A federal oil and gas auction is scheduled for mid November that once again will offer all of the unleased areas of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) for development. 

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Lease Sale 256, scheduled to be livestreamed on Nov. 18 from New Orleans, would be the seventh under the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program.

The auction originally had been scheduled for August, but federal officials wanted to assess the impact of Covid-19 on U.S. oil and gas markets. The auction would offer about 78 million acres for oil and gas development on the OCS.

“Domestic offshore oil and gas production plays a vital role in strengthening our nation’s energy security,” said BOEM’s Walter...