Lease Sale 174
August 25, 1999

The Outer Continental Shelf Sale 174 was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 25, 1999. This is the same area that attracted a record number of bids in Sale 168, held August 27, 1997, when 82 companies submitted 1,224 bids on 804 tracts, for a total of $939.2 million. The sum of winning bids at that time was $616.2 million.

In this same area last year, Sale 171 resulted in 486 bids, by 63 companies, on 402 tracts, for a total of $741.9 million. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $553.4 million, on approximately 2.3 million acres.

Sale 174, just completed, resulted in 177 bids, by 41 companies, on 153 tracts, for a total of $104,211,708. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $94,649,044, on approximately 857,000 acres.

Many of these tracts are in deep water.


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

·        Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corporation - 38 bids

·        Coastal Oil & Gas USA, L.P. - 19 bids

·        Union Oil Company of California - 17 bids

·        Spinnaker Exploration Company, L.L.C. - 15 bids

·        CNG Producing Company - 9 bids

 

In terms of total amount exposed, we have:

 

·        Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corporation - $34.0 million

·        Union Oil Company of California - $9.2 million

·        Spinnaker Exploration Company, L.L.C. - $7.0 million

·        CNG Producing Company - $6.3 million

·        Murphy Exploration & Production Company - $4.8 million

·        Vastar Resources, Inc. - $4.8 million

 

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

 

·        Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corporation - $33.3 million

·        Union Oil Company of California - $8.8 million

·        CNG Producing Company - $5.7 million

·        Spinnaker Exploration Company, L.L.C. - $5.5 million

·        Murphy Exploration & Production Company - $4.8 million