U.S. to lease 36 million offshore acres for oil drilling
Seen here are dolphins directly in the path of the drillers. How will the wildlife be effected by this new lease on the wildlife's Habitat ???
WASHINGTON- The U.S. Interior Department said on Friday it plans to lease nearly 36 million acres (14.6 million hectares) to energy companies next spring to drill for oil and natural gas in the central Gulf of Mexico, but will shorten the time that the firms have to develop the tracts.
The area to be leased could produce up to 1.3 billion barrels of crude oil and 5.4 trillion cubic feet of gas according to the department.
“Continued development in appropriate areas of the Outer Continental Shelf, such as in the areas we will offer in the Gulf of Mexico, is a key component of our efforts to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil,” said U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Lease Sale 213 will involve about 6,800 tracts spread over 35.9 million acres located 3 to 250 miles off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The blocks are in water depths from 10 feet to more than 11,200 feet.
The proposed sale blocks include about 4.2 million acres in an area know as 181 South, near the Alabama-Florida offshore border. Drilling off Florida in the Gulf is only allowed far from the state’s shoreline.
The central Gulf lease sale would cut the term energy companies would have to develop oil and gas resources on certain tracts.
“This new approach to lease terms will better ensure that taxpayer resources are being developed in a timely manner,” Salazar said.
However, the American Petroleum Institute slammed the policy change, calling it another roadblock from the Obama administration that discourages the development of domestic oil and gas supplies.
“The shortening of lease terms does nothing to guarantee more discoveries but rather takes away from companies the flexibility necessary to operate in an extremely challenging and risky environment,” said API President Jack Gerard.
The initial lease term for blocks in waters 400 to 800 meters (1,312 to 2,624 feet) deep would change from 8 to 5 years, but when an exploratory well is drilled the life of the lease would be extended to 8 years.
Blocks in 800 to 1,600 meters deep would have lease terms of seven years instead of 10 years, and commencement of an exploratory well would extend the lease term to 10 years.
Energy companies will have to pay the government a royalty rate based on 18.75 percent of the value of the oil and gas they drill in the offshore tracts.
Initial terms for the lease sale, to be held next March 17, will be published on November 16 in Federal Register of government regulation
Credit:ReverseEnergy.com
Source:Tom Doggett; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
We’ll sorry to say but the wildlife never had a chance and it’s not only the wildlife that will be effected by the devastating oil breach spewing the gulf.