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BOEM to prepare EIS for 2019 Beaufort Sea
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Dec. 15 that it will prepare an environmental impact statement for a potential 2019 oil and gas lease sale in the Beaufort Sea. In a Federal Register notice published Nov. 16, BOEM referred to regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act and said the EIS would be for the proposed 2019 Beaufort Sea lease sale in the Beaufort Sea planning area. The National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program was released Jan. 4. This proposed lease sale area includes all available OCS blocks in the Beaufort Sea planning area, 11,876 whole and partial lease blocks covering some 65 million acres.
Two potential exclusion areas are identified in the draft: the Barrow and Kaktovik whaling areas.
The current proposal calls for leasing and an EIS for the entire Beaufort Sea planning area, including the proposed whaling exclusion areas.
BOEM’s Nov. 1 leasing report shows 40 Beaufort Sea leases active: Eni holds a block of 13 leases off Nikaitchuq; ASRC Exploration holds a block of 21 leases at the Taktuk unit on the east side, offshore between Deadhorse and Kaktovik; Hilcorp and BP jointly hold three leases at Liberty; and Hilcorp holds three leases off Northstar, which it operates.
Scoping meetings BOEM has scheduled four scoping meetings, each of which will be from 7-9 p.m.:
*Dec. 3, Barrow High School, Utqiagvik;
*Dec. 4, Kisik Community Center, Nuiqsut;
*Dec. 5, Community Center, Kaktovik; and
*Dec. 8, Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, Anchorage.
In announcing the EIS preparation, Dr. James Kendall, director of BOEM’s Alaska region, said: “We look forward to receiving thoughtful, substantive input on this EIS. We especially need to hear from residents of the Beaufort Sea communities, letting us know how the proposed leasing area is currently being used and what specific areas need extra attention. To address these issues, we will use rigorous science together with traditional knowledge and other input we receive from this early step in the leasing process.”
The draft proposed leasing program proposes lease sales in the Beaufort Sea in 2019, 2021 and 2023, BOEM said. The last BOEM Beaufort Sea sale was in April 2007, resulted in leasing of 90 blocks and brought in more than $42 million.
Draft alternatives BOEM said the Federal Register notice is a continuation of information gathering “and is published early in the environmental review process in furtherance of the goals of NEPA.”
The agency said comments received during scoping would help inform the EIS for the lease sale, and if a decision is made to hold the lease sale, “that decision and the details related to the lease sale (including the lease sale area and any mitigation) will be announced in a Record of Decision and Final Notice of Sale.”
BOEM said there are draft alternatives on which it is also seeking public input:
*Offshore whale area alternative - proposed to minimize conflicts between subsistence whaling and oil and gas activities;
*Environmentally important areas alternative - proposed to reduce impacts to known environmentally important areas, Barrow Canyon, Harrison Bay/Colville River Delta, the Bolder Patch and Kaktovik.
*Deepwater exclusion alternative - focus environmental analyses while offering leases in areas with highest known resource potential.
BOEM said maps and more details on the alternatives can be found at https://www.boem.gov/beaufort2019.
The agency said the draft alternatives are based on previous OCS oil and gas leasing programs and on response to stakeholder comments during development of the 2019-24 draft proposed program.
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