By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 16 -- The New Orleans office of the Minerals Management Service has issued its final notice of Sale 190—to be held Mar. 17—covering the sale of oil and gas leases incorporating a total of 4,324 blocks in the Central Planning Area in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
The area covers about 22.7 million acres located 3-210 miles offshore in water 4-3,425 m deep. Initial exploration periods will be 5-10 years, depending on water depth of the leases.
The final notice includes a new royalty-suspension provision affecting shallow-water deep gas production not included in the original Sale 190 notice. MMS said expanded royalty suspension provisions, effective Mar. 1, would apply to 2,400 existing leases and Sale 190 leases in water less than 200 m deep where new production commences by March 1, 2009.
Recent royalty suspension measures for deepwater oil and gas production will continue as will the opportunity to apply for additional "discretionary" royalty relief under certain conditions.
The final notice also includes information about three applications for deepwater port and LNG facilities in the sale area, two of which the Maritime Administration has approved—ChevronTexaco Corp.'s Port Pelican on Vermilion Area Blocks 139 and 140, which are unleased and available in this sale (OGJ Online, Nov. 18, 2003), and Excelerate Energy LP's Energy Bridge project on West Cameron Area, South Addition, Block 603, which is leased (OGJ Online, Jan. 8, 2004).
