Largest oil and gas lease sale to be held in U.S. history
The Department of the Interior is proposing the largest oil and gas lease sale ever held in the U.S.: 76,967,935 acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The proposed regionwide lease sale, offering an area about the size of New Mexico, is scheduled for March 2018 and includes all available unleased areas on the Gulf's Outer Continental Shelf, surpassing last year's region-wide lease sale by about 1 million acres.
Proposed Lease Sale 250, which will be livestreamed from New Orleans, will be the second offshore sale under the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2017-2022. Lease Sale 249, held in New Orleans last August, received $121 million in high bids. In addition to the high bids and rental payments, the department will receive royalty payments on any future production from these leases.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates the Outer Continental Shelf contains about 90 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and 327 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable gas.
For more information, visit www.doi. gov or call (504) 731-7815.
U.S. crude oil production to increase through end of 2017
EIA forecasts U.S crude oil production will average 9.4 million barrels per day (b/d) in the second half of 2017, 340,000 b/d more than in the first half of 2017. Production in 2018 is expected to average 9.9 million b/d, surpassing the previous high of 9.6 million b/d set in 1970, based on projections in EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).
The STEO projects most of the crude oil production growth in the second half of 2017 will be in the Permian region, which extends across western Texas and southeastern New Mexico and has become one of the more active drilling regions in the U.S. Production in the Permian continues to increase, in part as a result of West Texas Intermediate crude oil average monthly prices, which have remained higher than $45 per barrel since the second half of 2016.
For more information, visit www.eia. gov or email InfoCtr@eia.gov.
BLM third quarter lease sales hit combined $170.7 million
Seven Bureau of Land Management (BLM) state offices generated $170.7 million in bonus bids during their quarterly oil and gas lease sales. Among these sales, rights to a total of 218 parcels covering 134,834.71 acres were sold.
BLM New Mexico had the largest sale of the quarter, generating approximately $130.9 million in bonus bids Sept. 7. Wyoming held the second-largest sale of the quarter Sept. 21, generating $38.7 million in bonus bids.
BLM Colorado's sale, held Sept. 7, totaled $602,088 in bonus bids. In BLM Montana/Dakotas, bonus bids totaled $305,802 in a sale held Sept. 12. Sales that same day in Nevada and Utah brought in $33,120 and $8,204, respectively. In eastern states, bonus bids totaled $201,018 in lease sales held Sept. 21
For more information, visit www. blm.gov or call (202) 208-3801.
BSEE director stresses importance of Alaska offshore program
Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Scott Angelle recently emphasized the importance of what takes place offshore Alaska to the nation's work toward energy dominance. Angelle met with BSEE employees at the Alaska Region office, highlighting the Arctic as an important component of the administration's national energy strategy to achieve energy dominance.
"BSEE is in an era of partnership throughout the Outer Continental Shelf," explained Angelle. "BSEE is actively working with all Alaska stakeholders to ensure that any offshore operations are safe and environmentally sustainable in relation to the Arctic environment and the Alaska Natives who are closely connected to the Arctic Ocean."
For more information, visit www. bsee.gov or call (202) 208-6184.
ExxonMobil deepwater discovery could total 2 billion barrels
Following ExxonMobil's fifth new oil discovery in drilling the Turbot-1 well offshore Guyana, Pablo Medina, Wood Mackenzie's senior analyst, Latin America upstream, said the discovery proves "that deepwater can still be attractive."
"ExxonMobil continues with its successful exploration campaign offshore Guyana with the discovery of Turbot," Medina said. "ExxonMobil's Liza and Payara complex might approach the 2-billion- barrel mark in commercial reserves."
This discovery also puts Guyana on the map, as the country currently does not produce any oil. "We expect around 350,000- 400,000 barrels per day of oil production by 2026, making Guyana one of the top oil producers in Latin America," Medina said.
For more information, visit www. woodmac.com or call (713) 470-1600
