Proposal filed by US Department of the Interior (DOI) aims to replace a Biden-era five-year oil and gas leasing plan for the US Outer Continental Shelf with “a new, more expansive” programme
US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has signed an official order directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to replace “the smallest offshore leasing plan ever published by an administration with one that fully addresses the nation’s growing energy needs”.
The order opened a 60-day public comment period on 24 November, 2025, and is the first of three proposals to be developed and opened for comment before final approval of the next five-year, 2026-2031 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. That programme is set to be approved by October 2026.
“This Order hereby announces the intent of the Department to terminate the inadequate 2024-2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that was approved by the Biden administration with a new, more expansive National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program as soon as possible and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations,” the US Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary’s letter said.
Under the new proposal for the 2026–2031 National OCS oil and gas programme, the US DOI said it is aiming to boost US energy independence and “sustain domestic oil and gas production”. The proposal includes as many as 34 potential offshore lease sales across 21 of 27 existing Outer Continental Shelf planning areas, covering approximately 1.27Bn acres. Among the designated areas, there are 21 areas off the coast of Alaska, seven in the US Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America), and six along the Pacific coast, including off the California coast. The proposal also includes the Secretary’s decision to create a newadministrative planning area, the South-Central Gulf of America.
In 2023, former US President Joe Biden sought to protect areas of the Alaskan Arctic from future drilling. At the time, the DOI said it was preparing new rules to provide protection to millions of acres of lands in the western Arctic against drilling under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The Biden administration planned to withdraw approximately 2.8M acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean nearshore in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska as indefinitely off-limits for future oil and gas leasing.
Governors from both major US political parties’ in two of the states whose waters are slated to include lease sales, Florida and California, have objected to the expansive nature of the plan.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called the plan ’idiotic’, saying California lawmakers “will use every tool at our disposal to protect our coastline”.
And a number of prominent Florida lawmakers, including incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis, a former opponent of President Trump in the Republican party presidential primary elections, and Trump-backed candidate for the 2026 state gubernatorial elections, Representative Byron Donalds, oppose drilling in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Under the Trump administration, the DOI said it was following requirements in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by soliciting input from interested and affected parties during development of the new National OCS Program.
Work on the new plan got underway in April, three months after US President Trump began his second term of office. President Trump’s Executive Order 14154, Unleashing American Energy, establishes US policy to “encourage energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including the Outer Continental Shelf, to meet the needs of our citizens and solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future”.
