Bureau of Ocean Energy Management November 30, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On September 25, 2015, BOEM published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Liberty Development and Production Plan (DPP) in the Beaufort Sea Planning Area (80 FR 57873). The September 25 notice provided for a 60-day comment period, which is scheduled to end on November 24, 2015. During BOEM's scoping, the pubic recommended extending the comment period. To further the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to collect information to define the scope of issues to be addressed in depth in the analyses that will be included in the EIS, and to provide additional opportunity for interested and affected parties to comment, BOEM is extending the scoping comment period for an additional 60 days to January 26, 2016.

The Department of the Interior has decided to cancel Chukchi Sea Lease Sale 237, which was scheduled to occur in 2016 under the 2012-2017 OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program. Sale 237 is being canceled due to lack of industry interest; current market conditions (e.g., low oil prices); and the unavailability of many of the most attractive tracts, which are already under lease at this time.