Lease Sale 224
March 19, 2008

The Outer Continental Shelf Sale 224 was held in New Orleans on March 19, 2008. Sale 224 resulted in 58 bids, by 6 companies, on 36 tracts, for a total of $72,137,645. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $64,713,213, on approximately 190,297 acres.

This was the first Eastern Sale since 2005.

The big players, in terms of number of tracts bid on, are:

·        BHP Billiton Petroleum (Deepwater) Inc. - 27 bids

·        Anadarko E&P Company LP - 9 bids

·       Murphy Exploration & Production Company - 9 bids

·       Eni Petroleum US LLC - 9 bids

·       BP Exploration & Production Inc. - 9 bids

In terms of total amount exposed, we have:

·        BHP Billiton Petroleum (Deepwater) Inc. - $47.9 million

·       Anadarko E&P Company LP - $13.2 million

·       Murphy Exploration & Production Company - $3.3 million

In terms of total amount of high bids, we have:

·        BHP Billiton Petroleum (Deepwater) Inc. - $47.9 million

·        Anadarko E&P Company LP - $12.8 million

·        Murphy Exploration & Production Company - $3.2 million