Gulf of Mexico Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida border the Gulf on the north, which are often referred to as the "Third Coast", in comparison with the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years
Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico (United States) Because state waters extend only from shore on the east coast of Florida, the legislation would have affected only state waters on the Gulf coast of the state, where state waters extend out to from shore. The bill passed the Florida House in April 2009, but died soon after in the Florida Senate. Natural gas hydrates have long been known to exist in sediments beneath the Gulf of Mexico. In May 2009 the US Geological Survey announced the discovery of thick natural gas hydrate deposits beneath the Gulf of Mexico that are recoverable by current technology. To date, natural gas