Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Request for Information and Interest Outline

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is initiating the first steps that could potentially lead to a lease sale for minerals on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) offshore the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), by publishing this request for information and interest (RFI). This RFI is not a final decision to lease and does not prejudge any future Secretarial decisions concerning leasing on the OCS offshore the CNMI. This RFI requests information and comments on, and indications of interest in, the leasing of OCS minerals offshore the CNMI, a region referred to as the RFI Area, with details in section 5 “Description of the RFI Area”. BOEM will consider information and interest received in response to this RFI when considering whether to proceed with additional steps leading to the offer of OCS minerals for lease offshore the CNMI. Those interested in providing comments or information should provide the information requested in section 6, “Types of Information and Comments Requested,” of this RFI. Those interested in leasing in the RFI Area for OCS mineral development should provide the information described in section 7, “Requested Information for Indications of Interest.” BOEM may or may not offer a lease for commercial OCS mineral development offshore the CNMI after further consultations, public participation, and environmental analyses. For more information please visit https://www.boem.gov/marine-minerals/discovering-offshore-critical-mineral-resources-pacific-outer-continental-shelf. This area represents all blocks and aliquots of the RFI merged into a single polygon area.What are aliquots?Aliquots are generated from Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) blocks by subdividing each block into 16ths, and this further subdivision allows for more detailed boundary delineation in offshore energy leasing. These polygons are clipped to the Submerged Land Act Boundary and Continental Shelf Boundaries. The aliquots use a letter designation in addition to their parent protraction number and OCS block number (e.g., NK18-02, 6822F). A full OCS block is 4800 x 4800 meters, while an aliquot measures 1200 x 1200 meters. Smaller, clipped aliquots are found along the Federal/State OCS boundary and along UTM zone borders. Only the most recently published paper or PDF versions of the Official Protraction Aliquot Diagram (OPAD) should be used for official or legal purposes. These data were created in the applicable NAD83 UTM or NAD27 UTM/SPCS Projection and re-projected to GCS WGS84 (EPSG 4326) for management in BOEM's enterprise GIS. Because GIS projection and topology functions can change or generalize coordinates, these data are NOT an OFFICIAL record for the exact boundaries. These data are to be used for cartographic purposes only and should not be used to calculate area.