Boem

More stringent financial assurance requirements for offshore production facilities, roundly criticized by the oil and gas industry, were withdrawn late Friday to allow the Trump administration time to review them.

Following oil and gas industry pushback, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has extended a deadline to implement more stringent financial assurance and risk management requirements to ensure operators are able to pay for decommissioning and removing offshore production facilities.

Four Houston-based Gulf of Mexico independent producers that have launched a coalition to support oil and natural gas extraction, initially plan to oppose federal regulations covering financial assurances on how offshore infrastructure is decommissioned.

Four industry trade groups on Monday submitted requests to the Department of Interior and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) seeking information about why changes were made to financial assurances and bonding requirements for Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas producers.

Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 248, which offered 23.8 million acres offshore Texas for oil and natural gas exploration and development, attracted only a handful of bids Wednesday, and — unlike several other recent lease sales — no interruptions by protesters, thanks to a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) decision to broadcast the event live on the internet.

Two Gulf of Mexico lease sales, tentatively scheduled for 2018, are undergoing more scrutiny with four public scoping meetings in September, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said.

Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 248, which will offer 23.8 million acres offshore Texas for oil and natural gas exploration and development, will be held Aug. 24 in New Orleans, and will be the first federal offshore oil and gas auction broadcast live on the internet, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

The energy industry has, for now, eschewed interest in exploring and developing oil and natural gas reserves offshore Alaska, but a federal environmental review is underway regardless for Cook Inlet offshore the south-central coast, to determine whether to proceed with a scheduled auction next June.

Streamlined rules that update federal oversight of oil, natural gas and sulfur leasing in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) are to take effect at the end of May, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said.