BOEM To Open Bids For 21.9 Million Acre Gulf Of Mexico Oil And Gas Lease Sale

08-18-2015

New Orleans, LA - The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will conduct Gulf of Mexico Western Planning Area Lease Sale 246 on Wednesday, August 19, 2015 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Doors open at 7:30 and bid reading begins at 9:00 AM CDT.

The sale, which offers 21.9 million acres for oil and gas exploration and development offshore Texas, is open to the public. News media representatives are invited to attend the sale and participate in a news media teleconference following the bid reading. BOEM Gulf of Mexico Acting Regional Director Michael Celata will announce the results of the sale and answer questions. Media wishing to participate in the teleconference only should call 1-888-625-1617 by 10:00 AM CDT. The passcode is GULF SALE.

As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, Lease Sale 246 is the eighth offshore sale under the Administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 (Five Year Program). The first seven sales in the Five Year Program offered more than 60 million acres for development and garnered more than $2.9 billion in bid revenues.

Lease Sale 246 offers all unleased and non-protected areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area, including 4,083 tracts from nine to more than 250 miles off the coast, in water depths ranging from 16 to more than 10,975 feet (five to 3,346 meters).

When bidding closed today, five companies had submitted 33 bids on 33 tracts for Western Sale 246. A map showing the location of tracts receiving bids will be available tomorrow at 7:00 AM CDT on the BOEM website at: http://www.boem.gov/Sale-246/.