Lease Sale 204

The Outer Continental Shelf Sale 204 was held in New Orleans on August 22, 2007. Sale 204 covered the new WGOM Planning Area.

Sale 204, just completed, resulted in 358 bids, by 47 companies, on 282 tracts, for a total of $369,496,840. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $289,953,066, on approximately 1.6 million acres.

Last year, Sale 200 resulted in 541 bids, by 62 companies, on 381 tracts, for a total of $462.8 million. The total sum of apparent winning bids was $340.9 million, on approximately 2.1 million acres.

The following table reflects preliminary sale data released by the MMS, and shows how Sale 204 compares with previous Western Sales.

Western GOM Sales

Sale
Year

Sale

Tracts
Receiving Bids

Total Bids

High Bids
(millions)

2007

204

282

358

290.0

2006

200

381

541

340.9

2005

196

346

422

285.2

2004

192

351

421

171.4

2003

187

335

407

148.7

2002

184

323

391

151.3

2001

180

320

386

165.6

2000

177

226

266

153.7

1999

174

153

177

94.6

1998

171

402

486

553.4

1997

168

804

1,224

616.2

1996

161

617

929

356.1

1995

155

275

348

114.3

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

· BP Exploration & Production Inc. - 108 bids

· Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC - 40 bids

· Petrobas America Inc. - 40 bids

· Devon Energy Production Company, L.P. - 34 bids

· ConocoPhillips Company - 30 bids

In terms of total amount exposed, we have:

· Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC - $143.1 million

· BP Exploration & Production Inc. - $55.1 million

· Petrobas America Inc. - $30.1 million

· Shell Ofshore Inc. - $23.3 million

· Devon Energy Production Company, L.P. - $21.9 million

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

· Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC - $138.9 million

· BP Exploration & Production Inc. - $31.0 million

· Petrobas America Inc. - $29.3 million

· Devon Energy Production Company, L.P. - $20.0 million

· ConocoPhillips Company - $12.3 million