Offshore staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- US President George W. Bush has lifted the executive ban on oil and gas leasing of two areas in the outer continental shelf (OCS), one in the Lease Sale 181 South area in the central Gulf of Mexico and the other in the Bristol Bay, North Aleutian basin of Alaska.
Interior Secretary Dick Kempthorne now has the option of offering these areas during the MMS' next five-year (2007-2012) OCS oil and gas leasing program.
Kempthorne also has increased the royalty rate for new offshore deepwater federal oil and gas leases (excluding Alaska) from 12.5% to 16.7%. These new rates will take effect with the first 2007 GoM lease sale, which is scheduled for late August.
"Together, these actions will enhance America's energy security by improving opportunities for domestic energy production, and will also increase the revenues that the federal government collects from oil and gas companies on behalf of American taxpayers," says Kempthorne.
The new Gulf area was withdrawn from consideration for leasing through 2012 by former US President Bill Clinton in 1998, and the North Aleutian basin area was held under a Congress-imposed moratorium from 1990 through 2003. The moratorium was discontinued in 2004.
The 2007-2012 OCS Oil and Gas Proposed Final Program and Final Environmental Impact Statement are scheduled for release in spring 2007.
01/10/2007
