The U.S. is set to offer 78 million offshore acres in the Gulf of Mexico to interested oil companies in a lease sale scheduled for March 2019.

The Lease Sale 252 will be live-streamed from New Orleans and will be the fourth offshore sale under the 2017-2022 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program). On Wednesday, March 20, 2019, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will open and publicly announce bids received for blocks offered in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The development of our abundant offshore resources is a major pillar of this Administration's energy strategy,” said Assistant Secretary Balash.

“America benefits from domestic energy production, which provides money for our Treasury, thousands of well-paying jobs, affordable and reliable energy to heat our homes, fuel our cars, and power our economy.”

Lease Sale 252 will include approximately 14,696 unleased blocks, located from three to 231 miles offshore, in the Gulf's Western, Central and Eastern planning areas in water depths ranging from nine to more than 11,115 feet (three to 3,400 meters).

“The following areas are excluded from the lease sale: blocks subject to the congressional moratorium established by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006; blocks adjacent to or beyond the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone in the area known as the northern portion of the Eastern Gap; and whole blocks and partial blocks within the current boundaries of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.

According to the U.S. Interior Department, the Gulf of Mexico OCS, covering about 160 million acres, is estimated to contain about 48 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and 141 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable gas.