The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced on Thursday that it would hold an auction of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico on November 8 following a court order to expand the sale.
In response to a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, BOEM will publish its updated Final Notice of Sale for Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261 in the Federal Register on Friday, October 6.
Following the court’s directions, the Lease Sale 261 will offer approximately 13,618 blocks on 72.7 million acres on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf in the Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas in the Gulf of Mexico.
The sale will include the 6 million acres which were withdrawn from the auction in an effort to expand the habitat of the endangered Rice’s whale.
Furthermore, the court told BOEM to remove portions of a related stipulation meant to address those potential impacts from the lease terms for any leases that may result from Lease Sale 261.
BOEM did announce in late September that it would not hold Lease Sale 261 on September 27, 2023, as originally planned due to the court’s ruling the day before.
The November sale will most likely be the last federal offshore oil and gas auction until 2025, according to a five-year schedule the government unveiled last week that includes a historically low number of planned lease sales.
