The Marine Minerals Administration (MMA) is preparing to hold three offshore critical mineral lease sales during fiscal years 2026 and 2027, according to the agency’s FY 2027 budget justification submitted to Congress, signaling one of the most concrete federal timelines yet for bringing U.S. seabed resources to market.
The budget document, known in Washington as the “greenbook,” is the annual submission the Department of the Interior sends to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees to justify each bureau’s funding request. It lays out how the MMA plans to spend its money, what programs will grow or shrink, and what activities the agency expects to carry out in the coming fiscal year. For industry, it is often the clearest public window into federal leasing intentions before those intentions appear in the Federal Register.
From Executive Order to Lease Calendar
According to the greenbook, the planned sales cover waters off American Samoa in August 2026, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in November 2026, and the Alaska Region in December 2026. The document also flags Virginia as a prospective 2027 sale location, pointing to an eventual expansion of the program into the U.S. Atlantic.
The sales are the operational response to Executive Order 14285, “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources,” which directs federal agencies to accelerate the exploration and leasing of seabed minerals. The MMA is requesting an additional $4 million in FY 2027 for its Marine Minerals activity, bringing the line to $17.8 million.
The greenbook earmarks those funds for post-lease sale economic evaluation, NEPA compliance, consultation documents for delineation and mining plans submitted by lessees, and a rebuild of the Marine Minerals Information System (MMIS). The agency notes that the existing system was built around the sand and gravel mission and “does not meet the scope and confidentiality requirements needed for critical minerals.”
Pacific Territories at the Center
Two of the first three sales sit in U.S. Pacific territories, and the MMA is framing them as both a resource play and an economic development opportunity. The budget describes the leasing program as an opening for skilled jobs in the region and a way to diversify territorial economies that feature “an overreliance on industries like tuna canning.”
The agency says it will also fund tribal and Pacific Islander outreach following the 2026 sales, aligning with its Tribal and Indigenous Peoples Engagement Strategy and the Department’s broader consultation policy.
Mapping the Endowment
Longer term, the greenbook commits the MMA to contribute to National Ocean Mapping, Exploration and Characterization Council goals and to invest in the National Offshore Critical Mineral Inventory, a program to characterize polymetallic nodules, ferromanganese crusts, heavy mineral sands, placer deposits, phosphorites, and hydrothermal vents across the Outer Continental Shelf. Early work will focus offshore the U.S. territories.
Why This Matters for the Sector
The FY 2026–2027 sale schedule, as written in the greenbook, gives industry its first durable calendar to plan against after more than a year of executive-order-level signaling. It also confirms that federal activity is no longer confined to a single basin: American Samoa, CNMI, Alaska, and Virginia together stretch the leasing map from the tropical Pacific to the Arctic and back to the Atlantic.
The MMA itself is still a proposed entity. The same budget document formally requests the consolidation of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement into a single bureau beginning in FY 2027. Whether Congress ratifies the merger, and whether the sale dates hold, will be the next tests of how quickly the administration’s offshore critical minerals agenda can move from budget document to lease issuance.
