The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced it will offer a big swathe of offshore oil and gas exploration leases for the central US Gulf of Mexico in March next year.
The auction, to be held in New Orleans, will offer 47 million acres in areas off of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It will comprise some 8,878 blocks.
Essentially it puts on the block all hitherto unleased areas in what’s called the Central Planning Area of the Gulf.
It will be the 12th such sale under the Administration’s five-year plan, the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017.
The first 11 auctions have yielded more than $3 billion.