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


FOR RELEASE: March 4, 1997 CONTACT: Barney Congdon
(504) 736-2595
Caryl Fagot
(504) 736-2590

News Desk Alert:

Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 166 Sets All Time Record for Number of Bids and Number of Tracts Bid On

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service announced at 10 a.m. today that it has received a record breaking 1,790 bids on 1,032 tracts offered in the Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 166.

Comparative Lease Sales
Sale 157 April 1996 1,381 bids on 924 tracts
Sale 22 December 1970 1,043 bids on 127 tracts
Sale 72 May 1983 1,015 bids on 656 tracts
Sale 113 March 1988 931 bids on 684 tracts
Sale 152 May 1995 880 bids on 588 tracts

Lease Sale 166 will take place tomorrow, March 5, 1997, at 9 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 500 Poydras Plaza, New Orleans, Louisiana.

MMS is the Federal agency that manages the Nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf, and collects, accounts for, and disburses about $4 billion yearly in revenues from offshore Federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on Federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-GOM-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov/
24 hour Fax-on-Demand Service: (202) 219-1703