Offshore staff
NEW ORLEANS --Today’s oil and gas lease sales for federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico got $872,143,771 million in high bids on 329 tracts covering 1,707,358 acres. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had offered almost 40 million acres.
Lease Sale 231 for the Central Planning Area attracted $850,809,921 in high bids on 326 blocks covering 1.7 million acres on the outer continental shelf offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. A total of 50 companies participated in submitting 380 bids.
Lease Sale 225, the first of two lease sales proposed for the Eastern Planning Area under the Five-Year Program received no bids. This was the first sale offering in that area since 2008. The sale encompassed 134 whole or partial unleased blocks covering approximately 465,200 acres 125 mi south of eastern Alabama and western Florida. Plans are to offer the area again in 2016.
In addition to opening bids for these two sales, BOEM opened three pending bids submitted in the August 2013 Western Planning Area Lease Sale 233 for blocks located or partially located within three statute miles of the maritime and continental shelf boundary with Mexico. A total of $21,333,850 in high bids was submitted on three tracts by one company. Leases awarded as a result of these bids will be subject to the terms of theU.S.-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement.
"While domestic energy production is growing rapidly in the United States, the Central Gulf of Mexico, as demonstrated by today's lease sale, will continue to be one of the cornerstones of the nation's energy portfolio," said BOEM Director Tommy P. Beaudreau.
3/19/14
