Alaska offshore added to proposed 11th OCS oil & gas leasing program

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to begin the process of developing a new schedule for oil and gas leasing in the federal outer continental shelf, including offshore Alaska.

"Launching the process to develop the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Program marks a decisive step toward securing American Energy Dominance," Burgum said April 18.

BOEM will publish a request for information and comments in the Federal Register. Publication of that notice will begin a 45-day public comment period. The date of the Federal Register publication was not provided by Interior in its release, and as of the publication of this issue of Petroleum News the RFI had not appeared in the Federal Register.

Interior said "BOEM's jurisdiction on the OCS has recently changed. A new planning area offshore Alaska -- the High Arctic -- is being established as the 27th OCS planning area. Additionally, boundaries of other existing planning areas are being updated to align with BOEM's revised jurisdiction," with those changes to be included in the Federal Register notice.

Once the 11 OCS program is finalized, it will replace the current 2024-29 10th program. The 10th program includes only three lease sales over five years, "all located in the Gulf of America," Interior said.

BOEM currently manages 2,227 active oil and gas leases over some 12.1 million acres, with 469 of the leases in production, Interior said.

--Petroleum News