The U.S. Minerals Management Service last week unveiled an offshore oil and gas leasing program that limits sales to the Gulf of Mexico and areas off Alaska.
The program covers the smallest amount of federal acreage offered in a 5 year plan for sales on the Outer Continental Shelf(30752 bytes). It calls for annual sales in the central and western gulf, an eastern gulf sale in 2001, and one sale a year in four Alaskan regions.
Sales cannot be added after this point in the planning process.
After receiving comments, MMS will officially propose the program next January and send it to Congress in August 1996. The program will go into effect if Congress does not object within 60 days.
Cynthia Quarterman, MMS director, said the plan reflects three policy goals set by President Clinton and Interior Sec. Bruce Babbitt: consensus based decisionmaking, science based decisionmaking, and use of natural gas as an environmentally preferred fuel.
She said, "This program differs from previous programs in the way it was formulated -- using consensus based decisionmaking. If we've learned anything, it is that MMS must engage in a dialogue with the parties most affected by the program.
"Consequently, more emphasis than ever before is being placed on communication with constituents in the regions."
Consultation process
Quarterman asked OCS policy and scientific advisory committees to form a subcommittee to review scientific data needed in regions where controversy has blocked offshore leasing.
And she said, "The focus of this particular 5 year program is on natural gas prone areas and protecting sensitive coastal and marine environments."
MMS received more than 2,300 written comments from agencies, Congress, industry, environmental groups, and citizens regarding the 5 year plan.
Quarterman said in the past there has been greater emphasis placed on oil industry interest when scheduling lease sales. The proposed schedule places greater empasis on onshore opposition.
She said, "We think most of the sales scheduled will be held.
"This program tries to live within political realities. We could schedule lease sales up and down the East and West coasts, and I guarantee lawsuits would not let them go forward."
Leasing moratoria
A consideration in placing sales on the schedule was whether congressional spending moratoria had kept MMS from planning sales in particular regions in the past.
MMS said the last Pacific Ocean sale took place more than a decade ago. Offshore production has increased in the last few years as permitting difficulties relating to transportation and processing of OCS oil have been resolved.
Many California residents and state and local officials oppose leasing.
"Recent cooperation between the MMS Pacific Office and officials from some counties in California has helped identify key concerns, pave the way for increased production from existing leases, and lay the groundwork for possible agreement to conditions under which limited lease sales might be held in the future.
"Despite the fact that the draft schedule would extend into 2002, a proposed lease sale in the Pacific may be premature, given the long term nature of the cooperative efforts recently started there."
No Atlantic sales are on the schedule despite prospects for a gas field off North Carolina. Lessees have sued the federal government because they have been barred from exploring those blocks. Industry interest in this area is unlikely to increase until the situation is resolved.
The good news
Bob Stewart, National Ocean Industries Association president, said, "The plan probably represents the outer limit of what's `doable' politically.
"Probably under this plan they will be able to hold to a higher percentage of sales scheduled than had they been much more aggressive. Clearly, they are putting sales in areas where there is a consensus among the population that offshore leasing and development is okay.
"The good news for the industry is that MMS is sticking to area-wide sales in the central and western Gulf of Mexico."
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