[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8017-8018]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02717]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

[Docket No. BOEM-2020-0001]


Gulf of Mexico, Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Oil and Gas Lease 
Sale 254

AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability of a Record of Decision.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is announcing the 
availability of a Record of Decision for proposed Gulf of Mexico (GOM) 
regionwide oil and gas Lease Sale 254. This Record of Decision 
identifies BOEM's selected alternative for proposed Lease Sale 254, 
which is analyzed in the Gulf of Mexico OCS Lease Sale: Final 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement 2018 (2018 GOM Supplemental 
EIS).

ADDRESSES: The Record of Decision is available on BOEM's website at 
http://www.boem.gov/nepaprocess/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For more information on the Record of 
Decision, you may contact Ms. Helen Rucker, Chief, Environmental 
Assessment Section, Office of Environment, by telephone at 504-736-
2421, or by email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, BOEM 
evaluated five alternatives for proposed Lease Sale 254. We have 
summarized these alternatives below, noting some additional blocks that 
may be excluded due to their lease status at the time of this decision:
    Alternative A--Regionwide OCS Lease Sale: This is BOEM's preferred 
alternative. This alternative would allow for a proposed GOM regionwide 
lease sale encompassing all three planning areas: Western Planning Area 
(WPA); Central Planning Area (CPA); and a small portion of the Eastern 
Planning Area (EPA) not under Congressional moratorium. Under this 
alternative, BOEM would offer for lease all available unleased blocks 
within the proposed regionwide lease sale area for oil and gas 
operations with the following exceptions: Whole and portions of blocks 
deferred by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006; blocks that 
are adjacent to or beyond the United States' Exclusive Economic Zone in 
the area known as the northern portion of the Eastern Gap; whole and 
partial blocks within the current boundary of the Flower Garden Banks 
National Marine Sanctuary; depth restricted, segregated portions of 
Block 299, Main Pass Area, South and East Addition (Louisiana Leasing 
Map LA10A); blocks where the lease status is currently under appeal; 
and whole or partial blocks that have received bids in previous lease 
sales, where the bidder has sought reconsideration of BOEM's rejection 
of their bid, unless the reconsideration request is fully resolved at 
least 30 days prior to the publication of the Final Notice of Sale. We 
have listed the unavailable blocks in Section I of the Final Notice of 
Sale for proposed Lease Sale 254 and at www.boem.gov/Sale-254. The 
proposed regionwide lease sale area encompasses about 91.93 million 
acres (ac). As of January 2020, approximately 78.1 million ac of the 
proposed regionwide lease sale area are available for lease. As 
described in the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, the estimated amounts of 
resources projected to be leased, discovered, developed, and produced 
as a result of the proposed regionwide lease sale are between 0.211 and 
1.118 billion barrels of oil (BBO) and 0.547 and 4.424 trillion cubic 
feet (Tcf) of natural gas.
    Alternative B--Regionwide OCS Lease Sale Excluding Available 
Unleased Blocks in the WPA Portion of the Proposed Lease Sale Area: 
This alternative would offer for lease all available unleased blocks 
within the CPA and EPA portions of the proposed lease sale area for oil 
and gas operations, with the following exceptions: Whole and portions 
of blocks deferred by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006; 
blocks that are adjacent to or beyond the United States' Exclusive

[[Page 8018]]

