Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: August federal oil lease sale of western Gulf tracts set

A federal lease sale offering 21 million acres in the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration and development is set for August.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced Monday that the sale of leases for areas off the Texas coast will take place in New Orleans. It will include approximately 4,000 blocks, from 9 to 250 miles offshore, in depths ranging from 16 to almost 11,000 feet.

BOEM estimates the proposed lease sale could result in the production of up to 200 million barrels of oil and 938 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

The August sale of leases for western Gulf tracts will follow a planned March 18 sale of leases for 40 million acres off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.