Central GoM lease sale garners $539 million in high bids

March 18, 2015
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held an oil and gas lease sale for the Central Gulf of Mexico that drew $538,780,056 in high bids for tracts on the US outer continental shelf. 

Offshore staff

NEW ORLEANS –The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held an oil and gas lease sale for the Central Gulf of Mexico that drew $538,780,056 in high bids for tracts on the US outer continental shelf offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

More than 40 offshore oil and gas companies submitted 195 bids on 169 tracts, spanning about 923,700 acres. The sum of all bids received totaled $583,201,520, reported the agency.

TheLease Sale 235 offered 7,788 unleased blocks, covering an area of about 41.2 million acres, located 3 to 230 mi (5 to 370 km) offshore in water depths ranging from 9 to more than 11,115 ft (3 to 3,400 m). It is estimated that the sale could result in the production of 460 to 890 MMbbl of oil and 1.9 tcf to 3.9 tcf of natural gas.

Statoil announced that it was a high bidder on 14 leases in the sale.

03/18/2015