NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals
Management Service (MMS) has begun the planning process to gather
information and conduct an environmental review of the Central Gulf of
Mexico Planning Area (CPA) and the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning
Area with the publication in the Federal Register of the Call
for Information and Nominations/Notice of Intent (Call/NOI) to Prepare
a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).
Public Scoping Meetings will be included in the planning process,
and are scheduled as follows:
Tuesday, October 9, 2007, Larose Civic Center, Larose Regional
Park, Larose, Louisiana, 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007, The Woods Auditorium in the
Energy, Coast & Environment Building at the LSU Campus, Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 11, 2007, Riverview Plaza Hotel, 64 South
Water Street, Mobile, Alabama, 7 p.m.
Thursday, October 11, 2007, Marriott Houston Intercontinental
at George Bush Intercontinental, 18700 John F. Kennedy Blvd.,
Houston, TX, 1:00 p.m.
The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 mandated that
approximately 5.8 million acres, located in the southeastern part of
the CPA, be offered for lease. Therefore, pending an environmental
review on this acreage, which is known as the “181 South Area,” MMS
will be able to offer it for lease in March 2009 as part of the
proposed Lease Sale 208.
“This is the standard initial step in the prelease process for a
sale” explained acting regional director Lars Herbst. “What makes this
exciting is the addition of the 181 South Area, which has never been
leased before.”
The Call/NOI will also serve as an information-gathering step to
ensure that all interests and concerns regarding oil and gas leasing,
exploration, and development resulting from the proposed sale are
communicated to MMS.
The planning process will culminate in the preparation of a SEIS on
oil and gas lease sales tentatively scheduled for 2009-2012 in the
Western and Central Gulf of Mexico offshore the States of Texas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Throughout the development
process, comments from Federal, State, and local government agencies
and other interested parties will be sought in order to aid MMS in
determining the significant issues and alternatives for analysis. The
focus will be on the potential environmental effects of oil and
natural gas leasing, exploration, and development, in this area.
As part of the preparation process for the environmental review,
MMS will hold scoping meetings to solicit comments from the public for
the tentatively scheduled 2009-2012 oil and gas leasing proposal in
the Western and Central GOM. While the purpose of these meetings is to
solicit comments on the scope of the SEIS, MMS will also solicit input
on previous and current forecasting methods of exploration and
development activity, pipeline landfalls, and onshore waste disposal
sites associated with OCS lease sales.
Comments on the Call must be received no later than October 10,
2007. Comments on the NOI must be received no later than October 25,
2007. Details on submitting comments are published in the Federal
Register.
Copies of the Federal Register notice are available at:
MMS Public Information Unit
1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard
New Orleans, LA 70123-2394,
or telephone 1-800-200-GULF, or via the MMS website at
