From: DOI_Events [mailto:DOI_Events@ios.doi.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 1:39 PM
To: Undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Salazar Announces Revised OCS Leasing Program

Date: December 1, 2010
Contact: Kendra Barkoff (202) 208-6416

Salazar Announces Revised OCS Leasing Program

Key Modifications Based on Ongoing Reforms, Unparalleled Safety and Environmental Standards, and Rigorous Scientific Review

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced an updated oil and gas leasing strategy for the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Based on lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Department has raised the bar in the drilling and production stages for equipment, safety, environmental safeguards, and oversight. In order to focus on implementing these reforms efficiently and effectively, critical agency resources will be focused on planning areas that currently have leases for potential future development. As a result, the area in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico that remains under a congressional moratorium, and the Mid and South Atlantic planning areas are no longer under consideration for potential development through 2017. The Western Gulf of Mexico, Central Gulf of Mexico, the Cook Inlet, and the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in the Arctic will continue to be considered for potential leasing before 2017.

“As a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill we learned a number of lessons, most importantly that we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime,” said Secretary Salazar. “As that regime continues to be developed and implemented, we have revised our initial March leasing strategy to focus and expend our critical resources on areas with leases that are currently active. Our revised strategy lays out a careful, responsible path for meeting our nation’s energy needs while protecting our oceans and coastal communities.”

Consistent with the President’s Executive Order on National Ocean Policy, today’s modified plan also confirms many actions announced in March, including environmental analysis to determine whether seismic studies should be conducted in the Mid and South Atlantic, and rigorous scientific analysis of the Arctic to determine if future oil and gas development could be conducted safely.

Lease sales in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico under the 2007-2012 program are currently scheduled to begin in approximately 12 months, after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) completes appropriate environmental analyses that take into account effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Analyses and public meetings will also take place to help determine if additional lease sales in these areas should proceed as part of the 2012-2017 program.

In connection with today’s announcement, BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich stated that he is in the process of completing an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through which NOAA will collaborate with BOEMRE in the environmental analyses for OCS planning.

Interior and BOEMRE remain committed to working with all relevant partners and stakeholders as we enact and build upon key reforms in this vital industry.

A fact sheet on the announcement is at www.doi.gov.

A map of the Revised Alaska OCS Oil and Gas Strategy is at www.doi.gov.

A map of the Revised Lower 48 OCS Oil and Gas Strategy is at www.doi.gov.

FACT SHEET

GULF OF MEXICO

Lease sales in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico under the 2007-2012 program are currently scheduled to proceed in late 2011 or early 2012, after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) completes appropriate environmental analyses.

Interior will also soon begin public meetings and environmental analysis to inform decisions about when and where lease sales in portions of the Gulf of Mexico currently not under congressional moratorium will be held during 2012-2017.

Most of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico planning remains under a Congressionally-mandated drilling moratorium and is not proposed for leasing in either the 2007-2012 program or the 2012-2017 program.

ALASKA

Offshore drilling in Alaska is under careful review and consideration by the Department of the Interior and BOEMRE. These efforts include scientific and environmental studies, public meetings, and additional analysis of oil spill response capabilities in the Arctic.

BOEMRE will soon begin to hold public meetings in Alaska to gather important public input and information for an environmental impact statement that will help inform Secretary Salazar’s decision on whether and where to schedule Alaska lease sales under the 2012-2017 program. The public meetings will cover the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Cook Inlet planning areas.

Decisions about the 2012-2017 program will be informed by an ongoing United States Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of resources, risks, and environmental sensitivities in Arctic areas, and input from other federal agencies, including the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Though no further lease sales in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas will be held under the 2007-2012 program, BOEMRE will continue to honor existing leases in the Arctic. Currently, one application to drill (APD) in the Arctic is pending before BOEMRE. The APD, submitted by Shell, proposes to drill one exploratory well in the Beaufort Sea in the summer of 2011. BOEMRE is processing that permit request. The Bureau is preparing additional environmental analysis of the area in light of Shell’s permit application, which it will release for public comment prior to making a final decision on the application. BOEMRE is working closely with other federal agencies that also must approve aspects of the proposed drilling activity, including NOAA and the Environmental Protection Agency.

If Shell’s proposed drilling operation is approved, BOEMRE would have safety personnel on site throughout the drilling operation to monitor the operation and hold them accountable for compliance with BOEMRE’s drilling safety and environmental regulations.

