Bureau of Ocean Energy Management April 2024 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of the Interior (the Department or DOI), acting through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is amending its risk management and financial assurance regulations. This final rule revises criteria for determining whether oil, gas, and sulfur lessees, right-of-use and easement (RUE) grant holders, and pipeline right-of- way (ROW) grant holders are required to provide financial assurance above the current minimum bonding levels to ensure compliance with their Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) obligations. This final rule streamlines the criteria for evaluating the financial health of lessees and grantees, codifies the use of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE) probabilistic estimates of decommissioning costs in setting the level of demands for supplemental financial assurance, removes restrictive provisions for third-party guarantees and decommissioning accounts, adds new criteria for cancelling supplemental financial assurance, and clarifies bonding requirements for RUEs serving Federal leases. BOEM estimates that a total of $6.9 billion in new supplemental financial assurance will be required from lessees and grant holders under this final rule to cover potential costs of decommissioning activities. This final rule significantly increases the amount of financial assurance available to the U.S. Government in the case of a lessee default and meaningfully reduces the risk to the government and consequently to the U.S. taxpayer. This final rulemaking does not apply to renewable energy activities.

On March 25, 2024, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published the "Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Vineyard Northeast Project on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf Offshore Massachusetts" in the Federal Register (89 FR 20691). That document contained incorrect in-person meeting addresses for both venues. The correct addresses are: Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 5 p.m.-9 p.m., Clarke Center Auditorium, Mitchell College, 682 Montauk Avenue, New London, Connecticut 06320; and Thursday, April 18, 2024, 5 p.m.-9 p.m., Westport High School Cafeteria, 400 Old County Road, Westport, Massachusetts 02790.