BOEM reports on Chukchi lease sale SEIS

In early November the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management published for public comment a draft version of its reworked SEIS, or supplemental environmental impact statement, for the 2008 Chukchi Sea lease sale. And on Nov. 21 the agency filed a report with the federal District Court in Alaska, outlining the status of the SEIS rework project and providing an updated schedule for completing the revised environmental document.

The SEIS rework stems from a District Court order upholding an appeal against the validity of the original environmental impact statement for the lease sale. That order requires BOEM to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of more extensive oil field developments in the Chukchi than the agency had considered in the original environmental document.

Shell, ConocoPhillips and Statoil purchased leases in the lease sale, but exploration activities in the Chukchi have been prohibited until the revised SEIS has been completed and a new decision regarding the holding of the lease sale published.

In its latest status report BOEM said that all Chukchi Sea leases remain suspended and that, although Shell has delivered a new Chukchi Sea exploration plan to the agency, the agency will not officially deem the plan to have been submitted until after the new lease sale decision has been made. Shell wants to restart its Chukchi Sea exploration drilling program in the summer of 2015.

BOEM said that in early December it will complete a series of public meetings, being held to gather comments on the SEIS. The public comment period for the document ends on Dec. 22. The agency anticipates publishing a final version of the SEIS in late February 2015. Following a mandatory 30-day waiting period, the agency expects to issue a record of decision for the lease sale in March 2015.

The agency’s preferred alternative in the draft SEIS is to affirm the holding of the lease sale. If upheld in the final version of the SEIS, that alternative would lead to a March decision enabling Chukchi Sea exploration to continue.

- Alan Bailey