As the largest US oil company, ExxonMobil, backed by industry groups has urged regulators to allow deep water drilling to resume in the Gulf of Mexico as pressure rises for the US to generate its own supplies following the formal moratorium lifted in October 2010 after the BP oil spill.
According to Arthur D. Little’s Rodolfo Guzman, the US cannot afford to shut down one of its key sources of energy supply, especially when one of the regions it imports to is going through a period of instability.