Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico (United States) Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico (United States) Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico is a major source of oil and natural gas in the United States. The western and central Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, is one of the major petroleum-producing areas of the United States. Oil production from US federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time annual high of 1.65 million barrels per day in 2017. Oil production is expected to continue the upward trend in 2018 and 2019, based on ten new
Gulf of Mexico basin subsidence in the central region, as well as heavy sedimentation around the Florida Platform and Northern Gulf of Mexico. While a few intrusive igneous formations found as far south as Mexico City are dated to the Late-Jurassic or Early Cretaceous, the Gulf of Mexico during that time was relatively devoid of igneous activity. It wasn't until the Late Mesozoic that low-volume yet widespread volcanism occurred along the Western and Northwestern margins of the Gulf of Mexico, leaving the Yucatan Peninsula with an extremely alkali volcanic field in the subsurface. The volcanism is believed to have been activated along ancient plate