Lease Sale 175
March 15, 2000

The Outer Continental Shelf Sale 175 was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 15, 2000. This is the same area that had attracted extremely high industry interest in recent sales. Last year, however, downward trends in world oil prices, along with the associated negative affects on the domestic industry, resulted in significantly lower levels of bidding activity and dollars exposed, as compared to previous records.

Sale 175 covered 4,203 blocks, many of which are in deep water (>200 m), where royalty relief is available. The total number of acres offered for bid was slightly over 22 million.

Sale 175 resulted in 469 bids on 344 tracts, for a total of $454.9 million. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $300.6 million, on slightly over 1.75 million acres.

For the sake of comparison, last year's Sale 172 resulted in 272 bids on 207 tracts, for a total of $199.6 million. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $171.8 million, on slightly over one million acres. Thus Sale 175 represents an approximate 50% increase over last year.

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

 

·        Vastar Resources, Inc. - 42 bids

·        Chevron U.S.A. Inc. - 37 bids

·        Anadarko Petroleum Corporation - 34 bids

·        Spinnaker Exploration Company, L.L.C. - 30 bids

·        CNG Producing Company - 24 bids

 

In terms of total amount exposed, we have:

 

·        Exxon Asset Management Company - $65 million

·        Marathon Oil Company - $51 million

·        Shell Deepwater Development Inc. - $31 million

·        Vastar Resources, Inc. - $29 million

·        Chevron U.S.A. Inc. - $26 million

 

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

 

·        Exxon Asset Management Company - $61 million

·        Anadarko Petroleum Corporation - $25 million

·        Marathon Oil Company - $21 million

·        Vastar Resources - $18 million

·        Shell Deepwater Development Inc. - $17 million