Interior schedules first Gulf lease sale since oil spill

In December, the Interior Department will hold the first oil and natural-gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico since last year’s massive oil spill that devastated the region.

Republicans and drill-state Democrats have long pressed the Obama administration to hold lease sales in the region, arguing that new domestic drilling will be a boon to the economy.

The Dec. 14 lease sale in the western Gulf represents a first step toward new drilling in the region under a series of beefed-up safety and environmental standards imposed by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) in recent months.

“This sale is an important step toward a secure energy future that includes safe, environmentally sound development of our domestic energy resources,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.

The lease sale, which will be held in New Orleans, will offer up all unleased areas in a 20.6 million-acre block off the coast of Texas. The water depth in the lease sale area is between 16 and almost 11,000 feet.

Sales in the region could produce up to 423 million barrels of oil and as much as 2.65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to BOEMRE.

BOEMRE said Friday it would increase the minimum bid in those areas deeper than 1,312 feet from $37.50 per acre to $100 per acre in order to “discourage companies from purchasing leases they are unlikely to explore in the near term.“

“BOEMRE is proposing this increase in an effort to ensure that areas with the greatest resource potential are developed, and to decrease the amount of leased acreage that is warehoused and goes unexplored,” BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich said in a statement. “The change in terms will better ensure that the nation’s resources are being developed in a timely manner.”

Minimum bids for shallow-water leases will stay the same.

The lease sale requires that operators ensure the region is protected from environmental damage.