Thursday, June 21, 2012

U.S. Central Gulf Lease Sale Drew $1.7 Billion in Winning Bids

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday that the first lease sale in the central U.S. Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill drew $1.7 billion in winning bids from energy companies. The central area of the Gulf is considered the most promising by the oil and gas industry, and has yielded a huge bounty of oil in the past two decades. It is also where in 2010, a well blow-out destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig, killed 11 and unleashed the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. The high demand for drilling leases in the central region underscores both its potential and the eagerness of oil and gas companies to ramp up activities in the area after months of acrimonious exchanges with U.S. authorities over tough revisions of drilling regulations...more

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