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BOEM to live stream Gulf of Mexico sale
KRISTEN NELSON Petroleum News
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to live stream its Aug. 24 western Gulf of Mexico planning area oil and gas lease sale.
BOEM said in the sale information package that while bids will be opened at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, the bid opening will not be open to the public.
The bid opening will be available for the public to view in real time on BOEM’s website at www.boem.gov via video live streaming beginning at 9 a.m. the day of the sale.
“The use of live streaming to announce bids is being implemented to provide greater access to a wider national and international audience while ensuring the security of BOEM staff,” the agency said.
BOEM said sale 248 will be the first federal offshore oil and gas auction broadcast live on the Internet, with the goals of promoting “greater government efficiency and transparency, eliminating the need for the public to physically attend the bid reading.”
Bill proposes Internet offshore leasing In related congressional action the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources unanimously approved H.R. 5577, the Innovation in Offshore Leasing Act, which authorizes BOEM to use Internet-based leasing for its offshore leasing.
The Aug. 24 sale involves a traditional opening and reading of bids, with the change being exclusion of the public from the reading which will be live streamed.
H.B. 5577 would allow the Secretary of the Interior “to conduct offshore oil and gas lease sales through Internet-based live lease sales.” The bill says the change will “modernize the Nation’s offshore leasing program to ensure the best return to the Federal taxpayer, reduce fraud, and ensure a fair and competitive leasing process.”
Under the bill sale requirements include “live web streaming of the bid reading process” and would include a bidder verification process and “the ability for a bidder to correct a possible misreading of a submitted bid.”
There would be a third-party observer from Interior’s Office of the Inspector General present during bid reading “to prevent wrongdoing, independently certify the bidding process, and maintain transparency,” with “data security measures to ensure bidder data is kept secure.” The bill specifies that statistical data would be provided on the sale day.
Collaboration in the process The bill requires that before the first Internet-based lease sale under the bill is conducted, Interior would issue a request for information from each company present for bidding at the 10 most recent oil and gas lease sales conducted under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act “in order to provide the bidding public sufficient opportunity to share innovative ideas, methods, and concerns regarding Internet-based leasing.”
National Ocean Industries Association President Randall Luthi said the organization, representing companies involved in offshore resources exploration and production, commended the committee for passing the bill out. Luthi, who formerly headed the U.S. Minerals Management Service, BOEM’s predecessor, called the bill “a common-sense way to update the offshore lease sale process. Incorporating internet-based technologies are cost-effective improvements that can increase transparency and efficiency in the offshore lease sale process.”
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