Section 50102 of the OBBBA makes changes affecting what Section 18 of the OCS Lands Act calls the Five-Year Oil and Gas Leasing Program. Although the program is accompanied by thousands of pages of analysis, it is a one-page...more
A series of recent actions undertaken by President Biden, near the end of his term, and President Trump, in the early days of his presidency, have called into question a key issue under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act...more
Newly confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wasted little time implementing many of President Trump’s initial energy executive orders (EOs), unleashing a round of Secretary’s Orders (SOs) this past Monday that push fossil...more
On January 20, President Trump issued several executive orders taking aim at former President Biden’s offshore oil and gas development bans, as well as overturning several other actions designed to boost climate protections....more
This client alert provides a brief overview of President Biden’s recent decision to expand the ban on offshore oil and gas leasing, outlining its background, scope, and potential impact on the energy industry. Key...more
With just days remaining in office, President Joe Biden has cast uncertainty over President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign promises of U.S. energy dominance. On Jan. 6, 2025, President Biden announced an executive action to...more
In his final days in office, President Joe Biden has exercised his executive authority to withdraw more than 625 million acres of federal waters from future oil and gas leasing – the largest withdrawal of its kind in U.S....more
The White House announced on Monday that President Joe Biden would ban new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coastline. The order will protect 625 million acres of ocean along America’s Atlantic and Pacific...more
On January 6, President Biden announced an executive action affecting offshore drilling prior to the end of his term. Biden has issued a decree that will “permanently ban” new offshore oil and gas development in large...more
The U.S. Department of the Interior has long wrestled with how to manage the risk associated with the costly decommissioning of offshore oil wells in federal waters. In recent years, the Department has released, revised, and...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and HOS Port, LLC (“HOS”) entered into an October 9th Consent Agreement and Final Order (“CAFO”) addressing alleged violations of the Resource Conservation and...more
Republicans have swept the 2024 elections, returning Donald Trump to the White House as the 47th President and flipping the Senate to a Republican majority. Having narrowly maintained control of the House of Representatives,...more
On November 20, 2024, Angola enacted Presidential Decree 8/24 on Oil & Gas Incremental Production (“Incremental Production Decree”). This legal statute creates a new special legal and tax framework aimed to promote additional...more
On October 30 2024, the Labour government delivered their first Budget since 2010. The Budget introduced some key changes for the energy industry, including the Energy Profits Levy and Relief for payments made into a Carbon...more
Federal officials announced on Wednesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a three-year-old rule — known as the Warehouse Indirect Source Rule (Rule) — targeting air pollution linked to Southern...more
A federal court has thrown out key Endangered Species Act (ESA) analyses of oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, which will be vacated as of Dec. 20, 2024. The United States District Court for the District of...more
For a decade, the U.S. Department of the Interior has wrestled with financial assurance (or bonding) requirements for offshore oil and gas companies. Over the last 10 years, the Interior Department has released – and later...more
The WEC Rule would impose fees for oil and gas facilities reporting a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions per year. On January 26, 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal...more
After months of delay, the U.S. Department of the Interior auctioned off 1.7 million acres for offshore oil and gas leases during Lease Sale 261 on Dec. 20, 2023. (See Holland & Knight's previous alert, "Interior Department...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Nov. 14, 2023, dismissed claims brought by environmental groups challenging offshore oil and gas Lease Sale 261. The court ordered that the sale take place within 37 days of...more
On 7 November 2023, the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill (the Bill) was announced as part of King Charles III’s “King’s Speech”, outlining the UK Government’s legislative agenda for the upcoming UK parliamentary session. If...more
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a strong, uncompromising pro-Hamas stance in the latter’s military conflict with Israel last week. In so doing, he torpedoed any potential in the near future for possible joint...more
The United States Department of the Interior published the final well control rule on Aug. 22 from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). The rule clarifies blowout preventer (BOP) system regulations and...more
In a recent decision, the Federal Court has rejected an attempt by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to set aside ministerial approval of a significant offshore oil and gas project. The NGOs argued that the Minister...more
The Opportune 2023 Study has been conducted to independently calculate the OCS plugging and abandonment (P&A) liability, assess the risk such liability poses to the U.S. taxpayer, and perform a cost-benefit analysis of how...more