Economic Zone in the area known as the northern portion of the Eastern 
Gap; depth restricted, segregated portions of Block 299, Main Pass 
Area, South and East Addition (Louisiana Leasing Map LA10A); blocks 
where the lease status is currently under appeal; and whole or partial 
blocks that have received bids in previous lease sales, where the 
bidder has sought reconsideration of BOEM's rejection of their bid, 
unless the reconsideration request is fully resolved at least 30 days 
prior to publication of the Final Notice of Sale. The proposed CPA/EPA 
lease sale area encompasses about 63.35 million ac. As of January 2020, 
approximately 51.5 million ac of the proposed CPA/EPA lease sale area 
are available for lease. The estimated amounts of resources projected 
to be leased, discovered, developed, and produced as a result of the 
proposed lease sale under Alternative B are 0.185-0.970 BBO and 0.441-
3.672 Tcf of gas.
    Alternative C--Regionwide OCS Lease Sale Excluding Available 
Unleased Blocks in the CPA and EPA Portions of the Proposed Lease Sale 
Area: This alternative would offer for lease all available unleased 
blocks within the WPA portion of the proposed lease sale area for oil 
and gas operations, with the following exceptions: Whole and partial 
blocks within the current boundary of the Flower Garden Banks National 
Marine Sanctuary; blocks where the lease status is currently under 
appeal; and whole or partial blocks that have received bids in previous 
lease sales, where the bidder has sought reconsideration of BOEM's 
rejection of their bid, unless the reconsideration request is fully 
resolved at least 30 days prior to publication of the Final Notice of 
Sale. The proposed WPA lease sale area encompasses about 28.58 million 
ac. As of January 2020, approximately 26.7 million ac of the proposed 
WPA lease sale area are available for lease. The estimated amounts of 
resources projected to be leased, discovered, developed, and produced 
as a result of the proposed lease sale under Alternative C are 0.026-
0.148 BBO and 0.106-0.752 Tcf of gas.
    Alternative D--Alternative A, B, or C, with the Option to Exclude 
Available Unleased Blocks Subject to the Topographic Features, Live 
Bottom (Pinnacle Trend), and/or Blocks South of Baldwin County, 
Alabama, Stipulations: This alternative could be combined with any of 
the Action alternatives above (i.e., Alternative A, B, or C) and would 
allow the flexibility to offer leases under any alternative with 
additional exclusions. Under Alternative D, the decisionmaker could 
exclude from leasing any available unleased blocks in Alternative A 
subject to any one and/or a combination of the following stipulations: 
Topographic Features Stipulation, Live Bottom Stipulation, and Blocks 
South of Baldwin County, Alabama, Stipulation (not applicable to 
Alternative C). This alternative considered blocks subject to these 
stipulations because these areas have been emphasized in scoping, can 
be geographically defined, and adequate information exists regarding 
their ecological importance and sensitivity to OCS oil and gas-related 
activities.
    A total of 207 blocks within the CPA and 160 blocks in the WPA are 
affected by the Topographic Features Stipulation. There are currently 
no identified topographic features protected under this stipulation in 
the EPA. The Live Bottom Stipulation covers the pinnacle trend area of 
the CPA, affecting a total of 74 blocks. Under Alternative D, the 
number of blocks that would become unavailable for lease represents 
only a small percentage of the total number of blocks to be offered 
under Alternative A, B, or C (less than 4%, even if blocks subject to 
all three stipulations were excluded). Therefore, Alternative D could 
reduce offshore infrastructure and activities in the pinnacle trend 
area, because Alternative D would simply shift the location of offshore 
infrastructure and activities farther from these sensitive zones, it 
would not lead to a reduction in overall impacts. Moreover, the 
incremental negative impacts of the other alternatives compared with 
Alternative D would be largely mitigated by the application of the 
lease stipulations in Alternative A, as discussed below.
    Alternative E--No Action: This alternative is not holding proposed 
regionwide Lease Sale 254 and is identified as the environmentally 
preferred alternative.
    Lease Stipulations--The 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS describes all 
lease stipulations, which are included in the Final Notice of Sale 
Package. In the Record of Decision for the 2017-2022 Outer Continental 
Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing: Proposed Final Program, the Secretary of the 
Interior required the protection of biologically sensitive underwater 
features in all Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sales as programmatic 
mitigation; therefore, we are adopting the Topographic Features 
Stipulation and Live Bottom Stipulation and applying them to designated 
lease blocks in proposed Lease Sale 254.
    The additional eight lease stipulations considered for proposed 
regionwide Lease Sale 254 are the Military Areas Stipulation, the 
Evacuation Stipulation; the Coordination Stipulation; the Blocks South 
of Baldwin County, Alabama, Stipulation; the Protected Species 
Stipulation; the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 
Royalty Payment Stipulation; the Below Seabed Operations Stipulation; 
and the Stipulation on the Agreement between the United States of 
America and the United Mexican States Concerning Transboundary 
Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico. As noted, BOEM is 
adopting these eight stipulations as lease terms where applicable and 
they will be enforceable as part of the lease. Further, Appendix B of 
the Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales: 2017-2022; Gulf of 
Mexico Lease Sales 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 256, 257, 259, and 
261--Final Multisale Environmental Impact Statement provides a list and 
description of standard post-lease conditions of approval that BOEM or 
the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement may require as a 
result of their plan and permit review processes for the Gulf of Mexico 
OCS Region.
    After careful consideration, BOEM selected the preferred 
alternative (Alternative A) in the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, with 
certain additional blocks excluded due to their status, for proposed 
Lease Sale 254. BOEM is also adopting 10 lease stipulations and all 
practicable means of mitigation at the lease sale stage. The preferred 
alternative meets the purpose of and need for the proposed action, as 
identified in the 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS, and provides for orderly 
resource development with protection of human, marine, and coastal 
environments while also ensuring that the public receives a fair market 
value for these resources and that free-market competition is 
maintained.
    Authority: This Notice of Availability of a Record of Decision is 
published pursuant to the regulations (40 CFR part 1505) implementing 
the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as 
amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).

Michael A. Celata,
Regional Director, New Orleans Office, Department of the Interior 
Regions 1, 2, 4, and 6, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
[FR Doc. 2020-02717 Filed 2-11-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P