Central Gulf lease sale set for March 20
  by: OilOnline
  Monday, March 18, 2002

The Minerals Management Service will conduct Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 182 on March 20 in New Orleans. The sale will cover 4,446 unleased blocks encompassing 23.4 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The minimum bid will be $25 per acre for parcels in water depths less than 800 meters. Bids must be at least $37.50 per acre for blocks in water depths 800 meters or deeper. The blocks are located from 3 to 210 miles offshore in water depths ranging from 4 meters to more than 3,425 meters. Estimates of undiscovered economically recoverable hydrocarbons expected to be discovered and produced as a result of this sale proposal range from 150 to 440 million barrels of oil and 1.53 to 4.39 Tcf of natural gas.

The sale continues to include a shallow water, deep gas initiative begun last year, an effort designed to spur domestic natural gas production during the years 2003-2007. The initiative offers an incentive to drill for new deep gas deposits located in the shallow water shelf area of the U.S. Gulf in water depths less than 200 meters by providing royalty suspension for the first 20 billion cubic feet of production from a well 15,000 feet or greater below sea level. The sale also includes royalty relief incentives to drill deepwater leases.