Offshore drilling will be on the agenda when Florida's annual legislative session begins tomorrow. No legislation has been introduced yet, but AP reports that resolutions have been introduced to lift drilling bans in federal waters near Florida's coastline.

Although a poll has shown that a majority of Americans support offshore drilling, the debate continues. And last week, a Florida think tank released a new study on Florida's potential energy reserves.

The study acknowledges that natural gas exists in federal waters west of Apalachicola, but it says that the amount of oil estimated in state waters (within three miles of the shoreline only) would boost U.S. oil supplies by only up to 1 percent.

Does that mean drilling proposals should be abandoned? Of course not.

If every soybean farmer stopped growing crops on his few acres because his contribution to the world's food supply was relatively small, a lot of people could starve. No single farmer can produce enough food to feed the world, but together farmers can feed billions.

The same is true for energy production. It takes of lot of wells to produce the oil and natural gas needed by American consumers each day, and every well makes an important contribution.

Last week Chevron posted a new YouTube video, providing an excellent overview of offshore oil and natural gas development. It features Bobby Ryan, vice president for global exploration:

Bobby also participated in a blogger conference call about offshore exploration technology a few months ago. Use the audio player below to listen to the audio of the call.