The Bureau of Land Management has scheduled a region-wide oil and gas lease sale for the Gulf of Mexico, in which it will offer a total 14,696 blocks spanning 78 million acres, which constitutes all the available unleased acreage in federal waters in the Gulf. “Developing our nation’s offshore energy resources is vital to our economy and energy security,” the Acting Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Walter Cruickshank said. “Our staff is committed to ensuring offshore development is done in an environmentally responsible manner.” The March lease sale is part of the 2017-2022 offshore lease sale plan – the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program – that was approved by the second Obama administration. The U.S. outer continental shelf holds technically recoverable reserves estimated at 550 million barrels of oil and 1.25 trillion cu ft of natural gas. The Gulf of Mexico was made […]