Mississippi ranked as world's top spot for oil and gas investment
Mississippi is ranked as the top place in the world for oil and gas investment, according to the opinions of international petroleum executives and managers in the annual Global Petroleum Survey, released today by the Fraser Institute.
Mississippi, which was ranked sixth out of 133 jurisdictions in 2010, vaulted into the top spot in the Fraser Institute's Global Petroleum Survey 2011.
Along with Mississippi, American states dominated the top 10, with Ohio finishing second overall, followed by Kansas (third), Oklahoma (fourth), Texas (fifth), West Virginia (sixth), Alabama (eighth) and North Dakota (10th).
Netherlands-North Sea and Hungary (ranked seventh and ninth, respectively) are the only jurisdictions outside North America to crack the top 10. The province of Saskatchewan is the highest-ranked Canadian jurisdiction, finishing 11th overall.
The Global Petroleum Survey is administered each year to petroleum industry executives to help measure and rank the barriers to investment of oil- and gas-producing regions. A total of 502 respondents completed the survey questionnaire this year, providing sufficient data to evaluate 136 jurisdictions. The exploration and development budgets of participating companies account for more than 60% of the annual spending on petroleum exploration and production among international oil companies.
"By offering clear, stable regulatory and fiscal terms relative to other jurisdictions, many American states have cemented themselves as global favorites for oil and gas investment," said Gerry Angevine, Fraser Institute senior economist in the Global Resource Center and coordinator of the survey.
The survey also shows the US offshore/Gulf of Mexico experiencing one of the largest drops in the rankings, plummeting to 60th place overall after finishing 11th in the 2010 survey, which was conducted before the Deepwater Horizon oil leak.
"The decline isn't surprising, given the greater difficulty of obtaining drilling permits in the wake of the BP disaster," Mr. Angevine said.
Several other US jurisdictions also earned poor scores for environmental regulations and associated uncertainties. US Pacific/offshore was ranked 101st overall, the worst among the 23 American jurisdictions included in this year's survey, after finishing 103rd last year. California was the lowest-ranked state, dropping to 91st from 87th in 2010.
"Survey respondents pointed to California's complex environmental restrictions, and lengthy wait times to attain drilling approvals, as highly unattractive," Mr. Angevine said.
Alaska, which respondents ranked as the second-least attractive state this year, plummeted to 83rd overall from 68th in 2010. Survey respondents remain critical of Alaska's fiscal regime, environmental regulations and land claims issues.
Globally, the top 10 most attractive jurisdictions in this year's survey are: Mississippi, Ohio, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Netherlands-North Sea, Alabama, Hungary and North Dakota.
The least attractive jurisdictions are: Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Iraq, Libya, and Russia.
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