2008 alone, deepwater discoveries added 13.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent to global reserves, significantly larger, on average, than new onshore discoveries.

According to IHS data, the average size of a new deepwater (600 feet or more) discovery in 2009 was about 150 million barrels of oil equivalent compared with an onshore average of only 25 million barrels.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico production accounted for 30% of U.S. crude oil production in 2009—1.6 million barrels per day out of 5.3 million barrels per day. This supply from the Gulf was the result of a 33%, or 399,000 barrels per day increase in output from 2008, Most of the increase was from new production from five deepwater fields (Tahiti, Dorado, King South, Thunder Hawk and Atlantis North Flank). Total U.S. oil production recorded year-on-year growth in 2009 for the first time since 1991.

U.S. Gulf production has contributed to the drop in U.S. oil imports, with incremental growth in 2009 offsetting about 4% of average daily imports, according to IHS CERA. Gas production represented 10% of total U.S. gas production in 2009. Offshore gas production recorded a 3% increase in 2009 over 2008, the first increase after seven years of substantial declines and the result of the start-up of Independence Hub with its 1 billion cubic feet per day of capacity.