U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

FOR RELEASE: July 11, 1996 CONTACT: Tom DeRocco
(202) 208-3983

Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing History (Quarterly as of 6/30/96)

Alaska Atlantic GOM Pacific Total
Sales Held 17* 10* 74 11* 109*
Blocks Offered 24,659 9,160 171,517 1,887 207,223
Leases Issued 1,562 410 12,837 470 15,279
Active Leases 53 53 4,927 83 5,116
Active Acres Leased (millions) 0.23 0.30 25.12 0.42 26.07
Wells drilled 81 49 32,745 1,125 34,000

Central Gulf of Mexico Sale 157 statistics are not included in the above totals pending final completion of bid adequacy review.

The responsibility for administering the Atlantic leases now rests with the Gulf of Mexico Region.

* Note that the reoffering Sale RS-2, held on August 5, 1982, offered oil and gas tracts on the Alaska, Atlantic, and Pacific OCS and is recorded as a separate sale within each of those Regions. However, Sale RS-2 is considered a single sale in the overall statistical summary on OCS leasing.

-MMS-

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