W&T high bidder on 15 GoM blocks

March 25, 2019
W&T Offshore Inc. reports that it was the apparent high bidder on 15 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 252.

Offshore staff

HOUSTONW&T Offshore Inc. reports that it was the apparent high bidder on 15 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 252 held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on March 20, 2019.

The company was the apparent high bidder on eightdeepwater and seven shallow water blocks, which includes Garden Banks block 173, Green Canyon blocks 3, 46, 47, 49, 91 and 92 and Mississippi Canyon block 244 in the deepwater and Eugene Island blocks 357, 378, 393, 395, 396, Main Pass 286, and South Marsh 205 in the shallow water.

These 15 blocks cover approximately 73,500 acres and, if awarded, the company will pay approximately $3.5 million for all the awarded leases combined, which reflects a 100% working interest in the acreage.

All the blocks have a five-year lease term, except for one of the deepwater blocks which has a seven-year lease term. The royalty rate for eight of the blocks is 12.5%, and the remaining seven leases are at a rate of 18.75%.

Chairman and CEO Tracy W. Krohn said: “We utilized our proprietary seismic to determine the blocks we felt complemented our current acreage and extended known discoveries in the subsalt. We also believe that focusing on acreage around our production facilities allows for more economic and quicker development of potential discoveries.”

Despite submitting the apparent high bid on these 15 leases, the BOEM reserves the right not to award some or all the blocks based on their minimum bidding criteria. W&T expects to receive the final award results over the next 90 days.

03/25/2019