Lease

Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 172, held Wednesday in NewOrleans, garnered nearly $171.62 million in high bids out of$199.64 million in total bids. Of 3,806 blocks offered, 207received bids. There were 272 bids with an average of 1.31 bids perblock and 67 companies participating.

Sempra Energy Trading announced it has relocated its corporateheadquarters to Stamford, CT, from Greenwich. The energy marketersigned a 10-year-lease on a 35,000 square-foot renovated warehousein Commerce Park. The new space is nearly double the size ofSempra’s former offices and features a 15,000-square-foot tradingfloor. “It is large enough to accommodate our future growth plans,”said David Messer, president of Sempra Energy Trading. Thewarehouse space was transformed easily into a trading floor due toits high ceilings, open space and heavy power supply, he added. Therenovations included the addition of a new trading floor, offices,conference rooms, cafeteria and library. Currently, the newheadquarters houses 153 employees. Formerly known as AIG Trading,Sempra Energy Trading adopted its current name when it was jointlyacquired by Sempra Energy (formed by the merger of Enova Corp. andPacific Enterprises) in August 1997.

The sun likely won’t set on the Gas Industry Standards Boarduntil at least the end of 2001. After about an hour of debateThursday, the GISB board of directors voted to extend GISB’s sunsetclause from Dec. 31, 1998 to Dec. 31, 2001. Had the board notextended the clause, GISB would have ceased to exist at year-end.The original resolution called for extending the clause to Dec. 31,2000. Some on the board wanted to do away with the clause. Hadthere been enough support for that, future disbanding of GISB couldresult only from a majority vote by the board. Others wanted thesunset clause not to come up again for four or five years. GISBExecutive Director Rae McQuade said she was happy with the boarddecision.

Canadian Occidental Petroleum subsidiary CXY Energy of Dallasagreed to acquire 50% of Fina Oil and Chemical’s interests in 64lease blocks in the Gulf of Mexico.