Lease Sale 178, Part 1
March 28, 2001

The Outer Continental Shelf Sale 178, Part 1 was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 28, 2001. This is the same area that had attracted extremely high industry interest in recent sales. In 1999, however, downward trends in world oil prices, along with the associated negative affects on the domestic industry, resulted in Sale 172 attracting significantly lower levels of bidding activity and dollars exposed, as compared to previous records.

 

Sale 175, held in 2000, showed an increase of approximately 50% over the previous year.

 

Sale 178, Part 1 covered 4,390 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 23 million.

 

Sale 178, Part 1 resulted in 780 bids on 547 tracts.

 

For the sake of comparison, last year's Sale 175 resulted in 469 bids on 344 tracts. Thus Sale 178, Part 1 represents an approximate 60% increase over last year.

Preliminary Results (courtesy of MMS)

On Tuesday, March 27, 2001, the MMS announced the following information:

·         There are a total of 780 bids on 547 tracts (12.5%).

·         The total acreage receiving bids (2,772,334.2) is 12% of the available acreage.

·         The average number of bids per tract is 1.43.

·         398 tracts received one bid each; 93 tracts received two bids.

·         There was one tract that received 6 bids: NH16-10 Mississippi Canyon Block 912.

·         78 companies submitted bids.

·         Mississippi Canyon Block 912 attracted the highest bid, slightly over $26 million.