The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) proposed to offer 78 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for March 2019, which includes all available not leased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Tuesday.
The department said in a statement that the sale is in support of President Donald Trump’s America-First Offshore Energy Strategy.
“The development of our offshore energy resources is a major pillar of this Administration’s energy strategy,” Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and BOEM Acting Director Walter Cruickshank was quoted as saying.
“We all benefit from a strong offshore energy program, which provides thousands of well-paying jobs, as well as affordable and reliable energy Americans need to heat homes, fuel our cars, and power our economy,' he said.
The lease sale will be the fourth offshore sale under the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (2017-2022 OCS Program), the statement read.
Under this program, ten region-wide lease sales are scheduled for the Gulf. Two Gulf lease sales will be held each year and include all available blocks in the combined Western, Central, and Eastern Gulf of Mexico planning areas.
The Gulf of Mexico OCS, covering about 160 million acres, contains about 48 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and 141 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable gas, according to the department.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr