The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has released its Proposed Notice of Sale 187, the Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) lease sale, which is scheduled for August 2003. MMS estimates the sale could result in the production of 136-to-262 million bbl of oil and 0.81-to-1.44 Tcf of natural gas.

Sale 187 will encompass 3,985 unleased blocks, about 21.7 million acres, in the Western GOM Outer Continental Shelf Planning Area offshore Texas and in deeper waters offshore Louisiana. The blocks are located from 14 to 357 kilometers offshore in water depths ranging from 8 meters to more than 3,000 meters.

The proposed sale will continue the recent royalty suspension measures for both shallow and deepwater drilling. Among the incentives allowed for the August sale are the following:

The proposed notice also includes a recently revised Protected Species Stipulation designed to minimize or avoid potential adverse impacts to federally protected species. These measures resulted from recent formal MMS consultations with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Finally, the proposed notice contains a requirement that each bidder submit, by the bid submission deadline, a Geophysical Data and Information Statement declaring whether they possess or control depth-migrated geophysical data and information pertaining to each block upon which they are participating as a bidder. MMS has issued a Notice to Lessees (NTL) No. 2003-G05, effective Feb. 15, 2003, which provides more detail on the preferred format, reimbursement for costs and confidentiality.

The Proposed Notice of Sale is posted on the MMS web site at www.gomr.mms.gov. In addition, copies of the document are available from the MMS Gulf of Mexico Regional Office, Public Information Unit, 1201 Elmwood Park Blvd., New Orleans, LA ; (504) 736-2591 or (800) 200-GULF.

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