Leading oil exploration Company, Exxon Mobil Corp. is warning that changes to oil-drilling rules may harm growth in the industry. It stressed that the industry has successfully drilled thousands of wells in various environments including deepwater and onshore areas across the world without any incident.  

It pointed that it would be futile to change regulations without first understanding the consequences of these actions. The views were expressed by the Company at the Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

An explosion last month sank the $365 million Deepwater Horizon rig in New Orleans. The well was operated by BP Plc and this has become the biggest oil spill in the history. An incident at a natural gas well in Pennsylvania last week is sparkling concerns that tighter restrictions on offshore drilling will also spread onshore.

As a result of the oil spill, the US Government replaced the Minerals Management Service. But Companies feel that knee jerk reactions to the situation will not help anyone. 

Leading Companies like Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BG Group Plc and Total SA are increasing investments into U.S. shale gas areas. 

Exxon made a $30 billion acquisition of XTO Energy Inc. in December 2009. US Senators are also pushing for tighter regulations which will lead to increased safety while drilling wells. 

According to the data released by Energy Department, shale gas production in the US increased by 71% in 2008 from 2007 to 2.02 trillion cubic feet.