U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

News Desk Alert:

Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 178, Part 1

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Region (GOMR) invites members of the media to the Central Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease Sale 178, Part 1.  Lease Sale 178, Part 1 will take place at the Armstrong Ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Wednesday, March 28, 2001.  Bid opening will start at 9 a.m.

Sale 178, Part 1 encompasses about 4,390 available blocks in the Central Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf planning area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  This area covers about 23.19 million acres. Last year’s Central Gulf Sale 175 received 469 bids on 344 tracts attracting $300,567,675 in high bids.

The Offshore Oil Scouts Association will provide an audio webcast of Central Sale 178 beginning at 9:00 a.m.

The MMS, a bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior, is the federal agency that manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf.  The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses more than $5 billion per year in revenues from federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-GOM-

MMS's Website Address: http://www.mms.gov