MID AND SOUTH ATLANTIC

Because the potential oil and gas resources in the Mid and South Atlantic are currently not well-known, Interior will move forward with an environmental analysis for potential seismic studies in the Mid and South Atlantic OCS to support conventional and renewable energy planning. No lease sales will be scheduled in the Atlantic in the 2007-2012 program or in the 2012-2017 program.

For more information about the offshore oil and gas strategy announced today, visit www.doi.gov.

###Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/energy/7684-white-house-oks-potential-alaska-offshore-drilling

This is the price we pay for banning oil on the East and West coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico. DV

Patti Epler | Dec 1, 2010

The White House has decided to allow potential drilling in areas off Alaska’s northern coast, but officials say they’ll be cautious when deciding to approve exploration plans and leases. According to an Associated Press story (via the Anchorage Daily News), the federal government won’t pursue exploration off of the East Coast and Florida for at least the next seven years. Read much more from the AP, here.

Meanwhile, both Alaska senators are applauding the decision because it means Shell oil company may be able to move ahead with plans to drill an exploratory well in the Beaufort Sea this coming summer. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a press release that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar called her this morning to tell her that all existing leases not under congressional moratorium would be honored. That means Interior will resume consideration of Shell’s application to drill test wells in the Beaufort in summer 2011, she said.

“This isn’t a slam dunk but it’s a step in the right direction, at least in Alaska,” Murkowski said.

Shell’s Alaska spokesman, Curtis Smith, said in an e-mail that the company is hopeful the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will complete its review in an expeditious manner.

“Today’s announcement was a positive one for Alaska and acknowledges that responsible oil and gas exploration can take place in the Arctic,” Smith said. “While Shell continues to make plans to drill in 2011; a final decision on our Beaufort Sea drilling permit is needed soon for Shell to continue to pursue 2011 exploration drilling.”

Environmental groups, who are still opposed to offshore drilling in the Arctic until companies demonstrate they can respond to and clean up an oil spill there, took Salazar’s announcement a bit differently, interpreting it as a statement that more environmental review is needed before Shell can proceed in the Beaufort Sea.

The groups were glad to hear that there will be a supplemental environmental assessment, although Shell said the review is essentially the same one that has already been done. More than a dozen local and national conservation organizations joined in the prepared statement and called for a full environmental impact statement before Shell can proceed. That process generally takes at least a year.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/29/131660871/deep-water-dive-reveals-oil-on-bottom-of-gulf
Special thanks to James Cervino and Coral-list

http://www.ogj.com/index/article-display/2551923921/articles/oil-gas-journal/exploration-development-2/2010/12/salazar-puts_atlantic/QP129867/cmpid=EnlEDDecember22010.html

It’s about time….DV

Dec 1, 2010
Nick Snow
OGJ Washington Editor

WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 1 — Emphasizing that the administration of US President Barack Obama remains committed to developing federal offshore oil and gas resources, Interior Sec. Ken Salazar said on Dec. 1 that Atlantic Ocean and eastern Gulf of Mexico areas will be excluded from the 2012-17 Outer Continental Shelf 5-year leasing program.

Lease sales in the central and western gulf will be held, but only when a supplemental environmental impact statement studying consequences of the spill from BP PLC’s Macondo well is completed, he added during a teleconference with reporters. “We will do everything we can to proceed with lease sales there at the end of 2011 and in early 2012,” he declared.

“As a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill we learned a number of lessons, most importantly that we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime,” Salazar continued. “As that regime continues to be developed and implemented, we have revised our initial March leasing strategy to focus and expend our critical resources on areas with leases that are currently active.”

Oil and gas association leaders immediately criticized his move. “As our country looks for ways out of the hole of lackluster economic growth and job creation, today’s decision shows that this administration would rather keep digging than take the ladder to increased economic prosperity offered by developing our nation’s domestic energy resources,” American Petroleum Institute Pres. Jack N. Gerard said.

Bruce H. Vincent, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America and president of Swift Energy Co. in Houston, maintained, “If there were any questions as to whether or not this administration is more interested in picking winners and losers in the energy market and waging an unbridled war on America’s oil and gas producers than creating jobs and putting our nation on a path toward energy security, they were put to rest with today’s misguided announcement that will keep even more taxpayer-owned energy resources further out of reach and under Washington’s lock-and-key.”

