Bids Received, Central GOM Lease Sale

The offshore energy industry continues to show interest in the Gulf of Mexico’s Outer Continental Shelf, with 67 companies submitting 642 bids on 468 tracts that are being offered offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in tomorrow’s Minerals Management Service Central Gulf Sale 213.

“The industry’s interest in tomorrow’s Central Gulf oil and gas lease sale demonstrates the importance of the deepwater Gulf to future energy development” said MMS Gulf of Mexico Regional Director Lars Herbst, who presided over the lease sale in the New Orleans Superdome.

A total of 295 tracts in water depths greater than 1,300 ft received bids.  The sealed were opened and publicly read at the sale.  The high bidder for each tract will have its bid analyzed for fair market value before the lease is awarded. 

Reading of the sealed bids will began at 9:00 a.m. CDT, March 17, in the St. Charles Club Room, 2nd floor, at the Louisiana Superdome, 1500 Sugarbowl Drive, New Orleans. The final results of the sale will be announced later in the day.

The sale will be Webcast by the Offshore Oil Scouts Association at www.oosa.com. Webcast of the lease sale does not imply any endorsement by MMS of the Offshore Oil Scouts Association.

Preliminary sale statistics for Central Sale 213 are posted on the MMS website at
http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/213/cgom213.html