Lease Sale 177
August 23, 2000

Sale 177, covering the Western Gulf of Mexico, is scheduled for August 23, 2000. Detailed results will be available at this location no later than 8:00 am the following day (August 24, 2000). If our past performance is any example, we will beat our goal by at least 12 hours.

According to the MMS, there are 3,789 tracts available, encompassing 20.6 million acres. Of these, 2,152 tracts are in water depths of 200 meters or more, and 1660 are in water a half mile or deeper. Activity in the deep water has never been higher, according to the MMS. The deepwater rig count in the Gulf has increased by 30% since last year.

Last year, Sale 174 in the same area, drew high bids of over $90 million on 142 tracts. The available tracts and acres were only slightly less than for Sale 177. There is speculation that this sale may be well attended by some.
 

Late-Breaking News - MMS Revisions

On September 28, 2000, the MMS announced that they had inadvertently recorded bids on Garden Banks 556 (OCS-G22323) and Garden Banks 600 (OCS-G22326) as being from Shell Offshore Inc, when they should have been attributed to Shell Deepwater Development Inc. Neither of these bids were the apparent winning bids. 

 

Accordingly, on 8/29/2000, we updated all affected summaries and downloadable files.

 

Lexco and the MMS regret any inconvenience this may cause you.

 

Miscellaneous Presale Statistics (from MMS) 

On 8/22/2000, the MMS released the following Miscellaneous Presale Statistics:

·        Of 3,789 blocks offered, 226 received bids (6%)

·        Of a total of 20.6 million acres offered, 1.25 million acres received bids

There were a total of 266 bids submitted by 53 companies:

·        197 blocks received 1 bid

·        21 blocks received 2 bids

·        6 blocks received 3 bids

·        1 blocks received 4 bids

·        1 blocks received 5 bids

 

No Radio Broadcast This Year

Sale 177 will not be broadcast on the traditional radio outlets this year. Instead, the Offshore Oil Scouts Association will be broadcasting the sale, live, via the Internet, starting at 9:00AM. Visit the website http://www.vcall.com, and select the appropriate broadcast from the list of "Today's Calls" and you can listen in.

 

Early Results 

·         The broadcast via the Vcall website listed above, seems to have been very successful.

·         The block receiving 5 bids was High Island 197

·         The block receiving 4 bids was High Island A-539.

·         The sum of high bids was $153,660,031, while the sum of all bids was $167,373,613.

·         The highest bid on a block was $10,540,800, by Kerr-McKee and CXY Energy Offshore, for Garden Banks 624.

 

The most active companies were:

 

·         Kerr McGee - 24 bids

·         Shell Offshore - 24 bids

·         Union Oil of California - 22 bids

·         CXY Energy Offshore - 20 bids

·         Anadarko Petroleum - 18 bids

 

In terms of total amount exposed, we have:

 

·         Union Oil of California - $18.8 million

·         Kerr McGee - $16.6 million

·         Amerada Hess - $16.1 million

·         CXY Energy Offshore - $13.1 million

·         Spinnaker Exploration Co. - $9.6 million

 

In terms of apparent high bids, we have:

 

·         Union Oil of California - $17.6 million

·         Kerr McGee - $16.3 million

·         Amerada Hess - $16.1 million

·         CXY Energy Offshore - $13.1 million

·         Spinnaker Exploration Co. - $9.2 million