Mineral

As the federal government and energy industry prepared for the start of hurricane season, a Mineral Management Service (MMS) official last Wednesday said that up to 20% of the existing moored rig fleet will not be able to operate in all areas of the Gulf of Mexico during the 2007 hurricane months, a restriction that could impact oil and natural gas production there.

As the federal government and energy industry prepare for the start of hurricane season, a Mineral Management Service (MMS) official said Wednesday that up to 20% of the existing moored rig fleet will not be able to operate in all areas of the Gulf of Mexico during the 2007 hurricane months, a restriction that could impact oil and natural gas production there.

With the current production decline rates in the Gulf of Mexico and restricted access to a number of mineral-rich regions across the U.S., producers are having to look in untraditional places to keep up with the country’s thirst for natural gas. On Wednesday, Ladera Ranch, CA-based Victory Energy Corp. said it has secured participation in a joint venture for the Mesa Prospect in New Mexico with Eldorado Exploration.

DTE Gas Resources, part of DTE Energy’s unconventional natural gas group, said Friday it has acquired the leasehold mineral rights and 40 producing natural gas wells on about 18,000 acres in the Barnett shale formation in Jack County, TX near Fort Worth. More than 90% of the 18,000 acres is undeveloped.

The Eastern States division of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reported Monday that 45 parcels of federal subsurface mineral estate brought in $677,000 through a competitive auction of oil and gas leases on the Ouachita and Ozark National Forests in Arkansas, the DeSoto, Homochitto and Tombigbee National Forests in Mississippi and the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia.

The Mineral Management Service (MMS) said Wednesday’s Central and Eastern Gulf of Mexico lease sales yielded more than $546 million in total bids. Record crude oil prices and high natural gas prices led to robust bidding in the two sales, which together could include more than 3.6 Tcf of recoverable natural gas and up to 739 million bbl of recoverable oil, the agency said.

The Mineral Management Service (MMS) said Wednesday’s Central and Eastern Gulf of Mexico lease sales yielded more than $546 million in total bids. Record crude oil prices and high natural gas prices led to robust bidding in the two sales, which together could include more than 3.6 Tcf of recoverable natural gas and up to 739 million bbl of recoverable oil, the agency said.

An early tally of results from the Mineral Management Service’s Central Gulf Lease Sale 190 looks impressive with 827 bids from 73 companies, which is quite a bit more than the 793 bids from 66 production companies in Central Gulf Lease Sale 185 last year. Lease Sale 190 will be held on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. in New Orleans.

New initiatives proposed by the Mineral Management Service couldcontribute an additional 500 Bcf to 1 Tcf/year of gas productionbetween 2004 and 2006, according to MMS Director Walt Rosenbusch.