US to delay sales of Alaska offshore leases

摘要

Washington—The US will push lease sales inAlaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas back oneyear, to 2016 and 2017 respectively, whenthe new five-year Outer Continental Shelf leas-ing plan is released later this week, InteriorDepartment officials said June 26.Officials said the move reflects the depart-ment’s new targeted leasing approach to theArctic and was necessary to allow for evenmore scientific review and coordination withlocal populations.In a related development, Interior Secre-tary Ken Salazar said June 26 that it is “high-ly likely” that regulators will issue final drillingpermits to Shell for its planned exploratorydrilling program in the Chukchi and Beaufort