OCR Text |
Show Western Resources WISAP-UP Public land leasing By Helene C. Monberg "It is this Administration's policy to authorize exploration on public lands where there is a reasonable expectation of recovering sufficient resources at a new gain." Energy Secretary James Edwards at press conference 4-10-81. Washington "We wanted the new Administration to accelerate the leasing process, increase the size of the acreage to be leased, and lease frontier areas. We are delighted it has done all three." That is the way an oil company lobbyist who is an old Washington hand has described the new leasing policies of this Administration on public lands and the Outer Continental Shelf which rings the nation along the coastal states. The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) extends beyond coastal shores to a depth of 200 meters or 600 feet. The Administration, acting under the direction of Interior Sercretary James G. Watt, has moved fast to accelerate leasing on the OCS because it offers the best prospects for major production of oil and gas for the near-term. Also no new legislation is needed for OCS leasing; some new legislation may be needed for on-shore leasing, according to the experts at the Interior Department Depart-ment and in the industry. There is widespread belief within the Administration and the energy industry generally that the fastest way this country can break the hammerlock that OPEC has had on the United States economy in recent years is to accelerate ac-celerate domestic oil and gas production. Hence the emphasis on domestic oil and gas production, both on the OCS and on-shore. The Administration is on leasing frontier areas in Central and Northern California and Alaska, decisions generally unpopular with environmental en-vironmental groups and their allies, notably Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, Jr., D-Calif. Energy Secretary James Edwards countered with a devastating reply to their objectives at an April 10 press conference where he and Watt announced an-nounced a major increase in OCS ' leasing. He said, "A group of California Congressmen recently called this a rational policy. They said, 'It is far more humane for Members of Congress to explain to parents of a son who reside along the beautiful Northern California Coast why we are erecting drilling platforms than to expalin to those parents why their son must fight in the sands of the Middle East to protect a resource which we have here at home.'" Watt is the chairman of a Cabinet group called the Council on Natural Resources and the Environment, and one of its furst actions was to recommend recom-mend to the White House to increase public land leasing, particularly oil and gas leasing on the OCS. The White House readily agreed. 100 TIMES MORE ACREAGE AVAILABLE TO LEASE ON OCS Under the stepped-up leasing program proposed for public comment in the Federal Register on April 17 theoretically, at least, 100 times more acreage may be offered for lease annually an-nually than has ever been offered before, according . to Interior spokesmen. "Since the OCS program began in 1954 we have offered 40 million acres on teh OCS for lease sales, and about half that acreage has been leased over that period of time. We have been offering 2-to-3 million acres on the OCS annually. The Administration and Interior plan to offer between 200-300 million acres on the OCS for leasing annually. Industry has said it wants a much larger area to bid on, and it will have much greater selections because we'll be offering much greater areas to select from," an old Interior hand told Western Resources Wrap-up ( WRW) on May 5. "About 100 times more," he underscored. But opening up new areas for ex- ploration and development on the OCS off the California and Alaskan coasts and off the Atlantic Coast is no guarantee that significant new oil strikes will be found, according to Interior spokesmen who have followed the OCS leasing program carefully for many years. Since the first new frontier acreage in Southern California was offered by Interior in December 1975 there have been no major new oil or gas strikes on OCS frontier acreage off Southern California, off Alaska or in the Atlantic, they told WRW. Another important factor to consider in OCS leasing, they said, is that the federal government has never lost a case in court involving OCS leased acreage. Leasing has been delayed because of law suits concerning the Georges Bank in the North Atlantic, the Beaufort Basin off Northeastern Alaska, and Southern California, but the courts have gone along with all of these frontier OCS lease seals, WRW was told. FRONTIER AREAS IN ALASKA Under an announcement that Interior published in the Federal Register on April 17, Interior plans to change some past OCS leasing policies immediately, with Alaskan frontier area primarily in mind. Only two OCS areas in Alaska have been leased to date: the Gulf of Alaska and Beaufort Sea, now known as Diapir Field. Under a proposed new five-year lease schedule which Watt sent to the governors of affected coastal states for comment on April 13, Interior proposes to lease more frontier areas more often in Alaska than has been leased in the past. Included on the proposed list are the following Alaskan frontier areas: Norton Basin, St. George Basin, Northern Aleutian Basin, Navarin Basin, Barrow Arch, Hope Basin, St- Matthew-Hall; and South Alaska, including Cook Inlet and Gulf of Alaska, which have been offered for lease previously, and Shumagin and Kodiak, which haven't. Under this proposed new five-eyar lease schedule, some 42 lease sales would be held from February 1982 thru November 1986, an increase of six over the existing schedule. The proposed new lease schedule will not become definite, however, until the end of this year. |