The US Minerals Management Service has released for comment a proposed plan for the 2007-12 Outer Continental Shelf leasing program and the associated draft environmental impact statement (DEIS).
The plan includes a total of 21 proposed OCS lease sales in seven of the 25 OCS planning areas-four areas off Alaska, two areas in the Gulf of Mexico, and one area in the Atlantic.
MMS estimates of total undiscovered technically recoverable resources are 67.9 billion bbl of oil and 340.4 tcf of gas from all planning areas where sales are under consideration in the 2007-12 proposed program, “though only a portion of some of the planning areas are included in the proposal,” it said.
This second draft is to succeed the current program that expires on June 30, 2007. MMS will accept comments on the proposed plan through Nov. 24. The DEIS is open for comment until Nov. 22.
Lease sale areas
The proposed program includes a special interest sale in the Mid-Atlantic Planning Area off Virginia in late 2011.
“This proposed program area excludes a 25-mile coastal buffer from leasing consideration, as there is no existing oil and gas activity in the area, and the state has made no request to include leasing closer to shore,” MMS said.
Also, there is no leasing proposed in a wedge-shaped No-Obstruction Zone, to avoid conflicts with navigation activities in and out of the Chesapeake Bay, MMS said.
“Current presidential withdrawals or congressional moratoria have placed more than 85% of the OCS around the lower 48 states off-limits to energy development, including all areas off Virginia,” MMS said.
In the two areas of the gulf with the highest resource potential and interest-the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Areas-the proposed program remains the same as the draft proposed program with the exception of the exclusion of a small area in the Central Gulf that is east of the military line (86º 41’ W).
As a result of the reconfiguration of some planning areas to follow new administrative lines, some of the areas formerly included in the Eastern and Western Gulf Planning Areas are now part of the Central Gulf Planning Area, MMS said. “There are no lease sales scheduled in the reconfigured Eastern Gulf Planning Area. The original Sale 181 area is not under presidential withdrawal and has not been subject to congressional moratoria,” the agency said.
In addition, the area being considered for leasing will not include the area within 100 miles of the Florida coast that used to be part of the Eastern Gulf Planning Area.
In the Alaska Region, the program proposes multiple lease sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and North Aleutian Basin Planning Areas. Two of these areas are modified from the draft proposed program.
In the Chukchi Sea, the proposed program removes from leasing consideration a 25-mile buffer area along the coast, as there is no existing oil and gas activity in the area, and the state has made no request to include leasing closer to shore, MMS said. For the North Aleutian Basin, this program proposes sales only in the area offered in Sale 92, which was held in 1988.
The North Aleutian Basin Planning Area is currently withdrawn by presidential order under section 12 of the OCS Lands Act. However, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski has requested that the president modifies his withdrawal to exclude the North Aleutian Basin planning area, and allow the scheduling of lease sales in the Sale 92 area in the 2007-12 program.
The Cook Inlet Planning Area, meanwhile, is included on the schedule as a special interest sale, which will take place only if enough interest is shown by industry in answer to a nomination call.
