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2007-2012 5-Year Program
A 5-year program consists of a schedule
of oil and gas lease sales indicating the size, timing, and location of
proposed leasing activity the Secretary determines will best meet
national energy needs for the 5-year period following its approval. An
area must be included in the current 5-year program in order to be
offered for leasing. Section
18
(132.38 KB PDF)
of the
OCS Lands Act
(286.05 KB PDF)
prescribes the
major steps
(17.68 KB PDF)
involved in developing a 5-year program including extensive
opportunities for public comment. A 5-year program balances energy
needs, environmental considerations, and numerous other factors required
under Section 18.
The current 5-year program is the
Revised OCS Oil & Gas Leasing Program for
2007- 2012, which
was effective December 23, 2010. It replaced the original version of
the OCS Program for 2007-2012, which became effective on July 1, 2007,
but was challenged in court. (See
History of the
Current 5-Year Program and Related Litigation).
The Revised Program (RP) includes sixteen sales—some of which have been cancelled—in six areas: the 11 area-wide sales in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM); a sale in the Eastern GOM;
a sale in the Mid-Atlantic 50 miles offshore Virginia; 2 special
interest sales in Cook Inlet (Alaska); and a sale in the Chukchi Sea
(Alaska). Eastern Gulf Sale 224 is included on the list of sales as a
historical record of lease sale activity during the time period. It was
mandated by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 and not
subject to OCS Lands Act section 18 analysis.
On May 27, 2010,
the Secretary cancelled Mid-Atlantic Sale 220 offshore Virginia to allow
time to implement measures designed to improve the safety of oil and gas
development in Federal waters, provide greater environmental protection,
and substantially reduce the risk of catastrophic events, as well as to
allow additional consultations with the Department of Defense on
military training requirements in the area. He also cancelled Western
Gulf Sale 215, scheduled for August 2010, in light of the need for time
to determine whether the baseline environmental information utilized in
the multi-sale EIS conducted for this lease sale may have changed
dramatically, as a result of the April 2010 explosion and sinking of the
Deepwater Horizon. In addition, Cook Inlet Sale 211 was cancelled due to
lack of industry interest, and the second Cook Inlet sale will be
cancelled in the near future as well. Typically, a 5-year program is
not revised to reflect cancellations of sales that occurred as the
result of the pre-sale process; accordingly, these sales remain in the
RP. Central GOM Sale 216 is being combined with Central Sale 222.
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