Recent trends suggest that the Gulf Coast is becoming to U.S. oil production what Apple is to the technology sector: a dominant player beset by challenges to its dominance.
Meanwhile, the Bakken Formation in North Dakota and Eagle Ford in Southern Texas are playing the role of Google and Samsung – upstarts shaking up the status quo in the sector.
Long the Mecca of U.S. energy output, the Gulf of Mexico has seen its clout diminish as new energy hubs threaten its mantle. Bakken, Eagle Ford and the Marcellus formation that cuts across the Appalachian Basin are becoming focal points of shale oil development.
Figures from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement underscore how Gulf oil production has been in a slow but steady decline. After churning out more than 570.2 million total barrels of oil during 2009, that figure shrank to 463.1 million in 2012 – coinciding with the ramping up of exploration in land-based hot spots.
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