I 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1231 

To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to require that each 

5-year offshore oil and gas leasing program offer leasing in the areas 

with the most prospective oil and gas resources, to establish a domestic 

oil and natural gas production goal, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 29, 2011 

Mr. HASTINGS of Washington (for himself, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. FLEMING, Mr. 

LANDRY, Mr. FLORES, Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, Mr. DUNCAN of South 

Carolina, Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. BROUN of Georgia, Mr. TIPTON, Mr. 

GOHMERT, Mr. DENHAM, Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee, Mr. FLEISCHMANN, 

Mr. NUNES, Mr. BOUSTANY, Mr. GRIMM, Mr. SCALISE, Mr. ROSS of 

Florida, Mr. GRAVES of Missouri, Mrs. MYRICK, Mrs. LUMMIS, Mr. 

POMPEO, Mr. OLSON, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. WESTMORELAND, Mr. LONG, 

Mr. SIMPSON, Ms. JENKINS, Mr. KELLY, Mr. RIGELL, Mr. HELLER, 

Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. RIBBLE, Mr. GINGREY of Georgia, and Mr. POSEY) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to require 

that each 5-year offshore oil and gas leasing program 

offer leasing in the areas with the most prospective oil 

and gas resources, to establish a domestic oil and natural 

gas production goal, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reversing President 

3 Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LEASING PROGRAM. 

5 Section 18(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 

6 Act (43 U.S.C. 1344(a)) is amended by adding at the end 

7 the following: 

8 ‘‘(4)(A) In each oil and gas leasing program 

9 under this section, the Secretary shall make avail10 able for leasing and conduct lease sales including— 

11 ‘‘(i) at least 50 percent of the available un12 leased acreage within each outer Continental 

13 Shelf planning area considered to have the larg14 est undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 

15 gas resources (on a total btu basis) based upon 

16 the most recent national geologic assessment of 

17 the outer Continental Shelf, with an emphasis 

18 on offering the most geologically prospective 

19 parts of the planning area; and 

20 ‘‘(ii) any State subdivision of an outer 

21 Continental Shelf planning area that the Gov22 ernor of the State that represents that subdivi23 sion requests be made available for leasing. 

24 ‘‘(B) In this paragraph the term ‘available un25 leased acreage’ means that portion of the outer Con26 tinental Shelf that is not under lease at the time of 


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1 a proposed lease sale, and that has not otherwise 

2 been made unavailable for leasing by law. 

3 ‘‘(5)(A) In the 2012–2017 5-year oil and gas 

4 leasing program, the Secretary shall make available 

5 for leasing any outer Continental Shelf planning 

6 areas that— 

7 ‘‘(i) are estimated to contain more than 

8 2,500,000,000 barrels of oil; or 

9 ‘‘(ii) are estimated to contain more than 

10 7,500,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas. 

11 ‘‘(B) To determine the planning areas described 

12 in subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall use the 

13 document entitled ‘Minerals Management Service 

14 Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable 

15 Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation’s Outer Conti16 nental Shelf, 2006’.’’. 

17 SEC. 3. DOMESTIC OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION 

18 GOAL. 

19 Section 18(b) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 

20 Act (43 U.S.C. 1344(b)) is amended to read as follows: 

21 ‘‘(b) DOMESTIC OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUC22 TION GOAL.—– 

23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In developing a 5-year oil 

24 and gas leasing program, and subject to paragraph 

25 (2), the Secretary shall determine a domestic straVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:16 Mar 30, 2011 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1231.IH H1231

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1 tegic production goal for the development of oil and 

2 natural gas as a result of that program. Such goal 

3 shall be— 

4 ‘‘(A) the best estimate of the possible in5 crease in domestic production of oil and natural 

6 gas from the outer Continental Shelf; 

7 ‘‘(B) focused on meeting domestic demand 

8 for oil and natural gas and reducing the de9 pendence of the United States on foreign en10 ergy; and 

11 ‘‘(C) focused on the production increases 

12 achieved by the leasing program at the end of 

13 the 15-year period beginning on the effective 

14 date of the program. 

15 ‘‘(2) 2012–2017 PROGRAM GOAL.—For pur16 poses of the 2012–2017 5-year oil and gas leasing 

17 program, the production goal referred to in para18 graph (1) shall be an increase by 2027 of— 

19 ‘‘(A) no less than 3,000,000 barrels in the 

20 amount of oil produced per day; and 

21 ‘‘(B) no less than 10,000,000,000 cubic 

22 feet in the amount of natural gas produced per 

23 day. 

24 ‘‘(3) REPORTING.—The Secretary shall report 

25 annually, beginning at the end of the 5-year period 


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1 for which the program applies, to the Committee on 

2 Natural Resources of the House of Representatives 

3 and the Committee on Energy and Natural Re4 sources of the Senate on the progress of the pro5 gram in meeting the production goal. The Secretary 

6 shall identify in the report projections for production 

7 and any problems with leasing, permitting, or pro8 duction that will prevent meeting the goal.’’. 

9 SEC. 4. SEISMIC SURVEYING PROMOTION. 

10 Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 

11 (43 U.S.C. 1344) is amended by adding at the end the 

12 following new subsection: 

13 ‘‘(i) SEISMIC SURVEYING PROMOTION.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall issue 

15 regulations providing for— 

16 ‘‘(A) issuance by the Secretary of seismic 

17 surveying cost credits for the provision of data 

18 from seismic surveying of the outer Continental 

19 Shelf described in paragraph (2); and 

20 ‘‘(B) use of such credits by a person to 

21 whom issued, or by a transferee under para22 graph (4) of whom the Secretary has received 

23 notice under that paragraph, for payment of 

24 bonus bids owed by the person or transferee, re25 spectively, for oil and gas lease sales under this 


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1 section in the planning area where the seismic 

2 survey was conducted. 

3 ‘‘(2) ISSUANCE.—The regulations shall provide 

4 for the issuance of such credits upon the date of the 

5 submission to the Secretary of the data produced by 

6 seismic surveying authorized under section 11 of any 

7 area for which the most recent seismic data held by 

8 the Secretary at the time of the survey is 10 years 

9 of age or older. 

10 ‘‘(3) VALUE.—The value of such credits shall 

11 be equal to 50 percent of the costs incurred in con12 ducting seismic surveying to produce the data for 

13 which the credits are issued. 

14 ‘‘(4) TRANSFER.—A person to whom such a 

15 credit is issued by the Secretary may transfer the 

16 credit once, and shall notify the Secretary of such 

17 transfer. 

18 ‘‘(5) EXPIRATION.—A seismic surveying cost 

19 credit shall expire 10 years after the date of the sub20 mission of the date for which the credit is issued.’’. 

Æ 


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