The sale, to be held in New Orleans, would be the first central gulf sale in the MMS 2007-12 Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program.

The sale would involve 5,000 blocks covering more than 28.5 million acres. The acreage is 3-210 miles offshore in 4-3,400 m of water.

Sale 205 excludes the areas under moratorium and respects the buffers created for the Florida coast.

MMS estimates that as much as 1.3 billion bbl of oil and 5.2 tcf of natural gas could be discovered and produced from the lease sale area.

PIN/OGJ.COM