White House-ordered report finds millions of acres of untapped oil leases

A White House-ordered report shows that oil companies are failing to develop large swaths of federal lands and waters already under lease — findings Democrats will use as political counterweight to GOP calls to open large new areas to drilling.

The Interior Department released the report — which President Obama ordered personally this month — on the same day that House Republicans floated new plans to mandate a major expansion of offshore oil-and-gas leasing.

The dueling views on display Tuesday come a day before Obama is scheduled to make a major speech on energy security at Georgetown University.

“The information provided in this report indicates that the Department offered substantial acreage for potential oil and gas development in 2009 and 2010 that was not subsequently leased by bidding parties,” the report states.

“In addition, for areas that are under lease, there are tens of millions of acres currently idle — that is, not undergoing exploration, development, or production,” it states.

The report notes that 34 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico are under lease.

“Approximately 70% of the Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Resources currently under lease in all areas of the Federal Gulf of Mexico are not producing or not subject to approved or pending exploration or development plans,” the report states.

This 70 percent “includes almost 24 million inactive leased acres in the Gulf of Mexico, which potentially could hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas,” states an Interior summary of the findings.

The report also finds that roughly 21.6 million acres — or 57 percent — of the onshore acres under lease are not in production or exploration.

“We continue to support safe and responsible domestic energy production, and as this report shows millions of acres that have already been leased to industry for oil and gas production sit idle,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.

He added: “As we continue to offer new areas onshore and offshore for leasing, as we have done over the last two years, we will also be exploring ways to provide incentives to companies to bring production online quickly and safely.”