Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale to Test Response to Trump-era Regulations
, waiting to see if the Interior Department would cut royalties, said William Turner, a senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie. In that auction, only 1 percent of the 77 million acres (31.2 million hectares) on offer received bids.Next week's sale is the first since U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said in April that he would leave deepwater royalty rates unchanged at 18.75 percent, rather than drop them to the 12.5 percent rate for shallow-water parcels."The uncertainty is gone, it is off the table," said Imran Khan, senior manager at consultants Wood Mackenzie. The clearer royalty
US Interior Secretary Sees Little Demand for New Offshore Drilling
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Friday that he sees little demand from oil and gas companies for new offshore drilling leases, which could pose problems for his plan to ramp up output from federal waters.The comments come just three months after Zinke had proposed opening nearly all U.S. ocean coastlines to drilling, in a bid to raise domestic oil and gas production. The plan sparked immediate protests from coastal states, environmentalists and the tourism industry.Zinke said a record-sized U.S. auction of offshore oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico, held in March, showed "modest to
Record-size US Offshore Oil Lease Sale Draws Modest Bidding
market with a cut rate royalty and almost no competition is bad policy and an inexcusable waste of taxpayer resources," the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy think tank, said in a statement. It called the sale an "embarrassing flop". Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had said ahead of the sale that the record-sized offering would be a "bellwether" of industry demand in the region, and billed the effort as a way to help the United States become more "energy dominant." "All-time Lows"? The U.S. government offers Gulf of
US States Slow Trump Offshore Oil Drilling Expansion Plan
; But existing Obama administration lease rules remain in place through 2022 unless the new rules gain approval. The Department of the Interior this year proposed opening vast new acreage in the U.S. outer continental shelf to drilling. The comment period wrapped up March 9. Still, Secretary Ryan Zinke said last week he remained deep in discussions with state governors, some of whom have thrown up roadblocks that would impede or bar drilling off their coasts. A new outer continental shelf lease program proposes 47 lease sales, including areas that had not been offered since 1983. At
Alaska Requests Limits on US Offshore Drilling
Alaska Governor Bill Walker said on Tuesday he has asked U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to pare back a Trump administration plan for oil and gas leasing off the state's coast. While Walker supports offshore oil development, he said the Interior Department should focus on the most prospective areas off Alaska – the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in the Arctic and Cook Inlet in southern Alaska – and drop all others from the leasing plan. In asking for proposed lease sales to be dropped, Walker, an independent, joins governors of several other coastal states after Zinke's
US Senators from 12 States Seek Offshore Drilling Exemptions like Florida's
Twenty-two Democratic U.S. senators from 12 states on Thursday joined the chorus of local representatives seeking exemptions from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's newly proposed offshore drilling plan, after his surprise move on Tuesday to shield Florida. Zinke surprised lawmakers, governors, and industry groups on Tuesday night by announcing that Florida would be removed from the Interior Department's proposal to open up over 90 percent of federal waters to oil and gas leasing. Zinke had met in Tallahasee with Republican Governor Rick Scott who told the Interior chief that drilling
Trump Offshore Oil Proposal Could Unlock 65 Bln BOE
The Trump administration's proposal to open up almost all of U.S. offshore waters to oil and gas drilling could unlock up to 65 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), attracting billions of dollars in investment, consultancy Rystad Energy said. Last week, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said a draft program would make over 90 percent of the outer continental shelf's total acreage available for leasing to drillers, a national record. "Looking purely at areas that are potentially going to come out of restriction, we are talking about something closer to 65 billion
After Florida, more States Press US for Offshore Drilling Exemptions
week aims to open up all U.S. coasts to drillers over the next five years. Alaska and Maine are the only two U.S. states whose governors have expressed support for the plan. The governors of Delaware, North Carolina, and South Carolina on Tuesday were seeking meetings with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to press their case that drilling would pose significant risks to coastal tourism, while other state representatives issued sharply-worded Tweets. "Tourism and recreation along the Delaware coastline account for billions in economic activity each year, and support tens of thousands
As US Opens Up Offshore Waters, Eastern GoM Beckons
Interior Department has set up an "interagency working group" with the Defense Department to negotiate the issue, according to a Defense Department letter seen by Reuters. In the letter, sent by Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in September, Shanahan says the Pentagon "supports the development of national domestic energy resources in concert with enabling military operations, training and testing." Defense Department spokeswoman Major Carla Gleason said collaboration with Interior
February 2024
