BOEM postpones GoM oil and gas lease sale
Written by Nick Blenkey
Image: BOEM
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) yesterday announced that it is postponing Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261, which had been set for today, September 27.
As we reported earlier, that date had been set as BOEM moved to comply with a preliminary injunction granted the State of Louisiana, the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron USA Inc. and Shell Offshore have been granted a preliminary injunction in response to their law suit challenging conditions in BOEM’s Final Notice of Sale for Lease Sale 261.
The Final Notice of Sale covered significantly reduced acreage than in the proposed notice of sale announced back in March (67 million acres as opposed to 73.4 million). It also placed severe restrictions on oil and gas vessel traffic.
The preliminary injunction ordered the Department of the Interior to proceed with Lease Sale 261, absent the terms challenged by the plaintiffs, by September 30, 2023. In announcing the September 27 date, BOEM noted that it was doing so “although the United States is seeking an emergency stay of this order to allow time for a more orderly lease sale process.”
It has now been granted that stay and , again, says that the order “allows time for a more orderly lease sale process.”
BOEM plans to hold Lease Sale 261 no later than Nov. 8, 2023, to comply with the Appeals Court ruling and says a revised Final Notice of Sale will be issued in the coming days.
The agency says that it will include lease blocks that were previously excluded due to concerns regarding potential impacts to the Rice’s whale distribution in the Gulf of Mexico. BOEM will also remove portions of a related stipulation meant to address potential impacts to Rice’s whale from the lease terms for the leases that may be issued as a result of Lease Sale 261.
More HERE
