The U.S. Department of the Interior (DoI) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced the start-up of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) Lease Sale 249 and plans to offer 75.9 million acres (307,000 km²) offshore several US states (namely Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida) for oil and gas exploration and development activities. The lease sale has been scheduled for August 2017 and will include all available unleased areas in the GoM federal waters. The DoI will provide a reduced royalty rate for shallow water leases to encourage exploration and production activities. These new royalties terms include a 12.5% royalty rate for shallow water leases in less than 200 meters of water depth and a royalty rate of 18.75% for all other leases.
The Lease Sale 249 will be the first US offshore sale under the National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Programme for 2017-2022. Under the framework of this programme, 10 lease sales are scheduled for the GoM and two will be held each year. They will include all available blocks in the combined Western, Central, and Eastern Gulf of Mexico Planning Areas.
The GoM OCS, covers about 160 million acres (647,497 km²) and has technically recoverable resources of 550 Mbl and 1.25 trillion cubic feet of gas (35 bcm) according to the DoI.
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