Later this week, the Department of the Interior will be holding a leasing forum to solicit input from leaders working in Energy Industry. The Biden Administration has issued a moratorium on all new oil and gas leases on federal lands—including offshore drilling. Just how big is this pause? That’s the question causing massive concern.
Following the March 25th forum, the department will issue a formal report containing recommendations. It is expected to be published later this summer after a comment period.
THERE’S HISTORY AT PLAY
This isn’t the first federal moratorium imposed on the industry. Congress imposed a moratorium on California’s offshore drilling in 1981 and then expanded it a few years later to all offshore drilling with the exception of parts of the Gulf of Mexico and Alaskan Coastal waters. That offshore moratorium is still in place forty years later.
Those two exceptions supplied approximately 8% of national production during that period. Today, the Gulf of Mexico alone accounts for 17% of crude oil and 5% natural gas produced in the US.
HOW THE PAUSE WILL IMPACT THE INDUSTRY?
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