Oil companies expand offshore drilling, bet on gas, NY Times reports

Shell’s (SHEL) deepwater platform called Appomattox, which collects oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, has become an “emblem of the hopes of oil and gas companies,” Ivan Penn of The New York Times reports. While political leaders have pledged to reduce planet-warming emissions by 2050, oil companies are betting the need for oil will still prevail and are instead drilling into deeper waters, especially in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. even recently set records for oil production and extracting more crude than any other country. Publicly traded companies in the space include BP (BP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), Total (TOT), ConoccoPhillips (COP).