The United States’ Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) plans to conduct Gulf of Mexico’s wide oil and gas lease sale in November, including all available areas that are unleashed in federal waters. The area will cover about 78.8 million acres or around 14,755 blocks. The Lease Sale 256 was scheduled for August this year originally, but postponed to November due to conducting an additional analysis considering recent changes from the Coronavirus pandemic to oil and gas markets. The fiscal terms include a 12.5% royalty for lease under 656 ft (200m) of water, and 18.75% for other leases following the sale, considering the remaining Gulf of Mexico shallow-water resources marginal nature and the current hydrocarbon price conditions.
The blocks excluded to the lease sale are the ones subjected to the congressional moratorium established in the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, the blocks bordering with or beyond the U.S EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) in the known area northern the Eastern Gap, and partial or whole blocks within the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary boundaries.
The next lease sale will mark the seventh offshore sale in the Department of Energy’s Outer Continental Shelf 2017-22 program. The upcoming sale will contain undiscovered technically recoverable oil by 48 billion barrels, said BOEM, also technically recoverable natural gas of 141 trillion cubic feet. All Lease Sale 256 terms and conditions are available on the BOEM website and due to the pandemic measures, the bureau will only accept bids by mail.
