US Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 257 has generated $191,688,984 in high bids for 308 tracts covering 1.7 million acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
US Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 257 has generated $191,688,984 in high bids for 308 tracts covering 1.7 million acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Thirty three companies participated in the lease sale, submitting $198,511,834 in total bids. Lease Sale 257 offered approx. 15,148 unleased blocks located from three to 231 miles offshore, in the Gulf’s Western, Central and Eastern Planning Areas in water depths ranging from nine to more than 11,115 feet (three to 3,400 m).
It was the eighth offshore sale held under the 2017-2022 National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Programme.
The Biden administration had sought to impose a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing while it reviews offshore and onshore programmes and implements improvements. The sale took place as a result of a US District Court’s preliminary injunction. The US government is appealing against the decision.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has pledged to use updated greenhouse gas emission models to take substitution impacts and foreign oil consumption into account, resulting in what it claims are the most robust projections ever of the climate impacts of offshore lease sales, as well as analysing the social cost of carbon to better understand the true impacts of fossil fuel leasing decisions.
Meanwhile, a US Department of the Interior report on federal oil and gas leasing and permitting practices has identified significant reforms that should be made to ensure a fair return to taxpayers, hold operators responsible for remediation, and more fully include communities and tribal, state, and local governments in decision-making.
The report completes the review of the federal oil and gas programmes called for in Executive Order 14008. It recommends adjusting royalty and bonding rates, prioritizing leasing in areas with known resource potential, and avoiding leasing that conflicts with recreation, wildlife habitat, conservation, and historical and cultural resources.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said: ‘This review outlines significant deficiencies in the federal oil and gas programmes, and identifies important and urgent fiscal reforms.’
