Gulf of Mexico, Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Oil and Gas Lease Sale 257
| Published date | 21 January 2021 |
| Citation | 86 FR 6365 |
| Record Number | 2021-01251 |
| Section | Notices |
| Court | Ocean Energy Management Bureau |
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 12 (Thursday, January 21, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 12 (Thursday, January 21, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6365-6366]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-01251]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
[Docket No. BOEM-2021-0001]
Gulf of Mexico, Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Oil and Gas Lease
Sale 257
AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability of a record of decision.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is announcing the
availability of a Record of Decision for proposed Gulf of Mexico (GOM)
regionwide oil and gas Lease Sale 257. This Record of Decision
identifies BOEM's selected alternative for proposed Lease Sale 257,
which is analyzed in the Gulf of Mexico OCS Lease Sale: Final
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement 2018 (2018 GOM Supplemental
EIS).
ADDRESSES: The Record of Decision is available on BOEM's website at
http://www.boem.gov/nepaprocess/.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For more information on the Record of
Decision, you may contact Ms. Helen Rucker, Chief, Environmental
Assessment Section, Office of Environment, by telephone at 504-736-
2421, or by email at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, BOEM
evaluated five alternatives for proposed Lease Sale 257. We have
summarized these alternatives below, noting some additional blocks that
may be excluded due to their lease status at the time of this decision:
Alternative A--Regionwide Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Sale:
This is BOEM's preferred alternative. This alternative would allow for
a proposed GOM regionwide lease sale encompassing all three planning
areas: Western Planning Area (WPA); Central Planning Area (CPA); and a
small portion of the Eastern Planning Area (EPA) not under
congressional moratorium. Under this alternative, BOEM would offer for
lease all available, unleased blocks within the proposed regionwide
lease sale area for oil and gas operations with the following
exceptions: whole and portions of blocks deferred by the Gulf of Mexico
Energy Security Act of 2006; blocks that are adjacent to or beyond the
United States Exclusive Economic Zone in the area known as the northern
portion of the Eastern Gap; whole and partial blocks within the
boundary of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary as of the
July 2008 Memorandum on Withdrawal of Certain Areas of US OCS from
Leasing Disposition; depth-restricted, segregated portions of Block
299, Main Pass Area, South and East Addition (Louisiana Leasing Map
LA10A); blocks where the lease status is currently under appeal; and
whole or partial blocks that have received bids in previous lease
sales, where the bidder has sought reconsideration of BOEM's rejection
of their bid, unless the reconsideration request is fully resolved at
least 30 days prior to the publication of the Final Notice of Sale. We
have listed the unavailable blocks in Section I of the Final Notice of
Sale for proposed Lease Sale 257 and at www.boem.gov/Sale-257. The
proposed regionwide lease sale area encompasses about 91.93 million
acres (ac), with approximately 79.7 million ac available for lease. As
described in the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, the estimated amounts of
resources projected to be leased, discovered, developed, and produced
as a result of the proposed regionwide lease sale are between 0.211 and
1.118 billion barrels of oil (BBO) and 0.547 and 4.424 trillion cubic
feet (Tcf) of natural gas.
Alternative B--Regionwide OCS Lease Sale Excluding Available,
Unleased Blocks in the WPA Portion of the Proposed Lease Sale Area:
This alternative would offer for lease all available, unleased blocks
within the CPA and EPA portions of the proposed lease sale area for oil
and gas operations, with the following exceptions: Whole and portions
of blocks deferred by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006;
blocks that are adjacent to or beyond the United States Exclusive
Economic Zone in the area known as the northern portion of the Eastern
Gap; depth-restricted, segregated portions of Block 299, Main Pass
Area, South and East Addition (Louisiana Leasing Map LA10A); blocks
where the lease status is currently under appeal; and whole or partial
blocks that have received bids in previous lease sales, where the
bidder has sought reconsideration of BOEM's rejection of their bid,
unless the reconsideration request is fully resolved at least 30 days
prior to publication of the Final Notice of Sale. The proposed CPA/EPA
lease sale area encompasses about 63.35 million ac, with approximately
53 million ac available for lease. The estimated amounts of resources
projected to be leased, discovered, developed, and produced as a result
of the proposed lease sale under Alternative B are 0.185-0.970 BBO and
0.441-3.672 Tcf of gas.
Alternative C--Regionwide OCS Lease Sale Excluding Available,
Unleased Blocks in the CPA and EPA Portions of the Proposed Lease Sale
Area: This alternative would offer for lease all available, unleased
blocks within the WPA portion of the proposed lease sale area for oil
and gas operations, with the following exceptions: Whole and partial
blocks within the boundary of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine
Sanctuary as of the July 2008 Memorandum on Withdrawal of Certain Areas
of US OCS from Leasing Disposition; blocks where the lease status is
currently under appeal; and whole or partial blocks that have received
bids in previous lease sales, where the bidder has sought
reconsideration of BOEM's rejection of their bid, unless the
reconsideration request is fully resolved at least 30 days prior to
publication of the Final Notice of Sale. The proposed WPA lease sale
area encompasses about 28.58 million ac, with approximately 26.9
million ac available for lease. The estimated amounts of resources
projected to be leased, discovered, developed, and produced as a result
of the proposed lease sale under Alternative C are 0.026-0.148 BBO and
0.106-0.752 Tcf of gas.
