FAQ-2018OERFFOAnnouncement.pdf

List of Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to OER’s 2018 FFO Announcement of Opportunity

Question: Does the area of interest for the FFO include the entire US EEZ?

Response: Operational areas of interest for exploration and marine heritage proposals must be within the Gulf of Mexico’s US EEZ and US Outer Continental Shelf including submerged lands and waters of the Gulf’s US bordering states.

Question: How should ship time be accounted for in a proposal?

Response: Required ship time should be specified in detail. Any needed costs should be included.

Question: How does OER define "deep ocean"?

Response: Although there isn’t a rigidly defined minimum operational depth, the FFO states that OER is especially interested in depths greater than 200m.

Question: What are the geographic boundaries of the Gulf of Mexico’s EEZ, OCS, and submerged lands and waters of the Gulf’s US bordering States?

Response: The location of the outer limit of the Gulf of Mexico’s U.S. EEZ can be found on official NOAA nautical charts, available online at:

https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm.

Descriptions of maritime boundaries:

http://www.gc.noaa.gov/gcil_maritime.html The following website can be queried for various US boundaries including the EEZ and OCS:

https://marinecadastre.gov/nationalviewer/.

https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm http://www.gc.noaa.gov/gcil_maritime.html https://marinecadastre.gov/nationalviewer/

Operational areas for proposals should be from the coastline to the edge of the shaded portion of the Gulf of Mexico in the map below.

Question: How do you define the Gulf of Mexico?

Response: The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by the Florida Straits and the Yucatan channel. Proposals will only be considered from the portion of the Gulf of Mexico within US territorial waters (EEZ, OCS, and state waters).

Respondents should describe how their project is considered to occur within the Gulf of Mexico.