The U.S. President Barack Obama intends to block the sale of new offshore drilling rights in most of the sites located in Arctic and Atlantic, owned by the country, Bloomberg reports on Tuesday.
This measure might lead to restriction of oil production in the region, the agency says with the reference to its sources familiar with the situation.
For this purpose, Barack Obama plans to invoke a provision in a 1953 law that gives him wide latitude to withdraw U.S. waters from future oil and gas leasing. It’s expected that Obama might announce this decision as early as on Tuesday and is considered to comply with the wishes of environmental activists, who push for protecting the area before Donald Trump takes office.
