Update: BOEM’s Final Rule on Financial Assurance – New Effective Date

Release Date
05/31/2024
Contact(s)

On April 15, 2024, the Department of Interior announced a final rule from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to protect taxpayers from covering costs that should be borne by the oil and gas industry when offshore platforms require decommissioning. The action updated 20-year-old regulations. BOEM has substantially strengthened financial assurance requirements for the offshore oil and gas industry operating on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). 

This notice makes a technical correction to the final rule titled, Risk Management and Financial Assurance for OCS Lease and Grant Obligations, which the Department of the Interior published in the Federal Register on April 24, 2024. The correction clarifies that the effective date of the rule is June 29, 2024. 

The Congressional Review Act requires that the effective date of a major rule be 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register or receipt of the rule by Congress, whichever is later. The rule was published on April 24, 2024. The rule was received by both chambers of Congress on April 29, 2024, making the effective date June 29, 2024, instead of June 24, 2024. 

-- BOEM --

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) manages development of U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) energy, mineral, and geological resources in an environmentally and economically responsible way.