National Oil and Gas Leasing Plan and Seismic Testing

On Jan. 4, 2018, the U.S. Dept. of Interior announced plans to open waters off of North Carolina and other Atlantic Coast states to offshore oil and gas exploration and development. 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held a public meeting to accept written comments on the draft proposed plan on Feb. 27 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the North Raleigh Hilton, 3415 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. 

A 60-day public comment period on the Draft Proposed Program ended on March 9, 2018, and the state submitted comments opposing the proposed program. 

BOEM may soon publish a Proposed Program and Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), triggering a 90-day comment period. If North Carolina is included in this five-year plan, this will be last opportunity to comment before the Proposed Plan is sent to the President and Congress for final approval.

After BOEM’s pre-leasing activity and possible lease sales, they will conduct another review process for post-leasing activities that will include oil and gas exploration and oil and gas development approvals. A graphic illustrating the Oil and Gas Leasing Process can be found here https://www.boem.gov/BOEM-OCS-Oil-Gas-Leasing-Process/.

For more information on BOEM’s five-year oil and gas leasing program, go to https://www.boem.gov/Five-Year-Program/.

See a more detailed graphic on the process and its timeline. 

See the timeline of events for a full summary. 

See related documents from all parties involved broken up in the tabs below.