Why Drill in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico?

Why is Big Oil drilling in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico? It is difficult, costly and dangerous, as the ongoing Deepwater Horizon blowout shows. The answer is because there is nowhere else to go. The Energy Information Administration maintains Gulf of Mexico production data, which is shown in the graph above. As you can see, we are currently getting about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day out of the Gulf of Mexico. And if the Gulf were not producing those barrels, they would very likely not be available from somewhere else ... global crude oil production is running full steam. So until we all start to save on gas, there is no choice but to be in the deepwater Gulf.