Department of the Interior spokesperson: “there are 10.9 million acres of offshore federal waters already under lease to industry,” and “of those, the industry is not producing on more than three-quarters (75.7% or 8.26 million acres).”
Fox Business
As if the preventable expiration of the 5 year leasing program wasn’t bad enough, we get to hear the non-producing leases bit yet again. This pitch was popularized during the oil embargoes in the 1970’s and resurfaces whenever it is deemed to be politically helpful.
New comments:
- As of May 1, 24.5% of the active leases were producing. This is relatively high by historical standards.
- To have producing leases, you have to have active leases, and the number of active leases is the lowest in at least 40 years.
- The decline in the number of producing leases since 2011(62%) has been less than the decline in the number of active leases (71%).
- DOI’s primary concern should be the preventable decline in active leases.
Old comments:
- 539 days since the last US offshore oil and gas lease sale
- 182 lease sales since 1954, but none since 2020
- Only 0.5% of US offshore land is leased for oil and gas exploration and production (assuming commercial quantities of oil and gas are discovered).
- When you acquire a lease, you are not purchasing oil and gas. You are acquiring the right to explore for, and hopefully produce, those resources. Most leases will never produce.
- Drilling strategies are linked to geophysical data and geologic information obtained in drilling other wells in the area and region.
- Leases expire if they are not producing by the end of the lease term, which is 5 to 10 years depending on location.
- You pay bonuses for all leases and annual rental fees for non-producing leases. None of these payments are returned if no discoveries are made.
- US offshore leases are among the smallest in the world, only a fraction of the sized of those offered by most other nations with offshore oil and gas programs. This complicates exploration and often makes development contingent on the acquisition of additional tracts at future sales.
- Oil is where you find it, not where you or the government think it is or want it to be.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 