Register

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) said last Thursday in a Federal Register notice that Lease Sale 192 in the Western Planning Area of the Gulf of Mexico could result in production of 136 to 262 million barrels of oil and 0.81 to 1.44 Tcf of natural gas. The lease sale is scheduled for Aug. 18 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel in Louisiana.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) said Thursday in a Federal Register notice that Lease Sale 192 in the Western Planning Area of the Gulf of Mexico could result in production of 136 to 262 million barrels of oil and 0.81 to 1.44 Tcf of natural gas. The lease sale is scheduled for Aug. 18 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel in Louisiana.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) released a notice in the Federal Register on Lease Sale 190, scheduled for March 17, 2004. The sale will cover 22.6 million acres and 4,281 available blocks in the Central Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf planning area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Estimates of undiscovered hydrocarbons expected to be discovered and produced as a result of this sale proposal range from 276 to 654 million bbl of oil and 1.59 to 3.30 Tcf of natural gas. Blocks are located from three to about 210 miles offshore in water depths ranging from four to more than 3,400 meters. The lease sale includes a continuation of shallow-water deep gas and deepwater oil and gas royalty relief measures that were adopted in other recent Gulf of Mexico OCS lease sales for the purpose of increasing domestic natural gas and oil production. In addition, lessees can apply for added discretionary royalty relief on these leases, if needed. The next lease sale will be Eastern Gulf of Mexico Sale 189 on Dec. 10. It will include 256 blocks in the Eastern GOM Planning Area and covers 1.47 million acres. Estimates of undiscovered economically recoverable hydrocarbons range from 65 to 85 million barrels of oil and 0.265 to 0.34 Tcf of gas. The MMS estimates the net economic value for sale 189 to be between $100 million and $500 million. For more details visit http://www.mms.gov/.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) released a notice in the Federal Register Wednesday on Lease Sale 190, scheduled for March 17, 2004. The sale will cover 22.6 million acres and 4,281 available blocks in the Central Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf planning area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) published in the Federal Register its final notice for Eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Sale 189. The lease sale, which will be held at 9 a.m. CST on Dec. 10, in New Orleans, encompasses 256 blocks in the Eastern GOM Planning Area and covers 1.47 million acres. Available unleased blocks in the planning area number 138 and cover 794,880 acres.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) published in the Federal Register its final notice for Eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Sale 189. The lease sale, which will be held at 9 a.m. on Dec. 10, in New Orleans, encompasses 256 blocks in the Eastern GOM Planning Area and covers 1.47 million acres. Available unleased blocks in the planning area number 138 and cover 794,880 acres.

AES Corp. disclosed in a regulatory filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the Department of Justice (DOJ) last month commenced an antitrust investigation related to an agreement between AES Southland LLC and Williams Energy Services Co. The DOJ alleges that the agreement limits the expansion of electric generating capacity at or near certain plants owned by AES Southland. In connection with the investigation, the DOJ sent a civil investigative demand to AES Southland requesting the answer to certain interrogatories and the production of documents. AES Southland is cooperating with the terms of the civil investigative demand, AES noted. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March of this year ordered Williams Energy Marketing & Trading and AES Southland to justify why they should not be found to have violated the Federal Power Act (FPA) by engaging in actions to drive up power prices in the California bulk market and potentially compromising the reliability of the transmission network (see Daily GPI, March 15). In California, Williams markets power produced from two generating units owned by AES. FERC said its investigation showed that Williams and AES appeared to have financial incentive to prolong outages from the two generating units to drive up prices.

A number of utility and industrial customers in Wisconsincontinue to register their support for the proposed GuardianPipeline, which — if built — would offer the state its firstglimpse of gas pipeline competition.

A number of utility and industrial customers in Wisconsincontinue to register their support for the proposed GuardianPipeline, which — if built — would offer the state its firstglimpse of gas pipeline competition.