Offshore oil lease sales for Gulf of Mexico total $872M
The March issue of Energy Digital magazine is live
As part of the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to continue to expand safe and responsible domestic energy production, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced that this week’s oil and gas lease sales for federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico garnered $872 million in high bids on 329 tracts covering 1.7 million acres.
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offered nearly 40 million acres covering tracts in the Central and Eastern planning areas of the Gulf of Mexico, and opened bids from previously offered acreage in the Western planning area. The week’s lease sales build on the first three sales held under the Obama Administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 that offered more than 60 million acres for development and garnered $1.4 billion in bid revenues.
Domestic oil and gas production has grown each year the President Barack Obama has been in office, with domestic oil production currently higher than any time in two decades; natural gas production at its highest level ever; and renewable electricity generation from wind, solar, and geothermal sources has doubled. Combined with recent declines in oil consumption, foreign oil imports now account for less than 40 percent of the oil consumed in America – the lowest level since 1988.
“The Gulf is a critical component of our nation’s energy portfolio and holds vital energy resources that spur economic opportunities for Gulf producing states as well as further reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Secretary Jewell said
