An area of 23.5m acres off of Texas will be on the block in August when the next lease sale for US offshore drilling rights occurs in New Orleans.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), an agency of the US Department of the Interior, announced the auction, which will be the 11th offshore sale under the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017.
It will include all unleased areas in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area, around 4,343 blocks.
The 10 previous sales in the programme have earned more than $3bn.
