Offshore staff
NEW ORLEANS– Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 238 attracted $110 million in high bids on Aug. 20 for 81 tracts covering 433,823 acres on the US outer continental shelf.
A total of 14 offshore oil and gas companies submitted 93 bids.BP Plc, ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp., BHP Billiton Ltd., and Venari Resources LLC were the most active bidders.
BP recorded the most high bids with 27, while the highest individual bid came from ConocoPhillips in a $16.8-million bid for tract in the Alaminos Canyon in the western Gulf. BHP Billiton had the second-most high bids with 14. ConocoPhillips had 10 high bids, while Venari had six, and Chevron had five.
Despite its lower number of high bids, Chevron had the highest sum total of high bids at $25.8 million, followed by ConocoPhillips with $23.4 million, and BP with $22.8 million.
The lease sale offered 21.6 million acres in unleased areas (excluding those located in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary) in the Western Gulf of Mexico planning area. It included 4,026 tracts from nine to more than 250 mi (14 to 402 km) off the coast, in water depths ranging from 16 ft (5 m) to more than 10,975 ft (3,346 m).
TheBureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) estimates the lease sale could result in the production of 116 to 200 MMboe and 538 to 938 bcf (15 to 27 bcm) of natural gas.
For this bidding round, 167 of the blocks available for lease were located or partially located within three statute miles of the maritime and continental shelf boundary with Mexico. Leases issued on these blocks are subject to terms of the US-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs Agreement, and 24 of those blocks received bids.
08/22/2014
