U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said today that millions of acres of acreage leased by industry for oil and gas development remain idle.
A report released by the Department of the Interior said more than two-thirds of federal offshore acreage leased by industry and more than half of federal onshore leased acreage in the lower 48 states remains idle – neither producing nor under active exploration or development by the companies that hold the leases.
“As part of the Obama administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, we continue to make millions of acres of public land available for safe and responsible domestic energy production,” said Salazar.
“We continue to offer new areas onshore and offshore for leasing, as we have over the last three years. We also want companies to develop the tens of millions of acres they’ve already leased but have left sitting idle in order to reduce our reliance on foreign oil as quickly as possible,” he added.
Salazar said that the report shows that more than 70 percent of the tens of millions of offshore acres currently under lease are inactive, neither producing nor currently subject to approved or pending exploration or development plans. The report said that out of the nearly 36 million acres leased offshore, only about 10 million acres are active — leaving nearly 72 percent of the offshore leased area idle.
In the lower 48 states, an additional 20.8 million acres, or 56 percent of onshore leased acres, remain idle, according to the report.
The department added that there are approximately 7,000 approved permits for drilling on federal and Indian lands that have not yet been drilled by companies.
“These lands and waters belong to the American people, and they expect those energy supplies to be developed in a timely and responsible manner and with a fair return to taxpayers,” said Salazar. “We will continue to encourage companies to diligently bring production on-line quickly and safely…”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com or twitter@Howard Pankratz
