Trump administration proposes expanded US offshore oil and gas leasing regime

The Department of the Interior on Nov. 20 proposed a large expansion of the US's key offshore oil and gas leasing program, including what could become the first such lease sales in waters off the coast of California since 1984 and sales in a new planning area in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said its 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program could include as many as 34 potential offshore lease sales across 21 of the 27 existing OCS planning areas, comprising 1.27 billion acres. The plan would auction 21 areas off the coast of Alaska, seven in the Gulf of Mexico, and six off the Pacific Coast.

The 2026-2031 OCS proposal would terminate the previous 2024-2029 OCS program, finalized under the Biden administration.

Earthjustice, a leading environmental group, said in a press release that the plan is "expected to be met with fierce public opposition."

"The Trump administration is threatening to impose offshore oil drilling on states, cities, and communities that have fought against it for decades," Earthjustice Senior Attorney Brettny Hardy said in a statement.

In addition to the six Pacific Coast sales, the plan calls for leases to be made available in every Alaska-adjacent OCS planning area between 2026 and 2031. The so-called "Gulf of America Program Area A," in the western Gulf of Mexico, would see new annual OCS leases from 2027 to 2031. The "Gulf of America Program Area B," in the western half of the eastern Gulf planning area where little current oil and gas activity is conducted according to BOEM lease maps, would see auctions in 2029 and 2030.

Those sales would be conducted in addition to the 30 Gulf of Mexico lease sales mandated by US President Donald Trump's 2025 budget reconciliation bill.

In its release, Interior said the announcement "marked the first of three proposals that will be developed before final approval" of the plan in October 2026. The first public comment period opens Nov. 24, and "each lease sale will undergo additional review, analysis, and opportunities for public comment."

Political fight

Pacific waters have not been included in an OCS program proposal since the 1987-1992 plan. None of those sales were ever held. Consistent local resistance and pressure from lawmakers in Washington have stymied attempts to lease those areas for oil and gas production.

California Governor Gavin Newsom pledged to oppose the plan Nov. 20.

"We will not stand by as our coastal economy and communities are put in danger," Newsom wrote in a post on X.

During the first Trump administration, Interior developed a five-year program that included California offshore sales in a draft proposal. The proposal was subject to multiple lawsuits and was never finalized.

"I would expect similar lawsuits to be launched for this new proposal," George Laguros, S&P Global Energy's US Gulf of Mexico specialist and upstream technical research principal, said.

Political pushback has already changed Interior's 2026-2031 plan. The previous version of the BOEM plan was widely reported to include leases off the Atlantic Coast, an effort that was publicly criticized by lawmakers in both parties. The White House has not responded to requests for comment on the revisions.

According to BOEM, there are 30 active leases in the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf Region producing hydrocarbons. All of those leases were sold before 1984.

In 2023, the Biden administration touted its final 2024-2029 program as "phasing down" oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico. It included just three sales in the Gulf in five years and none in Alaska, the Pacific, or the Atlantic.

The American Petroleum Institute, the largest US oil and gas industry lobbying group, routinely cited overturning the Biden OCS plan, which in 2024 included no offshore lease sales for the first time since 1966, as its top policy priority in the 2024 US presidential election.

"After years of delay in federal leasing, this is a historic step toward unleashing our nation's vast offshore resources," API President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement Nov. 20. "We applaud [Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum] for laying the groundwork for a new and more expansive five-year program that unlocks opportunities for long-term investment offshore and supports energy affordability at a time of rising demand at home and abroad."

However, the plan is likely to face mobilized opposition from environmental groups. On Nov. 18, after the administration announced its second Gulf lease sale as managed by Trump's budget bill, a coalition of conservation groups sued the administration for public statements indicating those sales would not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.

"The Sierra Club will continue to stand with coastal communities and work to stop this reckless plan," Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford said in a statement.