Gulf Coast of the United States Pensacola, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and increasingly, Sarasota. All are the centers of their respective metropolitan areas and contain large ports. (Baton Rouge is relatively far from the Gulf of Mexico; its port is on the Mississippi River, as is the port of New Orleans.) The Gulf Coast is made of many inlets, bays, and lagoons. The coast is also intersected by numerous rivers, the largest of which is the Mississippi River. Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was, marshland. Ringing the Gulf Coast is the Gulf Coastal Plain which reaches from Southern Texas to the western
Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico (United States) water in 1962; and in a thousand feet of water in 1979. "By 1970, the technology existed to drill in 2,000 feet of water and actual exploratory drilling was taking place at 1,400 feet." By 2009, more than 70% of Gulf of Mexico oil production came from wells drilled in depths greater than , almost double from the percentage ten years ago. The deepest water depth in which a discovery has been made is , at Lloyd Ridge 370 (Diamond). The federal government has not allowed drilling in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Florida