From 2017 through 2020, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held seven area-wide Gulf of America (GOA) lease sales.
From 2021 through 2024, BOEM only held three GOA lease sales. Lease Sale 257, held in November 2021, was nullified by a corrupt Obama judge. Biden, or whoever was operating the Autopen, cancelled sales 259 and 261, scheduled for 2022 and 2023 respectively. Then Biden’s Interior Department unlawfully refused to issue a new leasing plan. If not for one good provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, there would have been no GOA lease sales.
The Inflation Reduction Act (the Act), which passed the U.S. Senate on Aug. 7, 2022, requires that previously announced offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska be held during the next two years.
The Act requires the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) to award leases to the highest bidders in Lease Sale 257, which was held in November 2021. In January 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia vacated Lease Sale 257 after finding that Interior’s environmental review failed to adequately consider certain greenhouse gas emissions related to holding the offshore oil and gas lease sale. See Friends of the Earth v. Haaland, 2022 WL 254526 (D.D.C. Jan. 27, 2022).
The Act directs Interior to rely on its Record of Decision for Outer Continental Oil and Gas Leasing Program Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement issued on Jan. 17, 2017 (82 Fed. Reg. 6643). The Act also requires Interior to move forward with Lease Sale 258 in Alaska Region’s Cook Inlet by Dec. 31, 2022, and two additional Gulf of Mexico Lease sales, Lease Sales 259 and 261, by March 2023 and September 2023, respectively. The Act provides that the restored and new lease sales be held despite the fact that the Five-Year Leasing Plan mandated by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act expired in June 2022.
Holland and Knight
Despite the worst efforts of Biden’s Autopen, Gulf of America operators managed to maintain a production level of about 1.8 million barrels per day, second only to the Permian Basin, among US oil producing regions.
In-brief analysisJune 6, 2025
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), May 2025
We forecast crude oil production in the Federal Offshore Gulf of America (GOA) will average 1.80 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2025 and 1.81 million b/d in 2026, compared with 1.77 million b/d in 2024, in our most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). We expect GOA natural gas production to average 1.72 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2025 and 1.64 Bcf/d in 2026, compared with 1.79 Bcf/d in 2024. At these volumes, the GOA is forecast to contribute about 13% of U.S. crude oil production and 1% of U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2025 and 2026.
We expect operators to start crude oil and natural gas production at 13 fields in the GOA during 2025 and 2026, without which GOA production would decline. Eight fields will be developed using subsea tiebacks or underwater extensions to existing Floating Production Units (FPUs) at the surface. Five fields will produce from four new FPUs, with one of the new FPUs (Salamanca FPU) targeting production from two fields.
We expect the additional crude oil production from all new fields will contribute 85,000 b/d in 2025 and 308,000 b/d in 2026. We expect associated natural gas production from the new fields will average 0.09 Bcf/d in 2025 and 0.27 Bcf/d in 2026.
Three fields began producing earlier this year:
Whale Whale, one of the largest fields expected to come online in 2025 and 2026, started producing in January 2025 from a new FPU of the same name. The Whale FPU, located in more than 8,600 feet of water, is expected to produce around 85,000 b/d of crude oil at its peak.
Ballymore The Ballymore field started production in April 2025 as a subsea tieback to the existing Blind Faith facility, and it is expected to produce 75,000 b/d from the Ballymore wells in the emerging Upper Jurassic/Norphlet play.
Dover The Dover field also started production in April as a subsea tieback to the existing Appomattox facility with expected peak production of around 15,000 b/d.
Production coming online in the second half of 2025:
Shenandoah The Shenandoah field, which will produce from an FPU of the same name, is scheduled to start production in June 2025 with an initial capacity of 120,000 b/d, which will be expanded to 140,000 b/d in early 2026. The Shenandoah Phase 1 development will use new technologies to produce from a deepwater high-pressure field.
