US schedules first offshore lease sale under Biden

The US federal government said September 30 it would hold an oil and gas lease in the Gulf of Mexico to comply with a court order ruling against a drilling moratorium on federal lands.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said lease sale 257 would kick off November 17 for the rights to operate 15,135 unleased blocks  at a distance of 3-231 miles offshore in water depths ranging from 9-11,115 ft or more.

BOEM estimates US territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico hold about 48bn barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil reserves and 141 trillion ft³ of undiscovered technically recoverable gas reserves.

“BOEM will include lease stipulations to protect biologically sensitive resources, mitigate potential adverse effects on protected species, and avoid potential conflicts between oil and gas development and other activities and users in the Gulf of Mexico,” the agency added.

US president Joe Biden put a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters in January, arguing more time was needed to consider the environmental impact. The pause related only to new drilling, not activity from previous lease sales.

Judge Terry Doughty of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ruled June 15 that states had proved they would suffer financially from the pause on new oil and gas drilling, in part prompting the federal government to change course.

The American Petroleum Institute and 11 other trade groups in August announced that they filed a lawsuit challenging the moratorium after the government was accused of dragging its feet. North Dakota’s attorney general followed suit later that month.

The government will issue and take comments related to a draft environmental impact statement for a potential lease sale in the Cook Inlet off Alaska later this year.