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August 2007

Vol. 12, No. 34 Week of August 26, 2007

MMS calls for info for multiple-sale EIS

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service is going to do a multiple-sale environmental impact statement for its proposed Beaufort and Chukchi seas lease sales, a procedure it adopted for Alaska outer continental shelf waters in 2001 when it did a multiple-sale EIS for three Beaufort Sea sales.

MMS issued a call for information and nominations Aug. 23 in the Federal Register for a multiple-sale EIS for Beaufort Sea (2009 and 2011) and Chukchi Sea (2010 and 2012) sales included in the agency’s OCS 2007-12 proposed five-year leasing program.

A February 2008 Chukchi Sea sale is not included; that sale is a carryover from the 2002-07 five-year program, the agency said.

The multiple-sale EIS will be the final National Environmental Policy Act and Coastal Zone Management Act consistency determination for the 2009 and 2010 sales. The agency said it will prepare additional documents as appropriate for the 2011 and 2012 sales.

Information and nominations are due within 45 days of the Federal Register notice.

Companies making nominations must rank areas in which they have an interest, either high or medium. “Respondents must be specific in indicating blocks by priority and be prepared to discuss their range of interest and activity regarding the nominated areas(s),” MMS said. The MMS Alaska OCS Regional Office will contact nominators to set up a meeting to more fully review nominations.

Process used in Gulf

While the multiple-sale, multiple-planning area EIS “is a new approach for the MMS Alaska OCS Region … it has been used for sales in the Gulf of Mexico Region,” MMS said.

Federal offshore leasing began in the Beaufort Sea in 1978 and in the Chukchi Sea in 1988. Beginning with the 2002-07 program, a multi-sale EIS was prepared for three Beaufort Sea sales.

“Because many of the issues are the same, we plan to evaluate sales in both the Chukchi and Beaufort seas together,” MMS Alaska Regional Director John Goll said in a statement. “This approach will make it easier for the public and us to key in on the most important issues and their effects.”

MMS said there are several benefits to the approach: a thorough description of the effects of individual proposed actions — the four lease sales — “and cumulative effects of reasonably foreseeable future actions within and across the two areas.”

—Petroleum News






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