Besides a fondness for the Mississippi River, Mark Twain and the offshore Gulf of Mexico (GoM) share something else in common: The reports of their deaths were greatly exaggerated. Discussions at last month’s inaugural Hart Energy GoM Offshore Executive Conference clearly demonstrated that the U.S. GoM—from shelf to ultradeep—still has plenty of life left in it.

For two of the conference participants—Fieldwood Energy and Energy XXI—success has been found on the shelf through acquisitions, technology and collaboration.

Fieldwood Energy is the GoM’s largest shelf operator. Never heard of it? The pure startup launched in early 2013 as a portfolio company of Riverstone Holdings. In the year since it has closed five transactions, with the largest two being the $3.75 billion acquisition of Apache Corp.’s GoM shelf business and a $750 million acquisition of SandRidge Energy’s GoM and Gulf Coast business units.

Launched in 2005, Energy XXI splashed onto the GoM shelf with three major acquisitions from 2006 to 2007. In 2010, it acquired ExxonMobil’s Grand Isle assets for $1 billion, and it recently closed on a $2.3 billion acquisition of EPL Oil & Gas. It operates 10 of the largest oil fields on the GoM shelf.

Technology and collaboration are playing a big part in the shelf’s redevelopment. Better seismic data quality through reprocessing and new seismic acquisition data have changed how operators view the salt domes prevalent in the GoM, according to Energy XXI CEO John Schiller. Working with its partner Freeport-McMoRan has helped the company also better understand salt movement and how it is different than what was envisioned 20 years ago.

Mexico was a hot topic for attendees and presenters alike. With the passage of energy reform in the country that ended the 76-year oil monopoly held by Pemex, the energy sector is now open to competition for international operators like Shell and Statoil, to name a few.

While Statoil had representatives at the Offshore Executive Conference, it also had representatives meeting in Mexico, along with the energy ministers of Mexico and Norway, the CEO of Pemex and other industry partners to discuss the development of the Norwegian oil industry and lessons learned, according to a statement on Statoil’s LinkedIn page.

A presenter at the GoM Offshore Executive Conference noted that development in the Mexican GoM today is where the U.S. GoM was 50 years ago. Stop for a moment and think about how far technology has helped advance the industry’s knowledge on the safe and efficient exploration and production of hydrocarbons and how industry has evolved over the last half-century. Think about how far development in the U.S. GoM has come and how much farther it will go as we push forward into cracking the Paleogene. Where will the Mexican GoM be in 50 years? It is impossible to know. Perhaps we should give Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas some credit for his bold decision to toss out foreign oil companies so long ago. By doing so, he secured a basket full of potentially impressive nest eggs for the Mexico of today and ensured that the offshore GoM will live longer than ever expected.

Offshore