Commercial Leases OCS-A 0520, 0521, And 0522

 
RIMA thumbnail

Overview

The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act requires BOEM to award leases competitively, unless BOEM determines there is no competitive interest. On December 16, 2016 and January 4, 2017, Statoil Wind US LLC and PNE Wind USA, Inc., individually submitted unsolicited lease requests for previously unleased areas in the wind energy area offshore Massachusetts.

Lease area OCS-A 0502 is approximately 248,015 acres and Lease area OCS-A 0503 is approximately 140,554 acres. Due to the fact that both parties nominated the same area and that BOEM has determined both entities qualified to hold an OCS lease, BOEM has determined that competitive interest exists and plans to proceed with the competitive leasing process outlined in BOEM’s regulations. Please see the requests below:

For GIS software users, please find shapefiles below for the unsolicited lease requests.

Proposed Sale Notice

On April 6, 2018, BOEM announced the release of the Atlantic Wind Lease Sale 4-A Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) for 388,569 acres offshore Massachusetts. The PSN published in the Federal Register on April 11, 2018. The PSN requested that any prospective bidders already qualified for commercial wind energy development offshore Massachusetts affirm their continued interest and requested public comments on BOEM’s proposal to auction two leases offshore Massachusetts for commercial wind energy development. Information related to the PSN is located below.

All comments and qualifications materials should be submitted to BOEM no later than June 11, 2018.

Auction Seminar

BOEM held an Auction Seminar on April 26, 2018. The seminar described the auction format, explained the auction rules, and demonstrated the auction process through meaningful examples.

Meeting Materials:

Final Sale Notice

On October 17, 2018, the Secretary of the Interior announced that it will hold an auction for nearly 390,000 acres offshore Massachusetts on December 13, 2018. Details were published in a Final Sale Notice appearing in the Federal Register on October 19, 2018. 

Materials related to the Final Sale Notice are below.

Commercial Leases

On December 13-14, 2018, BOEM held a competitive lease sale (i.e., auction) for Wind Energy Areas offshore Massachusetts. The auction lasted 32 rounds. Equinor Wind US, LLC was identified as the winner of Lease Area OCS-A 0520 (128,811 acres), Mayflower Wind Energy, LLC was identified as the winner of Lease Area OCS-A 0521 (127,388 acres), and Vineyard Wind, LLC was identified as the winner of Lease Area OCS-A 0522 (132,370 acres). A summary of bidding results is provided here: https://www.boem.gov/Bids-Received-Lease-Sale-ATLW-4-A/. The executed leases are available below.

Related Press Releases