On March 15,
2016, as part of her duty under the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act,
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel announced the release of a
proposed
Oil and Gas Leasing program for the 2017-2022 period. As
explained within the preamble, this proposed program is the second of three
proposals required to develop the 2017-2022 Oil and Gas Leasing program, which
will replace the 2012-2017 program. The five-year program aims to provide
information as to leasing opportunities for mineral exploration and development
of offshore natural gas and oil while balancing the potential environmental
impacts on the coastal zone and offshore. The proposed program is available for
public comment through June 16, 2016.
The Bureau of
Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) determined a potential of thirteen lease sales
in six OCS planning areas, including ten potential leases sales in the Gulf of
Mexico region and three in the Alaska region. The proposed program offers all
available acreages in the central and western Gulf of Mexico planning areas as
well as a narrow strip of water acreage at the edge of the eastern Gulf of
Mexico “where infrastructure is best-established and there is strong adjacent
state support and significant oil and gas resource potential.” A large part of
the eastern planning area is under a Congressional moratorium that will expire
on June 30, 2022.
In the Alaska region,
the proposed program makes available for leasing the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea
along the northern coast of Alaska. A 25-mile zone along the Chukchi and
Chukchi Sea coasts is subject to a Presidential Moratorium in place since January 27, 2015. The
determination of those three potential lease sales is part of a substantial
collaborative effort “with North Slope communities to deconflict oil and gas
activities from traditional and subsistence activities on the Arctic OCS.”
BOEM also
considered the possibility of leasing offshore acreages of the Atlantic region
before stepping back for various reasons. BOEM explained that “ocean-dependent
tourism, commercial and recreational fishing, and commercial shipping and
transportation are established and important economic uses in and along the
coast of the Mid- and South Atlantic Program Area . . . [and] could be potentially
impacted by oil and gas activity.” Interestingly it also added that “though
additional offshore production is arguably always beneficial to the U.S.
economy, the current market of increased onshore production and persistently
low oil prices reduces the need for oil and gas development in the Atlantic at
this time.”
On March 23,
2016, BOEM announced in a Press Release that, under the 2012-2017 Oil and Gas Leasing program, “a total of 30
offshore energy companies submitted 148 bids . . . [and] the sum of all bids received totaled
$179,172,819.” It also observed that no bids were submitted for the eastern
planning area of the Gulf of Mexico.
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
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