Standing atop oil-rich land and before an active well, Mitt Romney criticized President Barack Obama's policies on oil and gas energy in a Wednesday speech.

"I happen to think that the president's policies are shaped by a perspective that's old and outdated," Romney said before hundreds gathered outside on the Spindle Field Sussex formation, near Denver, which has produced nearly 50 million barrels of oil to date.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee reiterated his new line against the Democratic incumbent.

"You see, liberals in the past thought we didn't have that much energy in this country and therefore we would have to go begging around the world to the people that have it," he said. "The president keeps saying oh, we only have 2% of the world's oil reserves. We have massively more energy than that in oil, coal and gas. This is a recognition that finally has to come to the White House, because it's coming to the people across this country."

Obama's reelection team came to the president's defense, releasing the following statement ahead of Romney's remarks.

"Since taking office, President Obama has aggressively pursued an all-of-the-above energy strategy that has helped increase our domestic oil production to an 8-year high and reduce our dependence on foreign oil to a 16-year low," said Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith.

Romney, a businessman and former governor of Massachusetts, joked that while the president tries to take credit for increased oil production, "I'd like to take credit for the fact that when I was governor the Red Sox won the World Series, but neither one of those would be the case."

"It was not the President's policies that led to oil production being up. This is private land and private leases. As a matter of fact the president has announced that he will cancel 75 percent of planned leasing on western lands for energy development. Seventy five percent! That is not helping produce more oil and gas," Romney said.

In the audience included a number of employees from K.P. Kaufman Company, Inc., the supplier of the horizontal well behind Romney that pumps both oil and natural gas from nearly a mile below. Founder and Chairman Kevin Kaufman said "with new technology and horizontal re-drilling of the field, we hope to recover millions of barrels of oil and natural gas previously left behind and thought to be unrecoverable."

With the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the distance Romney harkened back to the speech candidate Obama delivered during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"He was not surrounded by those mountains he was instead surrounded by Greek columns. I don't think he'll be surrounding himself by Greek columns next time he speaks at a convention because he won't want to remind people of Greece and the trouble they're in, and the fact that they borrowed too much money," Romney said.

The Obama campaign also pointed to reports that the GOP candidate was traveling to Oklahoma to attend a fundraiser at the home of oil billionaire Harold Hamm, who Romney tapped as an energy adviser in early March.