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OCS Oil
and Gas Strategy
On December 1, 2010, the Secretary announced the
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Strategy
as part of President Obama’s comprehensive energy
plan for the country. The Department is pursuing a
balanced, science-based strategy for exploring and
developing oil and gas resources on the OCS.
The strategy guided the
Revised 2007-2012 OCS Oil and Gas Program,
which was revised under
Court order,
and is guiding the development of the next 5-year
program, for 2012-2017.
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Preparation of the New OCS Oil
and Gas Leasing Program
Preparation of a new 5-year program usually takes 2½
to 3 years. In light of the unexpected rapid
escalation of oil prices from late 2007 through
mid-2008, the BOEMRE (then MMS) began the
preparation process well ahead of schedule by
publishing a
Request for
Information on August 1, 2008,
providing the next administration the flexibility to
consider leasing in areas not on the 2007-2012
Program schedule. This allowed the bureau to
publish the
Draft Proposed Program
(DPP) for a 2010-2015 program on
January 16, 2009. By the time Secretary Ken Salazar
assumed office, prices had dropped by more than 50
percent from their peak and, on
February 10, 2009, Secretary Salazar extended the
DPP comment period for an additional 180 days to
September 21, 2009, in order to provide additional
time for input from states, affected communities,
and other stakeholders.
As
a result of the comment period extension and the
bureau’s reconsideration of existing policies and
regulations in response to the Deepwater Horizon
event on April 20, 2010, the time period to be
covered by the new program shifted from 2010-2015 to
2012-2017. The January 2009 DPP remains the first
of three draft decisions for the program (now for
2012-2017) that will replace the existing 2007‑2012
program. However, in response to comments and other
considerations, the Secretary has reduced the scope
of the 5-year EIS to exclude several planning areas
in the DPP decision, and he will consider additional
comments received during the current EIS scoping
period in his decision as to the exact areas to be
studied in the programmatic EIS and the proposed
program analyses.
As
part of the strategy announced on December 1, 2010,
the Bureau published a
Notice of Scoping
Meetings on the EIS modifying the OCS areas to be scoped for inclusion in the
5-year Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS). These areas
are the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico, as well
as the area of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico not
included in the Congressionally-mandated leasing
moratorium, and the Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, and
Cook Inlet, off Alaska. The Department announced
that scoping meetings would be held in Alaska,
Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and the Washington, D.C.,
area during the month of February, with an extension
of the public comment period to March 31, 2011.
While the selection of areas to be included in the
5-year EIS will not be a final determination of the
areas to be considered for leasing in the new 5-year
schedule of proposed lease sales, any areas not
analyzed in an EIS cannot be later considered for
leasing in the 2012-2017 program. Most of the
Eastern Gulf of Mexico planning area remains under a
Congressionally-mandated moratorium and is not
proposed for leasing in either the 2007-2012 program
or the 2012-2017 program. BOEMRE will move forward
with an environmental analysis for potential seismic
studies in the Mid- and South Atlantic planning
areas, but no lease sales will be scheduled in the
Atlantic until at least mid-2017.
The next step in the creation of the 2012-2017
program is the publication of a proposed program and
draft EIS, which will likely occur in late 2011..
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