U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

MMS Identifies Areas for Proposed
Lease Sales in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico
2002 – 2007

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has identified the proposals, alternatives, and mitigating measures to be analyzed in environmental analyses covering ten proposed offshore oil and natural gas lease sales in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM). All ten of the proposed sales are included in the recently proposed 2002-2007 oil and natural gas leasing program. MMS published a multisale Call for Information and Nominations and Notice of Intent to Prepare a Multisale Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the Federal Register in October 2001, and scoping meetings for the draft multisale EIS have been held.

An Environmental Assessment (EA), tiering off a prior Western GOM multisale EIS, will be prepared for the first Western GOM sale, Sale 184. One multisale EIS will be prepared in lieu of a separate draft and final EIS for nine of the ten proposed sales. After the first sale analyzed in the multisale EIS is held, MMS will prepare either an EA or supplemental EIS for each proposed sale.

The Western GOM Planning Area currently contains about 22 million unleased acres offshore Texas and deeper waters offshore Louisiana. Blocks in the area range from 9 to 220 miles from shore in water depths from 8 to 3,000 meters. The area to be studied will include all available unleased acreage except for certain areas within the boundary of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, and blocks or portions of blocks within a 1.4-mile buffer zone along a recently settled boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. The five proposed Western GOM sales under consideration are Sales 184, 187, 192, 196, and 200. These sales are tentatively scheduled to be held annually beginning in August 2002.

The Central GOM Planning Area currently contains about 24 million unleased acres offshore Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The area to be studied will include all available unleased acreage except for blocks beyond the U. S. Exclusive Economic Zone, in the area known as the northern portion of the Eastern Gap, and blocks or portions of blocks within a 1.4-mile buffer zone along a recently settled continental shelf boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. The five proposed Central GOM sales under consideration are Sales 185, 190, 194, 198, and 201. These sales are tentatively scheduled to be held annually beginning in March 2003.

Included where applicable in the multisale EIS will be stipulations for the protection of live bottoms (Pinnacle Trend), topographic features, military areas, operations in the Naval Mine Warfare Training Areas, Law of the Sea Convention royalty payment obligations, as well a stipulation to mitigate potential visual impacts south and within 15 miles of Baldwin County, Alabama. Alternatives to be analyzed in the draft multisale EIS include the deferral of blocks south and within 15 miles of the Baldwin County, Alabama, coastline; deferral of blocks containing topographic features with sensitive biological resources; and no action. The proposal, alternatives, and lease stipulations to be analyzed are consistent with those analyzed in the most recent past Central and Western GOM sale EIS’s and EA’s.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues totaled nearly $10 billion last year and more than $120 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.