Feds finalizing 5-year drilling plan with heavy Gulf focus

Posted on June 26, 2012 at 12:34 pm by Jennifer A. Dlouhy in General The Noble Discoverer drill ship is shown near Alaska. Shell Oil Co., plans to use the ship for drilling in the Beaufort Sea. (Photo courtesy of Shell Oil Co.) The Obama administration this week will finalize a plan for selling offshore drilling leases over the next five years that focuses on the Gulf of Mexico but still would allow three auctions of Arctic areas. The final 2012-2017 outer continental shelf plan is nearly identical to a proposed leasing blueprint the Interior Department unveiled in November, though it would briefly postpone sales of drilling rights in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Under the proposed 5-year...