As of midday Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Region had received 407 bids on 335 tracts from 52 companies in its highly anticipated Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 187. The lease sale is scheduled for 9 a.m. CST at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans. The sale will be webcast through GoGulfTV at www.gogulf.net and through the Offshore Oil Scouts Association at www.oosa.com.

Westar Energy Inc. has decided to sell another $13.6 million, or 718,000 shares, of its ONEOK Inc. stock after agreeing earlier this month to offer 9.5 million shares of its shares in the company. The additional shares consist of 194,737 shares of ONEOK common stock and 523,263 shares of ONEOK $0.925 Series D Non-Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock to be converted into shares of ONEOK common stock. The sale is expected to close on August 21, and will leave Westar with approximately 14.5% of ONEOK’s stock. Westar plans to use the proceeds of the sale, net of taxes and expenses, to reduce its debt.

Tulsa-based junior independent Beta Oil & Gas Inc. plans to increase its capital expenditures this year to $4.1 million, more than a third higher than its original $3 million budget. The increase will be funded through internal cash flow. Through the first six months of this year, Beta spent nearly $300,000 on drilling, completions and workovers. In the last six months, Beta has drilling activity planned in Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas. Within these areas, Beta is scheduled to participate in 26 gross (7.3 net) wells, of which 13 gross (4.6) will be in Kansas. CEO David Wilkins said the company had made “excellent progress” in improving its working capital so that it could accelerate drilling activity. “Although we have increased our 2003 capital program by 37%, we have also started reducing our outstanding debt with our internal cash flow,” he said. He added that the company was optimistic that the “hard work and effort put forth during the first half of the year will pay off in the second half of 2003.”

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