Industry takes stock of federal leasing freeze

摘要

President Joe Biden has ordered a “pause” to most oil and gas leasing on US federal land, as part of a new executive order focused on climate change. The Interior Department must halt all federal oil and gas leasing “to the extent consistent with applicable law”, Biden said in an executive order signed on 27 January. The pause will continue until the government fnishes an exhaustive review of fossil fuel leasing and permitting practices on federal land. Oil groups say the moratorium will destroy jobs and cut output on federal land and ofshore waters that in 2019 produced 2.7mn b/d of crude. That could leave billion-dollar holes in the budgets of oil-producing states such as New Mexico, they say, while making the US more dependent on imports from countries with weaker environmental controls.