In January, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an Alaska District Court decision which held that BOEM arbitrarily used an estimate of 1 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil from the Chukchi in assessing the potential environmental impacts of the 2008 Chukchi Sea oil and gas lease sale. BOEM has filed a status report with the district court. The agency told the court that it anticipates issuing a new record of decision, or ROD, in March 2015, after the completion of a new supplementary environmental impact statement, or SEIS, for the sale.
BOEM intends to publish a draft SEIS early in October 2014. After a 45-day public comment period and whatever revisions BOEM makes based on comments, the agency intends to publish a final SEIS in February 2015, with the ROD for the lease sale following after a mandatory 30-day waiting period.
Click here to read a Petroleum News article on BOEM’s SEIS plans.
