Offshore staff
NEW ORLEANS -- The total of all bids received from the Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 200 was $462,760,912, a 38% increase over last year's Western Gulf Sale.
The sale, held in New Orleans, attracted $340,935,514 in high bids from 62 companies for oil and natural gas leases in the Federal waters of the GoM.
The MMS received 541 bids on 381 tracts. More than 50% of the tracts receiving bids are located in the Garden Banks and Keathley Canyon areas, with 67% of the total situated in greater than 400 m of water.
The results of the bidding also indicate a growing interest in shallow water with an increasing number of tracts in such water depths receiving bids. Several companies were first time bidders as well.
"Sale 200 is the best Western Sale in terms of the number of bids submitted in the past nine years, and the best in eight years for the amount of money bid," says Chris Oynes, GoM regional director.
The lease sale offered a total of 3,865 blocks comprising approximately 20.87 million acres offshore Texas and Louisiana.
The highest bid was submitted by BP of $21,011,812 for Keathley Canyon block 58. Petrobras America Inc. submitted the second highest bid of $12,800,111 for Keathley Canyon block 59.
08/17/06
