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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reversing President 
Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act’’. 
SEC. 2. OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF LEASING PROGRAM. 
Section 18(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 
Act (43 U.S.C. 1344(a)) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘(4)(A) In each oil and gas leasing program 
under this section, the Secretary shall make avail-
able for leasing and conduct lease sales including— 
‘‘(i) at least 50 percent of the available un-
leased acreage within each outer Continental 
Shelf planning area considered to have the larg-
est undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 
gas resources (on a total btu basis) based upon 
the most recent national geologic assessment of 
the outer Continental Shelf, with an emphasis 
on offering the most geologically prospective 
parts of the planning area; and 
‘‘(ii) any State subdivision of an outer 
Continental Shelf planning area that the Gov-
ernor of the State that represents that subdivi-
sion requests be made available for leasing. 
‘‘(B) In this paragraph the term ‘available un-
leased acreage’ means that portion of the outer Con-
tinental Shelf that is not under lease at the time of 
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a proposed lease sale, and that has not otherwise 
been made unavailable for leasing by law. 
‘‘(5)(A) In the 2012–2017 5-year oil and gas 
leasing program, the Secretary shall make available 
for leasing any outer Continental Shelf planning 
areas that— 
‘‘(i) are estimated to contain more than 
2,500,000,000 barrels of oil; or 
‘‘(ii) are estimated to contain more than 
7,500,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas. 
‘‘(B) To determine the planning areas described 
in subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall use the 
document entitled ‘Minerals Management Service 
Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable 
Oil and Gas Resources of the Nation’s Outer Conti-
nental Shelf, 2006’.’’. 
SEC. 3. DOMESTIC OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION 
GOAL. 
Section 18(b) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands 
Act (43 U.S.C. 1344(b)) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(b) DOMESTIC OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUC-
TION GOAL.—– 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In developing a 5-year oil 
and gas leasing program, and subject to paragraph 
(2), the Secretary shall determine a domestic stra-
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tegic production goal for the development of oil and 
natural gas as a result of that program. Such goal 
shall be— 
‘‘(A) the best estimate of the possible in-
crease in domestic production of oil and natural 
gas from the outer Continental Shelf; 
‘‘(B) focused on meeting domestic demand 
for oil and natural gas and reducing the de-
pendence of the United States on foreign en-
ergy; and 
‘‘(C) focused on the production increases 
achieved by the leasing program at the end of 
the 15-year period beginning on the effective 
date of the program. 
‘‘(2) 2012–2017 PROGRAM
GOAL.—For pur-
poses of the 2012–2017 5-year oil and gas leasing 
program, the production goal referred to in para-
graph (1) shall be an increase by 2027 of— 
‘‘(A) no less than 3,000,000 barrels in the 
amount of oil produced per day; and 
‘‘(B) no less than 10,000,000,000 cubic 
feet in the amount of natural gas produced per 
day. 
‘‘(3) REPORTING.—The Secretary shall report 
annually, beginning at the end of the 5-year period 
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for which the program applies, to the Committee on 
Natural Resources of the House of Representatives 
and the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-
sources of the Senate on the progress of the pro-
gram in meeting the production goal. The Secretary 
shall identify in the report projections for production 
and any problems with leasing, permitting, or pro-
duction that will prevent meeting the goal.’’. 
SEC. 4. SEISMIC SURVEYING PROMOTION. 
Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 
(43 U.S.C. 1344) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection: 
‘‘(i) SEISMIC SURVEYING PROMOTION.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall issue 
regulations providing for— 
‘‘(A) issuance by the Secretary of seismic 
surveying cost credits for the provision of data 
from seismic surveying of the outer Continental 
Shelf described in paragraph (2); and 
‘‘(B) use of such credits by a person to 
whom issued, or by a transferee under para-
graph (4) of whom the Secretary has received 
notice under that paragraph, for payment of 
bonus bids owed by the person or transferee, re-
spectively, for oil and gas lease sales under this 
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section in the planning area where the seismic 
survey was conducted. 
‘‘(2) ISSUANCE.—The regulations shall provide 
for the issuance of such credits upon the date of the 
submission to the Secretary of the data produced by 
seismic surveying authorized under section 11 of any 
area for which the most recent seismic data held by 
the Secretary at the time of the survey is 10 years 
of age or older. 
‘‘(3) VALUE.—The value of such credits shall 
be equal to 50 percent of the costs incurred in con-
ducting seismic surveying to produce the data for 
which the credits are issued. 
‘‘(4) TRANSFER.—A person to whom such a 
credit is issued by the Secretary may transfer the 
credit once, and shall notify the Secretary of such 
transfer. 
‘‘(5) EXPIRATION.—A seismic surveying cost 
credit shall expire 10 years after the date of the sub-
mission of the date for which the credit is issued.’’. 
Æ 
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