US to resume oil and gas leases

The US Interior Department said August 24 that it would continue with the sale of oil and gas drilling rights on federal lands and waters following legal rulings.

The department announced it was meeting requirements laid out by a federal district judge in June, which found states faced financial harm from a moratorium imposed by president Joe Biden in January.

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.

The interior department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) plans to submit a record of decision for a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico to the Federal Register by the end of August. A notice for the sale would be published in September.

“By law, the lease sale may not take place sooner than 30 days after publication of the sale notice,” the department stated.

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

The American Petroleum Institute and 11 other trade groups announced August 16 that they filed a lawsuit challenging the moratorium on new drilling on federal lands and in federal waters. North Dakota’s attorney general followed suit on August 24.

“I have taken this action to protect North Dakota’s economy, the jobs of our hardworking citizens, and North Dakota’s rights to protect and manage our own natural resources,” the state’s attorney general Wayne Stenehjem said.

The pause related only to new drilling, not activity from previous lease sales. US upstream activity has increased steadily for much of the year, with the latest Baker Hughes rig count showing a net gain of three for the week ending August 20.