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

News Desk Alert:

Eastern GOM Lease Sale 181 Receives 190 Bids on 95 Tracts

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Region (GOMR) announced at 10 a.m. today that it has received 190 bids from 14 companies on 95 tracts offered in the Eastern GOM Lease Sale 181.

Eastern GOM Lease Sale 181 will take place tomorrow, December 5, 2001 at 9 a.m. at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Two Poydras Street, in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana.

This sale will be WebCast as follows:

• GoGulfTV has announced it will have an Internet video broadcast of Minerals Management Service Lease Sale 181 available at www.gogulf.net beginning at 6:00 p.m. on December 5, 2001.  Viewers can download the complete broadcast free of charge for viewing at their convenience.
  
• Through Arthur Andersen at www.energyleasesale.com.  Webcast includes live audio streaming, reporting functionality, and interactive map.

Please note that the listing of these webcasts on this official MMS web site, as well as the actual webcasts of the upcoming MMS lease sales, does not imply any endorsement by MMS.

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters.  The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases.  These disbursements totaled nearly $8 billion last year and more than $110 billion since the agency was created in 1982.  Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.