OCS Lease Blocks that are currently leased from the federal government by industry for the purpose of development of traditional oil or gas energy products and may or may not be actively developed or producing. Leases in state waters are not included in this layer.

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) (43 U.S.C. 1331-1356a), as amended, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to issue, on a competitive basis, leases for oil and gas, and sulfur, in submerged lands of the Outer Continental Shelf. The Act authorizes the Secretary to grant rights-of-way and easements through the submerged lands of the OCS.

An OCS lease is an agreement that is issued under section 8 or maintained under section 6 of the Act and that authorizes exploration for, and development and production of, minerals on the OCS. The term also means the area covered by that agreement, whichever the context requires. The areas covered by the lease agreement consist of one or more OCS Lease Blocks, or any leasable portion thereof, bid upon as a single administrative unit, that will be part of a single lease.

This data set contains the outlines for active federal oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico OCS Region. The file is updated on a monthy basis on or about the first of each month. The lease outlines represent a close approximation, but might not be the exact coordinates for those leases. For official coordinates please refer to the OPD or SOBD for the lease. All leasing in the GOM OCS Region is captured on a NAD27.