Prices have had a "significant impact" on efforts from the offshore industry to expand offshore leasing and likely diminished interest in last month's Gulf of Mexico lease sale, Jewell said during a Christian Science Monitor event.

That US Western Gulf sale yielded total high bids of $22.7 million, the smallest Western sale in over 30 years and just 20% of the $110 million yielded in last year's comparable sale.

Jewell said it was a "reasonable conclusion" that low prices caused that relatively low interest from producers and indicated interest in future lease sales likely would not grow if prices remained low. Oil and gas companies, she said, have become "pickier" about where they are investing.

Low prices were keeping these companies from pushing for more offshore areas to be included in the administration's 2017-2022 offshore oil and gas leasing plan, she said.

That plan, which Interior unveiled in January, calls for 14 potential lease sales in eight of the 26 possible offshore planning areas from 2017 to 2022, including a possible sale off the US East Coast. But, despite previous lobbying from industry, the plan does not include sales in the Pacific nor offshore Florida's coast and just three sales in federal waters offshore Alaska.

Jewell has said that no more sales would be included in the five-year plan and that proposed sales would only be removed before the overall plan is finalized next year.

During Tuesday's event, Jewell again pushed for new fees which would require onshore operators to pay for permitting and inspections, and backed the administration's fracking rule which has been delayed until a federal court case is resolved.

Platts