US plans to sell 1.1 bn barrels of crude reserves in Gulf of Mexico after climate talks

The United States Interior Department on November 17 is set to auction vast oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to contain around 1.1 billion barrels of crude oil and gas. This marks the first of such sale under incumbent President Joe Biden administration amid uncountable challenges the world faces to attain climate goals that are directly proportional to deep cuts in fossil fuel and carbon emissions. Notably, the Gulf of Mexico accounts for nearly 15% of the total crude oil production of the US and 5% of its natural gas. 

The live-streamed sale has invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across a distance equivalent to twice the area of Florida state. While scientists say the world ought to check greenhouse gas emissions to keep catastrophic changes at bay, reports suggest that it will take years (past 2030) to develop the leases before companies produce crude.

“We had Trump’s unconstrained approach to oil and gas on federal lands and Biden’s early attempt to pause drilling. Now it looks like the Biden administration is trying to find a new policy,” researcher Robert Johnston with Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy told Associated Press. 

“They’re being very cautious about undermining their fragile momentum” on climate issues, he added.

On Tuesday, the US energy bureau released pre-sale documents revealing it has received bids on 307 tracts totalling 6,950 square kilometres, marking the largest single sale gross since the pan-Gulf bidding. Reportedly, the environmental reviews of the Gulf of Mexico sale under ex-President Donald Trump and under incumbent President Joe Biden concluded that extracting and burning the fuel would emit fewer greenhouse gases than leaving it in the ground. 

A judge of a Federal court, while rejecting similar claims raised by environmentalists, cited climate scientist Peter Erickson while implying the Interior Department's analysis has left out greenhouse gas increase in foreign countries that would result from having more Gulf oil on the market.

“The math is extremely simple on this kind of stuff,” said Erickson, a senior scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute, a nonprofit research group. “If new leases expand the global oil supply, that has a proportional effect on emissions from burning oil. Therefore, giving out these leases in the Gulf of Mexico would be increasing global emissions.”