据OE网站11月17日报道， 负责管理海上能源租赁的内政部海洋能源管理局(BOEM)已选定2021年3月为明年美国墨西哥湾首次租赁销售。
BOEM将提供7820万英亩的土地用于墨西哥湾地区的租赁销售，正式名为Lease Sale 257。
海上租赁销售计划将在新奥尔良进行现场直播，这将是2017-2022年外大陆架油气租赁计划10项海上销售计划中的第8项。
BOEM周二表示，出售将包括约14,594个未租赁区块-墨西哥湾联邦水域中所有可用的未租赁区域。 由于新冠疫情，因此仅接收通过邮寄方式的投标。
值得注意的是，BOEM将于11月18日星期三举行256次租赁销售。此次256号租赁交易原定于2020年8月进行，但延期了，以便有时间针对新冠疫情对油气市场进行进一步分析。
BOEM墨西哥湾地区主管Mike Celata表示，"尽管新冠疫情造成的环境影响，但我们相信，业界仍有兴趣获得新租约，以支持其投资组合。"“墨西哥湾是一个世界级的资源地区，对我们国家的能源安全起着关键作用。”
周三的租赁销售将包括约14755块未出租区块，这些区块位于海湾西部，中部和东部规划区，距离海岸从3英里到231英里，水深9英尺-11115英尺（合3-3400米）不等。
据BOEM称，墨西哥湾外大陆架(OCS)占地约1.6亿英亩，估计有480亿桶为发现的技术上可开采的石油和141万亿立方英尺技术上可开采的天然气。
郝芬 译自 OE
原文如下：
U.S. BOEM to Hold First 2021 Offshore Oil and Gas Lease Sale in March
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), a Department of Interior agency responsible for the management of offshore energy leases, has picked March 2021 for the first U.S. Gulf of Mexico lease sale next year.
BOEM will offer 78.2 million acres for a region-wide Gulf of Mexico lease sale, formally named Lease Sale 257.
The offshore lease sale, scheduled to be live-streamed from New Orleans, will be the eighth of ten planned offshore sales under the 2017-2022 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
The sale will include approximately 14,594 unleased blocks – all of the available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, BOEM said Tuesday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, bids are Worth noting, BOEM will “Despite circumstances imposed by the coronavirus, we are confident that industry remains interested in acquiring new leases to support their portfolios,” said Mike Celata, Director of BOEM’s Gulf of Mexico Region. “The Gulf of Mexico is a world-class resource area that serves a key role in our nation’s energy security.”
Tomorrow's lease sale will include approximately 14,755 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).
According to BOEM, the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (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.
