Mar
19
Bids Submitted for Offshore Gulf Lease
Today oil prices again pushing hard $112 a barrel in the market, 78 energy companies put up 1,057 bids on 615 tracts off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that could produce oil and natural gas, a federal agency said Tuesday. [source: Associated Press]. The bids for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico will be opened in New Orleans by the Minerals Management Service. Also there will be 58 bids by five companies for 36 tracts in the eastern Gulf, an area 125 miles away from the Florida Panhandle. Eastern Gulf area is believed to have 1.4 (+/-) billion barrels of oil and 7 trillion cubic feet of gas. This is the first time that bids have been taken on Gulf region.
A central Gulf auction last October 2007 resulted in 1,428 bids on 723 tracts, total high bid value of $2.9 billion, the second largest bidding war in the Gulf’s history. That sale had been delayed by Louisiana and the federal government state’s share of offshore royalties. Last year 2007 oil prices were pushing $90, with the weakening dollar, oil prices have hit $110 threatening to reach the mark again as the offshore auction approaches. Louisiana will receive more than $13 billion over the next 30 years as part of the revenue sharing.
On Tuesday March 18, 2007, crude oil for April delivery rose $3.74 to settle at $109.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
