15 April 2014, News Wires – The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has put on offer more than 21 million acres of offshore oil and gas leases in the western Gulf of Mexico off Texas for an auction that will be held in August this year.
Lease Sale 238 will include about 3992 offshore blocks, which comprises all available unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area, BOEM said in a statement on Tuesday.
The blocks are located from between nine and 250 miles offshore, in water depths ranging from 16 to more than 10,975 feet (five to 3346 meters).
The sale could result in the production of between 116 million and 200 million barrels of oil and 538 billion to 938 billion cubic feet of natural gas, according to BOEM estimates.
It will be the sixth offshore sale under President Barack Obama’s five-year oil and gas leasing programme for the outer continental shelf. Previous sales have brought in a combined $2.3 billion in federal revenue.
However, the most recent Western Gulf Sale, held last August, was underwhelming. Just 12 companies placed a total of 61 bids, the worst showing since 1986 in Western Gulf Sale 105.
By comparison, the Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 231, held last month, brought in 380 total bids from 50 companies.
Like previous sales, Lease Sale 238 will take place in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Click here for more information about the sale.
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