Central Gulf of Mexico Sale 190 nets $364 million in high bids

The US Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) accepted high bids totaling more than $364 million on 542 Gulf of Mexico tracts in its oil and gas lease Sale 190 Mar. 17. About 61% of the bids were for tracts in less than 200 m of water.

June 22, 2004

2 min read

By OGJ editors

HOUSTON, June 22 -- The US Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) accepted high bids totaling more than $364 million on 542 Gulf of Mexico tracts in its oil and gas lease Sale 190 Mar. 17.

This sale indicates the continued strong interest of major and independent oil and gas companies in the Gulf and a continuing interest in shallow-water areas, with 61% of the tracts receiving bids for tracts in less than 200 m of water.

Amerada Hess Corp. made the highest accepted bid of $35,290,892 for Green Canyon Block 468 in 800-1,599 m water, which generated five bids. A consortium of Union Oil Co. of California, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Nexen Petroleum Offshore USA, and BHP Billiton Petroleum (Deepwater) Inc. bid $31,088,000 for Green Canyon Blocks 512, the second highest accepted bid.

The third highest was $8,213,415 that EnCana Gulf of Mexico LLC bid for Walker Ridge 969 in water at lease 1,600 m deep.

The five companies having the highest number of accepted high bids are Magnum Hunter Production Inc. (with 53 high bids), BHP Billiton Petroleum (Deepwater) Inc. (32), Chevron USA Inc. (29), BP Exploration & Production Inc. (24), and Noble Energy Inc. (24).

The companies with the highest total bonus accepted are Amerada Hess Corp. (17 high bids totaling $40,710,005 ), BHP Billiton Petroleum (Deepwater) Inc. (32 bids totaling $18,496,331), Stone Energy Corp. (8 bids totaling $15,544,00), Pogo Producing Co. (14 bids totaling $12,472,000), and Tana Exploration Co. LLC (8 bids totaling $11, 124,292).

Of the 557 tracts receiving bids, MMS rejected 14 high bids totaling $4.5 million as insufficient.