Leon and Castile Another new FPU we expect to come online in the second half of 2025, Salamanca, will process oil and natural gas from the Leon and Castile discoveries. The Salamanca project involved refurbishing a previously decommissioned production facility and has a capacity of 60,000 b/d of oil and 40 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.
We expect other subsea tiebacks to existing facilities to enter production in late 2025: Katmai West, Sunspear, Argos Southwest Extension, and Zephyrus Phase 1.
Production coming online in 2026:
Three new subsea tiebacks are expected to begin production in 2026: Silvertip Phase 3, Longclaw, and Monument, a subsea tieback to the Shenandoah FPU.
Hurricanes in the Gulf of America could disrupt the production and development timeline of these new fields. Colorado State University anticipates that the 2025 Atlantic Basin hurricane season will have above-normal activity with 17 named storms.
Principal contributor: Eulalia Munoz-Cortijo
US EIA
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Gulf of America
While the One Big Beauiful Bill Act is far from perfect, it codified a legal requirement for BOEM to hold two area-wide Gulf of America lease sales every year through 2041, streamlines commingling permits and reduces the royalty rate back down to 12.5% (1/8th).
Offshore Oil & Gas Provisions The final bill includes strong offshore energy measures, many long supported by NOIA:
Mandates Two Gulf of America Lease Sales Annually for the next 15 years, each offering at least 80 million acres.
Requires Six Offshore Lease Sales in Cook Inlet, Alaska over the next decade.
Streamlines Offshore Operations: Requires BSEE to approve production commingling requests unless safety or production is negatively impacted.
Restores Previous Royalty Rate: Reinstates the minimum 12.5% royalty rate for new offshore leases.
Boosts Revenue Sharing: Increases the GOMESA revenue cap to $650 million annually, up from $500 million.
After the Senate vote, NOIA President Erik Milito praised the offshore leasing provisions, calling them a necessary course correction after “years of policy whiplash”:
Mandated Gulf of America lease sales are absolutely essential. They give companies, whether family-run service shops or global manufacturers, the predictability needed to invest, hire, and build. When lease schedules vanish, so do jobs, capital, and energy security, with consequences felt far beyond the Gulf Coast.
National Offshore Industries Association (NOIA)
The mandated lease sale requirement is critical. In May 2020, NOIA published a report showing the potential economic impacts from a cessation of GOA lease sales.
These impacts would lead to a sharp drop in oil & gas production. I added the actual production data for 2017-2024 to the graph. Actual production has been 100-200 mbbl/d less than the NOIA baseline since 2020 due to the effects of the Shamdemic and 2020 coup d’état.
The mandate of “two Gulf of America Lease Sales Annually for the next 15 years, each offering at least 80 million acres” pretty well guarantees an active leasing program through 2041 and will give GOA operators a decent shot at exceeding 2 million bbl/d. Unless, of course, some Obama or Biden judge declares that only Federal judges can pass laws.
Federal Judge Overturns Law Of Gravity
U.S.· May 30, 2025 · BabylonBee.com
U.S. — The country was thrown into chaos this morning as a federal judge from the D.C. District Court overturned the law of gravity nationwide.
“The law of gravity is a bigoted law that quite literally keeps people down. This is typical of the fascist authoritarianism that has become President Trump’s brand,” said Judge Porben Crumbly of his latest ruling. “It is a blatant violation of the Constitution and my sensitive leftist sensibilities. It is therefore my divine will as an all-powerful federal judge that gravity no longer exists.”
Within minutes of Judge Crumbly making his decision, everything in the country began to float into the sky in compliance with the ruling. Sources said the sky was now filled with thousands of people, automobiles, chickens, rocks, televisions, and other objects that were typically known for staying on the ground. “How does a federal judge have this kind of authority?” said one woman, who was attempting to walk her chihuahua at 12,000 feet. “It seems like too much authority, but maybe that’s just me.”
[…]
Babylon Bee
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