House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement after ExxonMobil announced a discovery of more than 700 million barrels of oil equivalent in the Gulf of Mexico in the company's first post-moratorium deepwater exploration well.

“Today’s oil and natural gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexico is a significant step forward for American job creation and energy production. This is the exact reason why Republicans have been pressuring the Department of the Interior to issue offshore permits—America has abundant oil and natural gas reserves, we simply need to allow the hardworking men and women in the energy industry to do their job. This is opportune timing for a major oil discovery as Iranian controlled OPEC announced today that they would not increase oil production. America can become less dependent on dangerous sources of foreign energy if we safely and responsibly develop the resources we know we have here at home. Today is a perfect example of that.”

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