MMS Opens Central GOM Lease Sale 213

The Director of Minerals Management Service, Liz Birnbaum, will participate in the Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 213 in New Orleans on March 17.  She will open the Federal oil and gas lease sale at 9 a.m. CDT at the Louisiana Superdome with brief remarks.  Following the bid reading, she will hold a media availability to discuss the results of the sale.

The sale, held by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), encompasses 6,958 unleased blocks covering more than 36.9 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Approximately 4.1 million unleased acres in the “181 South Area” are included in this sale, with Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas sharing in revenues from tracts leased in that area.

Blocks are located in Federal waters from three to more than 230 miles offshore, in water depths of about 10 feet (three meters) to more than 11,200 feet (3,400 meters). MMS estimates that this sale could result in production of approximately 0.8 to 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 3.3 to 5.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
 
Who:    Liz Birnbaum, MMS Director
Chris Oynes, MMS Associate Director for Offshore Energy Minerals Management
Lars Herbst, MMS Gulf of Mexico Regional Director

What:    Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 213

When:    Wednesday, March 17, 2010
9:00 a.m. CDT for opening remarks and bid reading

Where:    Louisiana Superdome
St. Charles Club Room, 2nd floor
1500 Sugarbowl Drive,
(park Garage 6, enter Gate A)   
New Orleans, LA

For more information about Sale 213, visit the MMS website at: http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/213/cgom213.html