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The NewsRoom
Release: #3775
Date: February 13, 2008
MMS Issues Final Notices of
Central and Eastern Gulf Lease Sales
NEW ORLEANS
– The
Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) today
issued final notices for two Federal oil and gas lease sales in the
Gulf of Mexico. Central Gulf of Mexico (CGOM) Lease Sale 206 and
Eastern Gulf of Mexico (EGOM) Lease Sale 224 will be held
consecutively March 19, 2008, in the St. Charles Club Room, at the
Louisiana Superdome in downtown New Orleans. The Final Notices of
Sale (FNOS) were published in today’s
Federal Register.
Lease Sale 206
encompasses approximately 5,000 unleased blocks covering more than
28.5 million acres in the CGOM Planning Area offshore Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama. The acreage is located from three to 230
miles offshore in water depths of about 10 feet (three meters) to
more than 11,200 feet (3,400 meters).
Lease Sale 224,
mandated by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006,
encompasses 118 whole or partial unleased blocks covering
approximately 547,000 acres in the EGOM Planning Area. The acreage
is located 125 statute miles and greater offshore, south of the
Florida panhandle and west of the Military Mission Line in water
depths ranging from 2,657 feet (810 meters) to 10,213 feet (3,113
meters).
Sale 224 is the
only sale scheduled in the current Five Year Oil and Gas Leasing
Program to include acreage in the Eastern GOM. The acreage included
in this Eastern GOM Lease Sale 224 was last available for lease in
1988.
"Sale
224 is the first sale where the revenue sharing provisions of the
Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 will start immediately.
The states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas will share
in revenue from all leases resulting from Sale 224,” noted Randall
Luthi, MMS director.
The MMS
estimates that the Sale 224 area contains from 100 to 140 million
barrels of oil and 0.16 to 0.34 trillion cubic feet of natural gas,
and the Sale 206 area contains approximately 0.877 to 1.457 billion
barrels of oil and 3.653 to 5.892 trillion cubic feet of natural
gas.
The FNOS for
sales 206 and 224 include an increase in the royalty rate to 18.75
percent from 16.67 percent and will include rental rates of
$6.25/acre for tracts in waters 200 meters or less and $9.50/acre
for tracts in deeper waters.
The Final
Notices of Sale information packages are posted on the MMS Website:
In addition,
copies can be requested by mail at:
MMS Gulf of
Mexico Regional Office
Public
Information Unit
1201 Elmwood
Park Boulevard
New Orleans,
Louisiana 70123
Or by telephone
at (504) 736-2519, toll free 1-800-200-4853.
Media Contact:
Caryl Fagot
504-736-259
Eileen Angelico
504-736-2595
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for America
U.S. Department of the Interior
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Last Updated:
05/27/2008,
04:05 PM
Central Time
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