Opponents of federal oil and gas leasing off the US resisted the part of last year’s energy bill that called for a resource inventory of the Outer Continental Shelf.

The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has estimated that the cost of conducting an OCS resource inventory in the 26 planning areas would range from $1.95 billion to $3.25 ...

For all of the OCS, MMS estimated the potential at 85.88 billion bbl of oil and 419.88 tcf of gas. This means the US politically shrinks its oil and gas exploratory target by one-fifth.