Last week, the oil and gas industry once again “walked the talk” about investing in U.S. energy supplies.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first federal offshore lease sale since the Macondo well blowout in April 2010.

The 20 companies participating in the sale ended up paying almost $340 million to the U.S. government for the right to explore leases in the western Gulf of Mexico offshore Texas. ExxonMobil paid out $63.3 million for 50 blocks in the Gulf, second only to ConocoPhillips.

We have long been saying that access to energy supplies is critical to our industry’s ability to contribute to U.S. economic recovery and growth. Greater domestic energy production ultimately creates jobs, increases government revenues and strengthens U.S. energy security.

This lease sale is a step in the right direction, but there’s still more work to be done. The majority of the leases offered last week had been available in previous sales, which often happens because new discoveries or research can make blocks that were passed over in previous sales look more promising. The strong turnout shows that the Gulf of Mexico continues to be a major potential source of new oil and gas resources more than 50 years after production started there.

However, improving U.S. energy security and providing significant economic growth will require more than going back to where we have already been. We also need to explore in offshore regions around the United States in areas that have been consistently kept off limits to oil and gas operations, including the eastern Gulf of Mexico and both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Greater access is only half of the story when it comes to the U.S. government’s role in helping increase domestic oil and gas exploration and production. Lease terms must also be reasonable. Unfortunately, Outer Continental Shelf leasing has been made less attractive since 2009 with shorter lease terms, near tripling of minimum bid rates and uncertainty over future royalty rates.

Such actions have consequences. Only 20 companies submitted bids in last week’s lease sale, down from the 27 who bid in 2009 and the 47 who bid in 2008 in the same lease area, according to the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. A variety of reasons can account for this decline, but we can’t overlook the erosion of lease terms that increase costs and increase economic risk. Such changes can cause companies to limit their U.S. leasing and prevent smaller operators from being able to participate entirely.

If companies have access to prospective acreage and lease terms are reasonable, more companies will participate. In turn, they will contribute more to both short and long-term government revenues through the hundreds of millions of dollars in lease bonuses today, and millions more in annual rent fees and royalties for decades to come.

Greater exploration activity is also a critical step to job growth – not only for the companies producing the resources, but also for businesses providing contract workers, construction workers, support services, transportation and a variety of other needs. Consider the industry’s impact in Louisiana, where the lease sale took place: There, the industry accounts for $77.3 billion in economic impact and supports more than 300,000 jobs.

And we can’t forget the need for the energy itself. It will take years to research and evaluate the leases sold last week, with no guarantee that any of them hold enough oil and gas supplies to make them economic.  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration 2011 Outlook, this year’s production of offshore oil is expected to be lower than that in 2010 due to the moratoria in the Gulf, canceling of lease sales and “increased uncertainty about future investment in offshore production.”

Policies that promote safe and reliable access to new U.S. energy resources are key to reducing this uncertainty, as are fair and stable laws, regulations and lease terms. As I said, last week’s lease sale was a step in the right direction.  But we’ll need to increase the stride to continue meeting the needs of economic recovery and growth.