US to release 5-year offshore oil drilling plan Friday -official

(Adds details and background, paragraphs 3-5) WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Interior Department will release its highly anticipated five-year offshore oil drilling plan on Friday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau told a Senate committee on Thursday.

The U.S. Interior Department will release its highly anticipated five-year offshore oil drilling plan on Friday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau told a Senate committee on Thursday. Several delays in releasing the schedule have left the U.S. without a congressionally mandated five-year schedule of offshore oil and gas auctions since the previous one expired in June 2022.

Beaudreau gave Friday as the day for release of the long-awaited schedule to hold auctions for oil and gas drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska by 2028 at a Senate natural resources hearing on Thursday. He was responding to a question by Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy. Release of the plan is certain to draw ire both from environmental groups, who have pushed for an end to drilling, and oil companies who have opposed any limits.

The Interior Department floated a draft proposal last July that had contemplated between zero to 11 lease sales, a dramatic decrease from a proposal by former President Donald Trump's administration in 2018 for nearly 50.