Offshore staff
NEW ORLEANS–The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced that it will offer approximately 23.5 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area.
Proposed Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 248, scheduled to take place in New Orleans in August 2016, will be the eleventh offshore sale under the administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 (Five Year Program).
Sale 248 will include approximately 4,343 blocks, covering roughly 23.5 million acres, located from 9 to 250 mi (14 to 402 km) offshore, in water depths ranging from 16 to more than 10,975 ft (5 to 3,346 m).
The proposed terms of this sale include conditions to ensure both orderly resource development and protection of the human, marine and coastal environments. These include stipulations to protect biologically sensitive resources, mitigate potential adverse effects on protected species and avoid potential conflicts associated with oil and gas development in the region.
BOEM says that the terms and conditions outlined for lease sale 248 in the Proposed Notice of Sale are not final. Different terms and conditions may be employed in the Final Notice of Sale which will be published at least 30 days before the sale.
All terms and conditions for Western Sale 248 are detailed in the Proposed Notice of Sale information package, which is available at: http://www.boem.gov/Sale-248/.
The Notice of Availability of the Proposed Notice of Sale is available for inspection in the Federal Register at: http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/public-inspection/index.html.
04/06/2016
