GULF OF MEXICO LEASE SALE DRAWS LITTLE INDUSTRY INTEREST

A.D. Koen Gulf Coast News Editor Depressed gas prices and constricted company budgets severely curtailed U.S. operators' interest in the ninth area-wide lease sale in the western Gulf of Mexico. Participation in last week's Outer Continental Shelf Sale 135 dropped to the lowest level seen in a western gulf lease sale since 1986. In OCS Sale 105, in which Minerals Management Service in August 1986 offered 4,918 western gulf tracts, 16 operators made 52 bids for 41 tracts in a sale that