Gulf Lease Sale Attracts High-Dollar Attention
Houston Chronicle
Aug. 20--Norway's Statoil bet $61 million that significant
oil and gas deposits lie beneath the Gulf of Mexico seafloor more
than 160 miles south of Galveston, according to lease sale results
released by the federal government today.
The company submitted the highest of 423 bids for leases on
90-square-mile blocks in the western part of the Gulf for the
Interior Department's latest lease sale this week.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne highlighted results of
the routine lease sale to push for increased access to explore and
drill for oil in federal waters, most of which are off limits under
a congressional moratorium in place for more than 20 years.
"Our role is to make accessible resources needed for
the country's energy security," he said today in New Orleans.
Last month President Bush lifted an executive ban on
drilling in off-limits areas off the west and east U.S. coasts and
the eastern part of the Gulf, and called on Congress to lift its
moratorium as well.
Today's rundown of $607 million from 423 bids -- $487
million of which were awarded -- came a day after Republican
presidential candidate John McCain visited Chevron's Genesis oil and
gas platform about 150 miles south of New Orleans.
McCain is pushing to open access to more drilling in
off-limits areas, while Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama
says he would consider more access if it was part of a larger energy
policy. Democrats opposed to expanded offshore drilling say oil
companies should drill on 68 million acres of federal lands and
waters they already lease, but aren't developing.
Chevron, the largest leaseholder in the Gulf, submitted
three of the top five bids announced today: $52 million and $22
million for blocks directly south of the Louisiana coast and $20
million for a block in the same area that generated the highest bid
from Statoil. And Statoil also submitted the fourth-highest bid in
that area at $22 million.
Statoil has been increasing its Gulf presence in recent
sales, and spent $136 million on 36 deepwater blocks last August.
Overall, bids were submitted for about 10 percent of the
3,412 blocks available. And of those, 80 percent were for areas in
water depths of 1,000 feet or more.
"What's left to look at is deepwater," said
Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, the arm
of the Interior Department that oversees oil and gas activity in the
Gulf.
"That's been the trend over the last few years.
Basically, what's left is you've got to go deeper, you've got to go
out further, you've got to go to places that haven't been
explored," he said.
Assistant Interior Secretary Stephen Allred said officials
weren't surprised that 10 percent of tracts available brought in
bids. The government analysis of all the tracts showed that the
leases that generated bids were in blocks most likely to have oil.
"You can't assume that every lease that everybody has
is going to produce oil," Allred said.
He added that high-dollar bids could be a product of
improved seismic and other exploration technology as well as
increased overall deepwater activity that help oil companies get a
better idea of what blocks are the best bets.
Royal Dutch Shell submitted a $105 million bid on a block in
the central part of the Gulf -- where drilling is more prolific --
in a previous sale, he said.
kristen.hays@chron.com
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