OCS Leasing Program | Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

Posts Tagged ‘OCS Leasing Program’

How NOT to manage our oil and gas leasing program

Posted in Alaska, climate, energy policy, Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged CCS, OCS Leasing Program, SPR depletion on October 11, 2023| 1 Comment »

Eliminate 96.3% of the nation’s offshore lands from consideration for even limited oil and gas leasing.
Administer the program such that active leases comprise <1% of the nation’s offshore lands.
Ignore the significant oil and gas potential of arctic and subarctic Alaska, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico (where the best prospects are >125 miles from the coast of Florida).
Ignore the national security implications of the diminished leasing program while concurrently depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Discount the economic risks associated with international hostilities.
Despite compelling evidence to the contrary, assume declines in oil and gas demand are imminent. .
Irrationally believe that offshore wind is a replacement for, rather than a complement to, oil and gas.
On the basis of speculative endangered species information, impose severe restrictions on oil and gas operations (but not on any other commercial activities).
Defer to the climate office on critical leasing policy decisions.
Only hold lease sales that are (per legislation) required precursors to offshore wind leasing.
To justify reduced leasing, contend that more leasing would not decrease oil prices. Take the opposite position (Sale 257) to argue that leasing will decrease prices and thus increase demand and GHG emissions.
Contrary to the regulations and without public comment, issue oil and gas leases to a company that is solely interested in developing them for carbon sequestration purposes.

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The sad state of the US OCS oil and gas leasing program

Posted in Alaska, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged active leases, areas excluded from leasing, drilling, OCS Leasing Program, producing leases on March 16, 2023| 1 Comment »

Of the 1.7 billion acres of Federal land on the US Outer Continental Shelf, only about 73 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and 1 million acres in the Cook Inlet may be offered for oil and gas leasing. Official or de facto exclusions prohibit leasing in the entire US Atlantic, the entire US Pacific, all Alaska areas except the Cook Inlet, and most of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. No other coastal nation has restricted access to oil and gas resources to this extent.

As demonstrated in recent sales, many of the tracts being offered have little or no production potential. Only 308 tracts (1.7 million acres) received bids in GoM Sale 257. 94 of the high bids were for sequestration purposes and were arguably invalid. Sale 258 in the Cook Inlet only received a single bid.

The number of active leases, currently 2153, has been at a historically low level for the past 2 years. Only 0.7% of our OCS is leased and thus open to exploration. 26% (552) of these leases are already producing, leaving a historically low number of nonproducing leases.

Oil is where you find it, not where you wish it was or want it to be. Denying access to all but a small portion of the OCS limits exploration strategies and prevents publicly owned resources from supporting our economy in the manner intended by the OCS Lands Act.