Washington (Platts)--14Nov2008

Despite the wider majority of Democrats in Congress since the election
earlier this month, US lawmakers are unlikely to reinstate the legislative
moratorium on offshore drilling in the coming session, American Petroleum
Institute president Jack Gerard said Friday.

"I don't think there are the votes to reinstate the blanket moratorium as
it was before," said Gerard in a meeting with reporters in Washington. The
experiences this summer by American consumers dealing with $4/gal gasoline
"has changed a lot of elected officials views" on Outer Continental Shelf
drilling, including President-elect Barack Obama, he said.

Gerard pointed to exit polling that showed a majority of Obama supporters
still backed expanded offshore drilling. "Clearly the mindset has shifted," he
said.

Congress last month let the 26-year legislative moratorium expire after
the Democrat leadership was unwilling to allow a vote on the issue to come to
the floor for fear of losing members to the proposal, brought by the minority
Republican. The executive moratorium, in place since 1990, was lifted by
President Bush in July.

--Daniel Goldstein, daniel_goldstein@platts.com