Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

BOEM’s Final Sale Notice for the upcoming Gulf of Mexico wind auction identifies 3 lease areas (see map below). Wind operations in these areas should not significantly conflict with other GoM activities, including oil and gas operations.

Those who followed Exxon’s recent lease acquisitions may be amused by the map below from BOEM’s siting analysis document. The 94 Exxon leases acquired at Oil and Gas Lease Sale 257 (yellow blocks) are misidentified as “Carbon Capture Lease Blocks.” As has been discussed at length on this blog (most recently here), Sales 257 and 259 were oil and gas lease sales. Although Exxon’s intentions are now well known, they may not conduct carbon sequestration operations on these leases unless they are competitively reissued or converted. (Is BOEM’s siting document implying that conversion of the Exxon leases is a fait accompli?) The regulations for such conversions, and for CCS operational activities, have yet to be promulgated. A draft of these regulations is expected later this year, and the comments should be spirited and diverse.