Since 1982, the federal government has prohibited this, along most of the Outer Continental Shelf.
But China says its zone extends to the edge of the continental shelf, almost to Japan.
Russia claims a larger slice, saying its continental shelf extends from Siberia to the North Pole.
The westbound shipping lane currently ends at the relatively shallow continental shelf, where ships disperse.
More domestic supply, which means quick assurance that Congress will open gas-rich acreage on the Outer Continental Shelf.
It refuses to open up the vast oil- and natural gas-rich Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for exploration and drilling.
The discovery may represent one of the ten largest oil finds ever on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).
In his first week as president, Obama rescinded a Bush executive order that permitted drilling on the continental shelf.
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Royal Dutch Shell estimates that the waters of the outer continental shelf contain 100 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.
In all likelihood, any newly acquired continental shelf will likely be locked away with the rest of the oil prospects.
Recent studies have found that federal waters along the Outer Continental Shelf likely contain more than 80 billion barrels of oil.
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As reserves from the continental shelf decline, the big oil companies can't afford to sit out the riskier game farther offshore.
They can often be found on the slopes of the continental shelf, though as yet they are impossibly awkward to extract.
They accounted for 36% of deals completed following the recent 27th licensing round, which brought new entrants to the UK Continental Shelf.
It believed tax changes introduced by the government last year to incentivise investment in the UK continental shelf were now bearing fruit.
Ithaca recently purchased a 14% stake in MacCulloch, which lies 250km (155 miles) north east of Aberdeen on the UK Continental Shelf.
Not only are Shtokman reserves far larger than the entire Norwegian continental shelf, Russia has had a serious depletion problem since 2001.
Hibernia Atlantic is shaving 310 miles off the current trans-Atlantic journey, by following the shallow continental shelf (despite the heightened risk of damage).
Undeveloped fields in the Outer Continental Shelf alone contain an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
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Yet earlier this month the Interior Department released a new five-year plan that puts most of the Outer Continental Shelf off-limits for oil drilling.
Experts estimate that in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, where oil exploration is mostly banned, there are more than 85 billion barrels in reserves.
The new westbound lane would extend three miles past the continental shelf, and contain traffic to a defined area over the whale feeding grounds.
Russian scientists are keen on proving that the seabed below the North Pole is part of the Eurasian continental shelf, an area called the Lomonosov Ridge.
An agency called the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf decides on the merits of the case, but it has no powers of enforcement.
They've removed their cases to federal court, citing the OPA as well as a federal law that governs oil spills on the outer continental shelf .
So far the discoveries are tracking the production curve of the Continental Shelf, where 40 billion barrels have been located since drilling began in the late 1940s.
The group in the Senate says its plan probably would allow drilling in new areas of the outer continental shelf, an idea vehemently opposed by Democratic leaders.
Do we really believe none of this will resurface if oil companies are given the green light to drill in our section of the Arctic continental shelf?
The Department of Interior which controls permits for drilling on federal onshore lands and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is also exerting a big influence upon fracking operations.
Royal Dutch Shell (nyse: RDSA - news - people ) estimates that the waters of the outer continental shelf contain 100 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.
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