Alternative D--Alternative A, B, or C, with the Option to Exclude
Available, Unleased Blocks Subject to the Topographic Features, Live
Bottom (Pinnacle Trend), and/or Blocks South of Baldwin County,
Alabama, Stipulations: This alternative could be combined with any of
the action alternatives above (i.e., Alternative A, B, or C) and would
allow the flexibility to offer leases under any alternative with
[[Page 6366]]
additional exclusions. Under Alternative D, the decisionmaker could
exclude from leasing any available, unleased blocks in Alternative A
subject to any one or a combination of the following stipulations:
Topographic Features Stipulation; Live Bottom Stipulation; and Blocks
South of Baldwin County, Alabama, Stipulation (not applicable to
Alternative C). This alternative considered blocks subject to these
stipulations because these areas have been emphasized in scoping, can
be geographically defined, and adequate information exists regarding
their ecological importance and sensitivity to OCS oil- and gas-related
activities.
A total of 207 blocks within the CPA and 160 blocks in the WPA are
affected by the Topographic Features Stipulation. There are currently
no identified topographic features protected under this stipulation in
the EPA. The Live Bottom Stipulation covers the pinnacle trend area of
the CPA, affecting a total of 74 blocks. Under Alternative D, the
number of blocks that would become unavailable for lease represents
only a small percentage of the total number of blocks to be offered
under Alternative A, B, or C (less than 4%, even if blocks subject to
all three stipulations were excluded). Therefore, Alternative D could
reduce offshore infrastructure and activities in these sensitive areas
because Alternative D would most likely simply shift the location of
offshore infrastructure and activities farther from these sensitive
zones; it would not lead to a reduction in overall impacts. Moreover,
the incremental negative impacts of the other alternatives compared
with Alternative D would be largely mitigated by the application of the
lease stipulations in Alternative A, as discussed below.
Alternative E--No Action: This alternative is not holding proposed
regionwide Lease Sale 257 and is identified as the environmentally
preferred alternative. Alternative E was not selected because, if it
were, the needed domestic energy sources and the subsequent positive
economic impacts from exploration and production, including employment,
would not be realized. Not holding a single lease sale would also not
significantly change the overall activity levels in the GOM (i.e., on
blocks leased in previous lease sales) and the associated environmental
impacts in the near term; however, it would avoid the incremental
contribution of the proposed regionwide lease sale to the cumulative
effects of ongoing activity. Avoidance of this incremental
contribution, however, is outweighed by the potential negative economic
and socioeconomic impacts of choosing Alternative E.
Lease Stipulations--Eleven lease stipulations have been adopted for
Lease Sale 257, including a new stipulation, related to the processing
of certain post-lease permits, and described below. The 2018 GOM
Supplemental EIS describes 10 of these 11 lease stipulations, which are
included in the Final Notice of Sale Package.
In the Record of Decision for the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf
Oil and Gas Leasing: Proposed Final Program, the Secretary of the
Interior required the protection of biologically sensitive underwater
features in all Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sales as programmatic
mitigation; therefore, BOEM is adopting the Topographic Features
Stipulation and Live Bottom Stipulation and applying them to designated
lease blocks in proposed Lease Sale 257. Due to a proposed expansion of
the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, this additional
language notifies lessees that, should their lease block in the future
be included in a national marine sanctuary, their operations may be
subject to additional requirements and regulations from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and that a permit from that
agency may be required in certain instances.
The additional nine lease stipulations considered for proposed
regionwide Lease Sale 257 are the Military Areas Stipulation; the
Evacuation Stipulation; the Coordination Stipulation; the Blocks South
of Baldwin County, Alabama, Stipulation; the Protected Species
Stipulation; the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
Royalty Payment Stipulation; the Below Seabed Operations Stipulation;
the Stipulation on the Agreement between the United States of America
and the United Mexican States Concerning Transboundary Hydrocarbon
Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico; and the Timeframe for Decisions on an
Application for Permit to Drill and an Application for Permit to Modify
Stipulation. The Protected Species Stipulation has been recently
updated due to the completion of the Endangered Species Act
consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the
issuance of a Biological Opinion in March 2020, addressing OCS oil- and
gas-related activities in the Gulf of Mexico, including this lease
sale. The Timeframe for Decisions on an Application for Permit to Drill
and an Application for Permit to Modify Stipulation was first adopted
in Lease Sale 256. This stipulation is administrative in nature and
addresses the processing and timing of decisions for Applications for
Permit to Drill and Applications for Permit to Modify by the Bureau of
Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). It does not alter any
underlying requirements for those applications and therefore would not
be expected to change any environmental effects reasonably foreseeable
as a result of this lease sale and any related post-lease activities.
As noted, BOEM is adopting these nine stipulations as lease terms where
applicable and they are enforceable as part of the lease.
Further, Appendix B of the Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease
Sales: 2017-2022; Gulf of Mexico Lease Sales 249, 250, 251, 252, 253,
254, 256, 257, 259, and 261--Final Multisale Environmental Impact
Statement provides a list and description of standard post-lease
conditions of approval that BOEM or BSEE may require as a result of
their plan and permit review processes for the Gulf of Mexico OCS
region.
After careful consideration, BOEM selected the preferred
alternative (Alternative A) from the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, with
certain additional blocks excluded due to their status, for proposed
Lease Sale 257. BOEM is also adopting 11 lease stipulations and all
practicable means of mitigation at the lease sale stage. The preferred
alternative meets the purpose of and need for the proposed action, as
identified in the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, and provides for orderly
resource development with protection of human, marine, and coastal
environments while also ensuring that the public receives a fair market
value for these resources and that free-market competition is
maintained.
Authority: This Notice of Availability of a Record of Decision
is published pursuant to the regulations (40 CFR part 1505)
implementing the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act
of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
Michael A. Celata,
Regional Director, New Orleans Office, Department of the Interior
Regions 1, 2, 4, and 6, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
[FR Doc. 2021-01251 Filed 1-19-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P
