By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 18 -- Apparent high bids totaling $171.4 million were offered for 351 offshore tracts at Lease Sale 192 for the western Gulf of Mexico, the US Minerals Management Service reported Wednesday from New Orleans.
MMS officials received 421 bids totaling $197.4 million from 54 companies at the sale. Deep gas was of interest to the bidders. Of the 351 tracts receiving bids, 135 were in water depths of less than 200 m.
The latest sale offered 3,907 blocks up for sale covering 21.2 million acres in the western gulf's Outer Continental Shelf planning area off Texas and Louisiana.
MMS Gulf of Mexico Regional Director Chris Oynes called the sale, "The best western Gulf sale in 6 years in terms of the number of bids received and the number of tracts bid on."
Sale statistics
Interest in deepwater and ultradeepwater tracts also was high. Of 193 deepwater tracts bid on, 37 were in water depths of 400-799 m, 101 in 800-1,599 m, and 55 in 1,600 m or greater.
The Houston Exploration Co. submitted the highest single bid of $6.8 million for High Island Area, East Addition, South Extension, A 270, which lies in less than 199 m of water.
The second highest single bid was submitted by Remington Oil & Gas Corp., Dallas, for Garden Banks Block 506. Remington bid nearly $4.9 million for the tract in 800-1,599 m of water. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp. held the third highest spot for its $4.2 million bid on a tract in the East Breaks 424.
Based on the number of total apparent high bids submitted, Amerada Hess Corp. topped the list with 58 bids totaling $13.7 million. The company in second place, BP Exploration & Production Inc., submitted a total of 48 apparent high bids totaling $28 million.
The apparent high bidder on 7 deepwater lease blocks, Remington said all of its bids were submitted on a 100% working interest basis. The company's net financial exposure, if all blocks are awarded, totals $6.3 million. MMS evaluates all high bids to ensure that the public receives market value before a lease is awarded.
Remington Chairman and CEO James A. Watt said, "We recently expanded our 3-D seismic data base to the deeper waters, and these leases were based on those new data. These blocks will be added to our extensive prospect inventory for drilling in 2005 and beyond."