DOI says 70% of OCS leases unused

Following a March 11 request from President Obama for information on the use of federal oil and gas leases, the Department of the Interior has reported that 70 percent of outer continental shelf leases do not currently have an active development or exploration plan. Onshore, 45 percent of leases are inactive, Interior reported.

“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,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on March 30. “These are resources that belong to the American people, and they expect those supplies to be developed in a timely and responsible manner and with a fair return to taxpayers.”

3.7 million Alaska OCS acres

The Interior report says that on the Alaska OCS there are 3.7 million acres under lease, with 51,237 of these acres subject to approved exploration plans and 21,254 acres subject to approved development plans.

Shell, the company that has been spearheading efforts to develop oil and gas on the Alaska OCS, told Petroleum News in 2008 that it had established a major lease position in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, to have a large portfolio of exploration possibilities, as a baseboard for its Alaska operations. Litigation and appeals over permits, and over the lease sale in which the company bought its Chukchi Sea leases, have for several years stymied the company’s plans to drill in the Arctic OCS.

—Alan Bailey