The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will offer more than 21 million acres offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development, including all available unleased areas in the western Gulf of Mexico planning area, in Lease Sale 246, scheduled for Aug. 19 in New Orleans.
The sale will encompass 4,000 blocks covering 21.8 million acres and lying 9-250 miles offshore in 16-10,975 ft of water. BOEM estimates the proposed sale could result in production of 116-200 million bbl of oil and 538-938 bcf of natural gas.
The offshore sale is the eighth under the administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-17. The last western gulf lease sale drew 93 bids from 14 companies over 81 blocks covering 433,823 acres, totaling nearly $110 million in apparent high bids (OGJ Online, Aug. 20, 2014).
The first six sales netted $2.4 billion. The seventh gulf sale, central gulf Lease Sale 235, will be held on Mar. 18 (OGJ Online, Oct. 16, 2014).
