Offshore staff
WASHINGTON, DC – On the same day that a public comment period ended for the Biden administration’s proposed five-year plan for oil and gas leasing, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is proposing to free up anywhere from 27 million to 84 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico in 2023 for future exploration.
As reported in the Louisiana-based newspaper The Advocate, the BOEM on Thursday released a draft document that outlines the possible scope of two lease sales in 2023 and the environmental effects of any drilling that could happen as a result.
The environmental impact statement (or EIS) outlines four possible scopes under consideration for the lease sales. Once finalized, the EIS will guide BOEM’s decision-making for the lease sales’ details.
A specific timeline has not been set for the final EIS. However, the Inflation Reduction Act, which became law in August, requires two lease sales in the Gulf in 2023 after the sales were previously canceled amid legal fights. The first sale must be held by March, while the second sale has to happen by September.
Under the first scenario, exploration companies could bid on more than 84 million acres across all areas where oil and gas leasing is still allowed in the Gulf.
The second scenario would open up nearly 56 million acres of unleased space, largely in the Gulf’s central region, which extends more than 200 miles from Plaquemines Parish and includes the Mississippi and Alabama coasts.
The third scenario would limit new leasing to about 27 million acres in the Gulf’s western region, which extends about 250 miles from Texas.
In the fourth scenario, any of the first three scenarios would be possible, but none of them would include topographic areas that are sensitive to drilling, as well as a handful of blocks near Alabama’s coast. Though the EIS does not specify the acreage of those areas, it says about 473 designated lease spaces would be off-limits.
All told, the proposed areas could unlock anywhere from 26 million to 1.12 billion barrels of oil, depending on the success of future exploration and which leasing scenario would be allowed, according to federal estimates.
The EIS says all proposed leasing scenarios would lead to “minor” impacts on air quality and “negligible” impacts on water quality. However, it says there could be a “moderate” impact on bird species and estuaries.
Thursday was also the deadline for the public to submit comments on the Department of the Interior’s proposed five-year program for oil and gas leasing from 2023 to 2028. A preliminary draft of the five-year program is suggesting anywhere from zero to 11 lease sales in that timeframe. It was first published in July, more than a month before the Inflation Reduction Act was passed.
The Department of the Interior will use the hundreds of thousands of submitted comments to guide the next draft of the program. Federal law does not outline how long Interior has to update the proposed program after the comment deadline. However, the president and Congress have 60 days to review it once the next draft is complete.
10.09.2022
