On Monday, March 9, 2026, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) published a proposed rule (91 Fed. Reg. 11212, the “Proposed Rule”) proposing amendments to the existing financial assurance regulatory framework, which was updated in 2024, 89 Fed. Reg. 31544 (the “2024 Rule”). The 2024 Rule has not been fully implemented. And, in litigation that is currently stayed, various industry associations and states are challenging the 2024 Rule. No. 2:24-cv-00820 (W.D. La. 2024). The BOEM’s stated purpose underlying the Proposed Rule is to respond to E.O. 14154 (Unleashing American Energy) and “to reduce the economic burden on OCS lessees and grant holders.” 

Proposed changes to the 2024 Rule include (but are not limited to) the following:

• BOEM proposes to consider the financial viability of predecessors with joint and several liability when evaluating whether to require supplemental bonding. 

• When decommissioning is scheduled within one year of receipt of a demand for supplemental bonding, the Proposed Rule would give BOEM the discretion to “accept third-party decommissioning contracts and decommissioning schedules … in lieu of providing new supplemental financial assurance[.]”

• BOEM proposes removing the requirement in the 2024 Rule that a lessee challenging a supplemental bonding demand provide an appeal bond in an amount equivalent to the supplemental bonding demand to obtain a stay of that demand pending appeal.

• BOEM proposes to explicitly reference dual-obligee bonds (which identify multiple obligees) “as an acceptable financial instrument for financial assurance[.]” 

The period to submit comments in response to the Proposed Rule closes on May 8, 2026.