Offshore staff
LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana – The American Petroleum Institute has joined with the State of Louisiana and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. in filing a challenge to the Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Management’s (BOEM) Final Notice of Sale for Lease Sale 261.
The filing, which was made in the US district court for the western district of Louisiana in Lake Charles, follows BOEM’s announcement that it would hold the final offshore lease sale mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act, but with significantly reduced acreage and severe restrictions on oil and natural gas vessel traffic.
“Today we’re taking steps to challenge the Department of the Interior’s unjustified actions to further restrict American energy access in the Gulf of Mexico,” said API Senior Vice President and General Counsel Ryan Meyers. “Despite Congress’ clear intention in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration has announced a ‘lease sale in name only’ that removes approximately 6 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico from the sale and adds new and unjustified restrictions on oil and natural gas vessels operating in this area, ignoring all other vessel traffic. Together with the State of Louisiana and Chevron U.S.A. Inc., we intend to use every legal tool at our disposal to challenge these actions.”
Earlier this month, the National Marine Fisheries Service and BOEM announced that, as part of settlement between the Biden administration and the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, oil companies with operations in an 11-million-acre zone stretching across the Gulf of Mexico must keep boat speeds below 12 mph; and avoid traveling at night and during "periods of low visibility."
The agreement drew stiff opposition from oil companies in the Gulf, which maintained that the provisions would limit access to their offshore operations, as well as increase transit times to get there.
08.25.2023
