THE Obama administration will put a new lease of sale in the Gulf of Mexico with around 7,250 offshore blocks on offer.
The lease, covering nearly 38 million acres, is part of the US efforts to bolster energy security and further cut the country’s dependence on foreign imports in the coming years.
“Expanding offshore oil and gas production is a key component of our comprehensive energy strategy to grow America’s energy economy, and will help us continue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create jobs here at home,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
The sale, to be held in New Orleans on 20 June, will see all available unleased areas in the central planning area off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama go to bidders, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said on Thursday.
Some 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 tcf of gas could be produced from the blocks which are to be offered in the last remaining offshore licence sale from the 2007-2012 US plan.
The BOEM estimates that the Central Gulf of Mexico contains close to 31 billion barrels of oil and 134 tcf of natural gas that are currently undiscovered and technically recoverable.
BOEM also highlighted that the minimum bid for deepwater acreage has recently shot from US$37.50 to US$100 per acre “to ensure that taxpayers receive fair market value for offshore resources and to provide leaseholders with additional impetus to invest in leases that they are more likely to develop”.
Obama’s lease announcement follows on remarks during the president’s State of the Union address in which he announced a 74 per cent of potential US offshore resources and support for shale resources.
Oil News | US
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