Lease Sale 189
December 10, 2003

The Outer Continental Shelf Sale 189 was held in New Orleans on December 10, 2003. Sale 189 resulted in 16 bids, by 6 companies, on 14 tracts, for a total of $9,081,842. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $8,376,765, on approximately 80,640 acres.

This was the first Eastern Sale since 2001.

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

·        Murphy Exploration & Production Compmany - 7 bids

·        Shell Offshore, Inc. - 5 bids

·       Nexen Petroleum Offshore U.S.A. - 5 bids

·        Dominion Exploration & Production - 4 bids

In terms of total amount exposed, we have:

·        Shell Offshore, Inc. - $3.96 million

·       Dominion Exploration & Production - $1.72 million

·       Murphy Exploration & Production Compmany - $1.48 million

·        Nexen Petroleum Offshore U.S.A. - $0.99 million

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

·        Shell Offshore, Inc. - $3.96 million

·        Dominion Exploration & Production - $1.43 million

·        Murphy Exploration & Production Compmany - $1.34 million

·       Nexen Petroleum Offshore U.S.A. - $0.99 million