Lease and Grant Information

What’s New?

The Department of the Interior and BOEM are implementing President Trump’s memorandum temporarily halting offshore wind leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf. The memorandum also pauses new or renewed approvals, rights-of-way, permits, leases, or loans for offshore wind projects pending a review of federal wind leasing and permitting practices.

Overview

Below is a table of leases and grants that BOEM has executed since the inception of its renewable energy program, links to the necessary administrative forms and studies that have informed BOEM's wind energy lease sales, and access instructions for the most up-to-date lease information. 

To review all up to date lease documents, including the original leases and any lease amendments that may have occurred after lease execution, please use the Data Center. BOEM, with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) maintains a Data Center containing up-to-date leasing information including electronic copies of executed leases and grants, and approved administrative forms (e.g., Assignments, Relinquishments, Bonds). Copies of lease segregations, amendments and other decisions that affect lease status, ownership, location, terms and/or conditions can also be found on the Data Center. You can access the Data Center at the following link: https://www.data.boem.gov/Other/FileRequestSystem/ScanREnLeases.aspx.

To search by Lease Number in the Data Center, use the following query format: "RNNNNN" where R is the Region and N is the 5 digit lease number. If the lease number is less than five digits, then it should be proceeded by 0. Example: For Commercial Lease OCS-A 0487, input "A00487" into the "Lease Number" field. For Commercial Lease OCS-G 37334, input "G37334."

For more information on each lease, including the total acreage of the lease area, refer to the Interactive BOEM Leases and Planning Areas Maps.

Summary statistics for BOEM's offshore wind competitive auctions are available in this document.

*non-competitive lease

Lease and Grant Administration 

BOEM maintains a series of forms related to the administration of BOEM leases and grants on the Outer Continental Shelf. These forms are available on the BOEM OCS Operation Forms webpage. 

BOEM Auction System

BOEM will begin using a new auction system for sales in 2024.  Information on the rules and login procedures can be found below:

• Auction Procedures for the Upcoming 2024 Offshore Wind Lease Sales, Version 1
• Auction Login and Authentication Procedures
• BOEM Auction System Tutorial - (Please note that the file should be downloaded to get the full presentation & animation experience with presenter view to have voiceover text on screen for accessibility.)
  • Video transcript
• Question and Answer on the BOEM Auction System

Leasing Studies/Reports

BOEM has studied different auction systems for issuing renewable energy leases, easements, and rights-of-way on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). BOEM issued a contract to Power Auctions, LLC to study different types of auctions for this purpose. BOEM published the study in three parts, and is available at the links below:

• Auction Design For Wind Rights
• Multiple Factor Auction Design for Wind Rights
• Comparison of Auction Formats for Auctioning Wind Rights

BOEM also published a paper (Summary of Renewable Energy Auction Formats under Consideration by BOEM) to facilitate public comment on auction format options, as presented in the Auction Format Information Request (AFIR) published by BOEM in the Federal Register on December 2, 2011.

Operating Fee

Addendum B in each commercial lease provides instructions for calculating the Operating Fee once a project begins commercial operations.  The first spreadsheet below includes the wholesale power prices BOEM will use to validate Operating Fee payments.  The second spreadsheet provides an Operating Fee calculation template. 

• Power Prices for Operating Fee Calculations
• Lease Data Sheet Calculation Template