H.R. 2556 — CORE Act of 2025

This section directs the Secretaries of Energy, Interior, and State, within 18 months of enactment, to jointly submit to specified congressional committees a report identifying and assessing transboundary hydrocarbon reservoirs (including those under bilateral maritime boundary treaties and potential future areas); analyzing relevant legal frameworks, economic/environmental/geopolitical implications, and activities by neighboring countries (e.g., Cuba, Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, Russia); and providing recommendations for enhanced cooperation, data sharing, joint development, dispute resolution (including potential International Court of Justice involvement), and further studies on unresolved U.S.-Canada maritime boundaries. In preparing the report, the Secretaries must prioritize advanced geophysical data and technologies (e.g., AI, quantum computing, GIS); provide peer-reviewed resource estimates with uncertainty ranges; and partner with agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Office of Naval Research. This section also amends Section 357 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15912) to require the Secretary (in consultation with other agencies and at least every five years) to conduct an inventory and analysis of undiscovered offshore oil and gas resources that (1) strikes the prior geographic limitation to areas adjacent to Mexico and Canada and (2) includes assessments of resource quantities in the Atlantic, Pacific (off California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii), Alaska, Gulf of America, and U.S. territories regions, plus analysis of how their production could affect U.S. global competitiveness considering market dynamics, prices, and geopolitics.

This section directs the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Secretaries of State and Energy, to publish on the Department of the Interior's website and submit to the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources a comparative analysis of offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production practices for each major offshore producing country not later than one year after enactment and every 10 years thereafter. To the fullest extent practicable, the analysis must include (1) data on offshore acres offered for lease, frequency of lease auctions, sales, and issuances, and lease structures, fiscal terms, and competitive positioning relative to U.S. practices; (2) reporting on annual oil production volumes (in barrels) and gas production volumes (in cubic feet), including historical trends, forecasts, and technological influences on efficiency and recovery rates; (3) regional market demands, export capabilities, and contributions to energy diversification; and (4) an assessment, in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey, of discovered and undiscovered offshore oil and gas resources with probabilistic estimates accounting for geological, technological, and market factors.