Minerals

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) Monday issued a list of producers that will be restricted from jointly bidding for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and natural gas leases over the upcoming six-month period.

President Bush handed the incoming Obama administration a political conundrum Friday as the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued a draft five-year plan to allow oil and natural gas leasing in long-banned areas offshore. Obama, who previously voiced support for “responsible drilling” now has to decide whether to allow the draft plan to move forward, or explain how reinstating a decades-old moratorium would help the United States gain its independence from foreign energy supplies.

President Bush handed the incoming Obama administration a political conundrum Friday as the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued a draft five-year plan to allow oil and natural gas leasing in long-banned areas offshore. Obama, who previously voiced support for “responsible drilling” now has to decide whether to allow the draft plan to move forward, or explain how reinstating a decades-old moratorium would help the United States gain its independence from foreign energy supplies.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has rejected a request by Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine to delay a planned oil and natural gas lease sale off the state’s coast.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has rejected a request by Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine to delay a planned oil and natural gas lease sale off the state’s coast.

Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) is extending the public comment period for the call for information and notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement on a proposed lease sale for off the coast of Virginia in 2011. The comment period was due to close on Dec. 29, but it has been extended to Jan. 13. This is the first lease sale that MMS has proposed off the East Coast in nearly three decades. The proposed sale area, which is at least 50 miles offshore and covers 2.9 million acres in water depths of 100 feet to 10,000 feet, is believed to contain 1.14 Tcf of natural gas and 130 MMbbl of crude oil, according to the agency.

Before turning over the reins to the Obama administration, Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) plans to issue a draft proposed five-year program for 2010-2015 leasing in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), final revenue-sharing regulations for Gulf of Mexico coastal states and a rule on alternative energy development in the OCS, said MMS Director Randall Luthi last Tuesday.

Before turning over the reins to the Obama administration, Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) plans to issue a draft proposed five-year program for 2010-2015 leasing in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), final revenue-sharing regulations for Gulf of Mexico coastal states and a rule on alternative energy development in the OCS, said MMS Director Randall Luthi Tuesday.

In its final assessment of destroyed and damaged facilities in this past summer’s hurricanes Gustav and Ike, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) Gulf of Mexico (GOM) staff estimated that 2,127 production platforms were exposed to winds that were higher than 74 mph.