The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) mentioned on Tuesday it can postpone its subsequent sale of oil leases within the Gulf of Mexico.
The company mentioned it won’t maintain Lease Sale 261 on September 27, 2023, as initially deliberate because of final week’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordering an growth of acreage being supplied after BOEM earlier diminished the world in an effort to guard an endangered whale species.
“The order allows time for a more orderly lease sale process,” BOEM mentioned.
BOEM mentioned it can embody lease blocks that have been beforehand excluded because of issues concerning potential impacts to the Rice’s whale distribution within the Gulf of Mexico. BOEM added it can additionally take away parts of a associated stipulation meant to deal with potential impacts to Rice’s whale from the lease phrases for the leases that could be issued because of Lease Sale 261.
BOEM mentioned it plans to carry Lease Sale 261 no later than November 8, 2023, to adjust to the Appeals Court ruling. A revised Final Notice of Sale shall be issued within the coming days.
