Happy Monday! Welcome back to another week of ESC News Blog! We hope your weekend was fun and relaxing, so let us get cracking!
On April 18, 2024, we blogged
about the changes to the BLM’s Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule* and
how it has been unchanged for a very long time.
Now the ramifications of those changes have started to be felt around
the oil and gas industry.
Did anyone happen to read the
Oil & Gas Journal’s Daily Update Newsletter on April 19, 2024, their
article titled, “Biden administration places 13 million NPR-A areas off limit
to drilling”? The article speaks on the
subject of newly updated rules the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) released on April 12, 2024, its changes have caused removal of
over 13 million acres from the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (NPR-A) on
its North Slope and almost 3 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in
the Artic Ocean. Now that the BLM has in place its updated Fluid Mineral Leases
and Leasing Process Rule the affects are being felt in Alaska’s North Slope and Beaufort Sea, as well as other places around the country. The updated rules have placed protection on over
41 million acres across the U.S. The new
updates will not affect leases currently being developed only future ones. For example, ConocoPhillips’ Williow Project
is still moving forward in Alaska. The
recent announcement has been met with a mixture of responses from all sides. Stay tuned to see what happens next in this
unfolding soap opera. If you would like
to read the Oil and Gas Journal’s article, please click the link: Biden
administration places 13 million NPR-A acres off limits to drilling | Oil &
Gas Journal (ogj.com).
* Note the newly updated Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule will be published around April 24, 2024.
If you would
like help in looking into how to transport your product efficiently, safely, and
with less of a carbon footprint, please check us out! Contact us via email in the blog and check out
our ESC's website and ask how we can help you!
We hope you have a wonderful evening and a productive week!
**Disclaimer: You may be charged a fee to read The Oil
and Gas Journal’s article. **