Happy Monday and welcome back to
another week of ESC News Blog.
We received a follow-up to an
announcement the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management’s (BOEM) had back in July on an interest request they received for
an area of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Gulf of Mexico off the
coast of southeast Texas, and we did Blog on it back in early August 2024;
please check it out for additional details.
They have made a decision on the area!
Did anyone happen
to receive the News Release from the
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEM) on December 12, 2024, their news release titled, “BOEM Announces
Next Steps in Competitive Leasing Process for Offshore Wind Energy in Gulf of
Mexico”? In the news release, it speaks about
the
U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM)
has made a verdict on an unconventional request from Hecate Energy Gulf Wind
LLC (Hecate Energy) concerning the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Gulf of
Mexico (GOM) off the coast of southeast Texas for a lease to set up offshore
wind. The
BOEM had previously
acknowledge the tracts requested as possible areas for offshore Wind Energy
Areas (WEA) and at the end of July they published a Request for Competitive
Interest (RFCI) from Hecate Energy’s inquiry.
The
results are in on the RFCI, and a Determination of Competitive Interest should
have been published last week. The
BOEM’s RFCI has received additional interest in an area of the GOM from
Invenergy GOM Offshore Wind LLC, so it has been decided there is interest for
these areas, and they will be up for lease sale in the next GOM lease sale
schedule for 2026. The
BOEM
will be evaluating the comments made in the RFCI and will determine which parts
of WEA option C and D as well as other areas of the GOM will be made available,
and a draft of the WEA should be published in 2025. This
is good news, especially considering how poorly received the first GOM Wind Energy
Lease Sale was. If we hear anything else
interesting from the
BOEM on the GOM, we will let you know. If you would like to read more of
the BOEM’s news release, please
click the link:
BOEM Announces Next Steps in Competitive Leasing Process for Offshore Wind Energy in Gulf of Mexico | Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
If you would
like information on the BOEM’s activities for the Gulf of Mexico; please
click the link: Gulf of Mexico Activities | Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
If you would
like help in looking into how to transport your liquid product efficiently and
with less of a carbon footprint, contact us via the email in the Blog and check
out our ESC website!
We hope you have a wonderful evening and a great week! Hope
you are counting down until Christmas and have all your shopping and decorating
completed.
**Disclaimer: Please see the New Release from
the BOEM for exact information. **
