Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) by opening the 100th offshore oil and gas lease sale conducted in the Gulf of Mexico. The Interior's Mineral Management Service oversees the leases. Associate Director for Offshore Minerals Management, Tom Readinger says the Outer Continental Shelf is a critical source of energy.
"Thirty percent of domestic production comes from the OCS and about twenty five percent of natural gas comes from the OCS. So we're celebrating the success of a program that's grown and flourished under that law."
Wednesday's sale in New Orleans offered 3,996 tracts comprising about 21.7 million acres off the shores of Texas and Louisiana. It's estimated the sale could result in up to 260 million barrels of oil and around 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Much of that will come from a new frontier, deepwater projects.
"Even as companies go out there, a lot of the area remains to be explored. And from this sale we had tremendous interest out in the deep water."
Royalty revenues for 2002 totaled over $6 billion. The Mineral Management Service has collected nearly $127 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Ron Tull, Interior Department Radio News Service, Washington.