How American engineers unlocked the impossible beneath the Gulf of America
American drillships now operate at 20,000 psi, unlocking tens of billions of barrels once deemed unreachable
By Erik Milito Fox News
Published June 30, 2026 5:00am EDT
July 4th is more than marking America’s independence with patriotic flags, parades and fireworks. It's about celebrating American ingenuity, our firm belief that our country can engineer solutions to achieve the impossible, from launching the modern age of aviation to landing a man on the moon.
Some of the most compelling evidence of American exceptionalism today is happening thousands of feet beneath the surface of the Gulf of America, where our offshore industry has spent more than a decade solving one of the hardest engineering problems in the history of energy.
More than 100 miles offshore from the Gulf Coast sits a geological layer of sandstone and shale rock deep beneath the seabed called the Paleogene that holds tens of billions of barrels of oil. For years, most of it was considered unattainable. The reservoir pressures – up to 20,000 pounds per square inch, equivalent to an elephant standing on a quarter – exceeded anything existing technology could handle.
No equipment had ever been built to work under those conditions.
The solution was engineered here, in American waters, by the people who know them best.
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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/how-american-engineers-unlocked-impossible-beneath-gulf-america