‘Relieved, disappointed’
National Ocean Industries Association Pres. Randall B. Luthi said he was relieved that Salazar apparently is moving forward on developing a 2012-17 OCS program, but disappointed that scheduled 2011 lease sales will be delayed and possibly canceled, particularly off Virginia, where bipartisan support remains, and the eastern gulf, where deepwater resources hold great promise.

“What would be more valuable to the nation’s economic and energy future would be the recognition that valuable energy resources lie in those areas that have been kept off-limits to even exploration for decades, and will now apparently continue to be locked away,” Luthi said.

Salazar said information will continue to be gathered about environmental impacts of conducting seismic studies of the South and Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. Rigorous scientific analysis of the Arctic also will continue to determine if future oil and gas development can take place there, although no lease sales are currently planned, he indicated.

US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement Director Michael R. Bromwich, who also participated in the teleconference, announced that the DOI agency responsible for managing the nation’s offshore resources is completing an agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under which NOAA will collaborate with BOEMRE in the environmental analysis for OCS planning.

Environmental organizations endorsed Salazar’s action. “We need to make sure we never see another oil spill like the BP disaster. Keeping the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coast out of the new 5-year drilling plan is a significant step in the right direction,” said Sierra Club Land Protection Director Athan Manuel. “But an oil spill like the BP disaster could happen anywhere-in Alaska, or in other parts of the central and western gulf where drilling is allowed.”

But Karen A. Harbert, president of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, said the move sends exactly the wrong signals. “By continuing to keep most of America’s abundant oil and gas resources under lock and key, the Obama administration is ensuring that we will continue to increase our dependence on foreign oil, which threatens our national security,” she maintained. “The administration is sending a message to America’s oil and gas industry: Take your capital, technology, and jobs somewhere else.”

Contact Nick Snow at nicks@pennwell.com.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/45865.html

Thank goodness someone (in an official capacity) is willing to speak out on this…..long overdue. DV

Politico: BP, Halliburton and Transocean – ‘were fully implicated in the catastrophe,’ Reilly said.

By DARREN GOODE | 12/2/10 11:37 AM EST

The Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan presidential commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill said Thursday he has seen “indisputable evidence of a widespread lack of serious preparation, of planning, of management” in the oil and gas industry.

“That culture must change,” said William Reilly at the final public session of the Obama administration’s BP spill commission.

Three companies – BP, Halliburton and Transocean – “were fully implicated in the catastrophe,” Reilly said, while other companies “had no effective containment preparations and laughable response plans.”

Reilly, the Environmental Protection Agency chief under President George H.W. Bush, added: “We are not dealing here with a sick or failing or unsuccessful industry but with a complacent one.”

The Gulf spill began April 20 when BP’s Macondo well ruptured 5,000 feet below the Deepwater Horizon rig owned by Transocean. Halliburton was contracted by BP to handle cementing work on the well.

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling is holding its sixth and final two-day public session Thursday and Friday before submitting recommendations to President Barack Obama in January. The commission Thursday is hearing presentations from staff and deliberating on the safety culture in the offshore drilling industry, regulatory oversight, environmental review, drilling in the Arctic and oil spill response.

While the three companies have largely fired shots at one another, much of the commission’s probe has looked at the cementing work Halliburton did on the well and whether the company and BP adequately ensured that the cement used was adequately tested. BP’s well design has also come under scrutiny, as has why the well’s blowout preventer – the last defense against a blowout – failed.

Commission Co-chairman and former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) echoed in his opening remarks that the panel has learned “not to lay blame on just a few rogue companies,” while noting the probe has also uncovered “fundamental weaknesses” in the federal government’s ability to regulate and oversee oil and gas exploration and production.

Graham added that he remains “mystified as to why a few senators decided to deny this commission this power when subpoena power has been granted as almost an absolute for congressional commissions which have analogous responsibilities to ours.”

He added that the lack of subpoena power “has made our commission’s work more difficult.” The success of the panel so far, Graham said, “is a testament both to the determination and [to the] skill of our team and to the plain fact that the problems and deficiencies of the current safety regime are so egregious.”

Republican senators – upset over the makeup of the seven-member panel and the lack of a panel whose members are selected by Congress – have opposed granting subpoena power to the panel appointed by Obama. The House has twice approved granting the panel subpoena power.

____________________________________

Special thanks to Richard Charter