John Porretto
July 20, 2008 - 1:53 p.m.

HOUSTON (AP) - The national debate over opening more offshore areas to oil and elastic fluid exploration has begged the question: Just what are the companies doing with the tens of millions of acres they're even now leasing from the federal government?

In particular, congressional Democrats who oppose President Bush's plan to open offshore drilling point to 68 million acres of federal land and offshore sites now leased by oil companies that sit idle.

It's element of closely 2 billion acres overseen by two treaty agencies — the Bureau of Land Management and the Minerals Management Service — that desire possible for oil and gas exploration, the bulk of which is strictly off limits.

The acreage includes vast stretches of land that spread out over Nevada and reach north and east over the Rockies, thinning as they stretch respecting Canada to disparate specs forward the map.

There are smaller and more isolated patches to the east along the mount ridges of Appalachia and further to the south above the Gulf of Mexico, and very great chunks of northern Alaska and lesser stretches on its southern banks.

A huge chunk of the overall acreage is the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, the zone of federal waters extending about 200 miles offshore.

The 68 million acres under lease to oil companies has potential reserves to nearly double U.S. oil extension and greaten natural gas output by 75 percent, the Democrats claim.

So why the be without of activity, particularly when oil prices are at historic levels?

It depends on your definition of "activity."

An oil company can spend sundry years after it negotiates a lease securing the permits and other approvals it needs to begin actual production.

Some of the non-producing leases under exploration are in thousands of feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, where a decade can pass between finding and tapping a modern reservoir. The winning bid for such leases can encompass tens of thousands of acres and cost $100 million or more.

"I think it gives you a good idea why our leases are arranged in 5-, 8- and 10-year terms," said Randall Luthi, adviser of the Minerals Management Service, the arm of the Interior Department charged with overseeing offshore drilling in federal waters.