US proposes largest ever oil and gas lease sale

U.S. Department of the Interior proposed the largest oil and gas lease sale ever held in the United States. The proposed region-wide lease sale includes federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

The proposal, announced by Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, covers an area of 76,967,935 acres, which is about the size of New Mexico, and is scheduled for March 2018, including all available unleased areas on the Gulf’s Outer Continental Shelf.

The estimated amount of resources projected to be developed as a result of the proposed region-wide lease sale ranges from 0.21 to 1.12 billion barrels of oil and from 0.55 to 4.42 trillion cubic feet of gas. Most of the activity from the proposed lease sale is expected to occur in the Central Planning Area.

    Secretary Zinke said: “In today’s low-price energy environment, providing the offshore industry access to the maximum amount of opportunities possible is part of our strategy to spur local and regional economic dynamism and job creation and a pillar of President Trump’s plan to make the United States energy dominant.”

Proposed Lease Sale 250 includes 14,375 unleased blocks, located from 3 to 230 miles offshore, in the Gulf’s Western, Central and Eastern planning areas in water depths ranging from 9 to more than 11,115 feet (three to 3,400 meters).

The lease sale terms include clauses for the protection of biologically sensitive resources, moderate potential adverse effects on protected species, and avoid potential conflicts associated with oil and gas development in the region.