Williams exec urges U.S. costal drilling

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. needs to open its coastline to additional oil and gas exploration to meet an expected shortfall in long-term production, Phil Wright, president of Williams Cos Inc's (WMB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gas pipeline unit, told the Reuters Global Energy Summit on Monday.

"Clearly there are basins that we ought to be allowed as an industry to drill in," Wright said. "For example, we are a strong proponent of opening the costal areas and the federal regions that have been off limits at this point to drilling. It would be a game changer for the domestic production outlook."

U.S. demand for natural gas is seen rising 12 percent over the next 10 years, while U.S. production is seen growing less than 2 percent, Wright said, citing data from consulting firm Wood Mackenize.

Williams and other oil and gas companies have argued they need access to potential energy reserves along the U.S. coast and in other protected areas, a notion that many environmentalists and politicians find unpalatable.

For example, Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly blocked attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling.

Even so, the industry has shown that it has been able to safely drill in ecologically sensitive areas like the Piceance Basin in Colorado, Wright noted.

Still, the executive said it "seems a little strange" that China is exploring for oil on Cuba's behalf within view of the Florida coast.

Possible places to drill include the waters off Florida and the Eastern seaboard, the executive said, but even if permission is granted, actual production would be still be years away, Wright said.

Some states, including Louisiana and Texas, allow drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Once those properties are open to drilling, even if we are allowed to move fairly unfettered, you are probably looking at three to four years before you can bring some of those basins online," Wright said.

Other ways the industry might be able to fill a gap between supply and demand include higher imports of liquefied natural gas and additional drilling in the lower 48 states, Wright said.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston, editing by Phil Berlowitz/Jeffrey Benkoe)