Risk Management and Financial Assurance for OCS Lease and Grant Obligations

What it does

The Department of the Interior (the Department or DOI), acting through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), in response to Executive Order (E.O.) 14154 of January 20, 2025, Unleashing American Energy, as well as Secretarial Order No. 3418 of February 3, 2025, has reviewed market conditions of supply and demand in the crude oil and gas markets, and, as a result, is proposing to amend its existing risk management and financial assurance regulations. BOEM is tasked with managing the development of U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy, mineral, and geological resources in an environmentally and economically responsible way. As such, BOEM is proposing to maintain certain provisions of the existing regulations and modify only those elements that, under new market conditions, merit updating. The major proposed amendments in this rule include returning to the previous BOEM practice of considering the financial strength of jointly liable predecessor lessees, revising the credit rating threshold for determining whether oil, gas, and sulfur lessees, right-of-use and easement (RUE) grant holders, and pipeline right-of-way (ROW) grant holders on the OCS are required to provide supplemental financial assurance above the required general financial assurance amount to ensure compliance with their Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) obligations, revising the decommissioning estimate used to determine the amount of supplemental financial assurance required, and revising the appeals bond provision related to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) appeal procedures. Each of these proposed amendments will be discussed in its corresponding section of this preamble. This proposed rule, if finalized, would significantly reduce the amount of supplemental financial assurance required from oil, gas, and sulfur lessees operating on the OCS, thereby supporting the goals of E.O. 14154 Unleashing American Energy. BOEM estimates that a total of approximately $6.2 billion of financial burden to the regulated community will be reduced. This reduction of the financial burden increases the amount of capital available for oil and gas exploration and production on the OCS.

The Ocean Energy Management Bureau's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What it would change

3 parts of Title 30 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

30 CFR 550, 30 CFR 556, 30 CFR 590

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 1010-AE26 since Jan. 1, 2025.

Since then:

• May 8, 2026 Notice of proposed rulemaking; extension of public comment period. Risk Management and Financial Assurance for OCS Lease and Grant Obligations; Extension of Public Comment Period

What happens next and when

BOEM must receive your comments on or before May 8, 2026. BOEM has the discretion not to consider comments received after this date. You may make comments on the information collection (IC) burden in this rulemaking and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and BOEM must receive such comments on or before April 8, 2026. The IC burden comment opportunity does not affect the deadline for the public to comment to BOEM on the proposed regulations.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket BOEM-2025-0042 on Regulations.gov
• Title 30 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register