[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 202 (Monday, October 19, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66346-66348]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-23079]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

[Docket No. BOEM-2020-0017]


Gulf of Mexico, Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Oil and Gas Lease 
Sale 256

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)

[[Page 66347]]

regionwide oil and gas Lease Sale 256. This Record of Decision 
identifies BOEM's selected alternative for proposed Lease Sale 256, 
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 256. 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 256 and at www.boem.gov/Sale-256. The 
proposed regionwide lease sale area encompasses about 91.93 million 
acres (ac), with approximately 78.2 million ac 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 
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, with approximately 
51.5 million ac 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, with approximately 26.7 million ac 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

[[Page 66348]]

regionwide Lease Sale 256 and is identified as the environmentally 
preferred alternative. Alternative E was not selected because, if it 
were, the needed domestic energy sources and the subsequent positive 
economic impacts from exploration and production, including employment, 
would not be realized. Not holding a single lease sale would also not 
significantly change the overall activity levels in the GOM (i.e., on 
blocks leased in previous lease sales) and the associated environmental 
impacts in the near term; however, it would avoid the incremental 
contribution of the proposed regionwide lease sale to the cumulative 
effects of ongoing activity. Avoidance of this incremental 
contribution, however, is outweighed by the potential negative economic 
and socioeconomic impacts of choosing Alternative E.
    Lease Stipulations--Eleven lease stipulations have been adopted for 
Lease Sale 256, including a new stipulation not previously included in 
recent lease sales, related to processing of certain post-lease permits 
and described below. The 2018 GOM Supplemental EIS describes 10 of 
these 11 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 256.
    The additional nine lease stipulations considered for proposed 
regionwide Lease Sale 256 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; 
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; and the Timeframe for Decisions on an 
Application for Permit to Drill (APD) and an Application for Permit to 
Modify (APM) Stipulation. The Protected Species Stipulation has been 
updated for this lease sale due to the completion of the Endangered 
Species Act consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service and 
the issuance of a new Biological Opinion addressing OCS oil and gas-
related activities in the Gulf of Mexico, including this lease sale. 
The Timeframe for Decisions on an Application for Permit to Drill (APD) 
and an Application for Permit to Modify (APM) Stipulation is 
administrative in nature and addresses the processing and timing of 
decisions for APDs and APMs by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental 
Enforcement (BSEE). It does not alter any underlying requirements for 
those applications and therefore would not be expected to change any 
environmental effects reasonably foreseeable as a result of this lease 
sale and any related post-lease activities. As noted, BOEM is adopting 
these nine stipulations as lease terms where applicable and they are 
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 
BSEE 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 256. BOEM is also adopting 11 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. 2020-23079 Filed 10-16-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P