Lease Sale 168
August 27, 1997

The Outer Continental Shelf Sale 168 was held in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 27, 1997. 82 companies offered 1224 bids on 804 tracts, totaling $939.2 million. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $616.2 million. There were 4,710 blocks, covering some 25.7 million acres, offered in Sale 168. Nearly two thirds of the tracts offered are in water that is over 1200 feet deep. The lease terms offered were 5, 8, or 10 years, depending on water depth.

This represents a new, all time record for the Western Gulf, both for the Number of Bids, and the Number of Tracts Receiving Bids, eclipsing the previous record set just last year (1996), when 929 bids were submitted on 617 tracts.

At that time, the MMS offered 5,168 blocks, covering 28.4 million acres, in the Western Gulf of Mexico Sale 161. As a result, 617 tracts were leased, for bonuses of over $356 million.