The US government has announced that it will offer 77.3 million acres of federal waters in the US Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leases in an August auction, according to the Associated Press.
Set for 15 August, the auction would include all available unleased tracts, amounting to approximately 14,474, and will be in a range encompassing three miles to 231 miles offshore.
Officially earmarked as Lease Sale 251, it will embrace sites in depths from three metres to 3,400 metres in parts of the Gulf’s Western, Central and eastern planning areas.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), part of the Department of the Interior (DOI) said the auction will be livestreamed from New Orleans, Louisiana.
It will be the third offshore sale under the national Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022.
