LMOGA Statement in Response to BOEM's OCS Lease Sale 253

BATON ROUGE, LA (August 21, 2019) --- Today’s federal offshore lease sale provides us with an indication of the offshore oil and gas industry which is critical to Louisiana’s economy and our nation’s energy security. Today’s sale resulted in 27 companies submitting high bids totaling approximately $159 million. As a comparison, the previous lease sale in March of 2019 resulted in high bids totaling approximately $244 million in high bids and represents a decline of 35%. In addition, the total number of bids submitted on 78 million acres was 165 versus 257 bids on nearly the same amount of acreage at the March 2019 lease sale.

“The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association (LMOGA) recognizes that offshore companies have a choice as to whether they invest in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico or other provinces throughout the world,” said Tyler Gray, President and General Counsel. “In order to ensure a sustainable offshore energy industry for Louisiana, we urge the Department of Interior to once again take into serious consideration the opportunities for royalty reform in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico which would result in increased offshore investment, an increase in revenues to the federal treasury, and critical funding towards Louisiana’s coastal restoration initiatives.”

“LMOGA also recognizes the need to increase Louisiana’s offshore federal revenue sharing from 37.5% to 50% as it is onshore and we wholeheartedly support Senator Cassidy’s and Congressman Graves’ legislation to achieve a more equitable share of these offshore revenues for Louisiana,” said Gray.

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About LMOGA
Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, founded in 1923, is a trade association exclusively representing all sectors of the oil and gas industry operating in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. LMOGA serves exploration and production, refining, transportation, marketing and midstream companies as well as other firms in the fields of law, engineering, environment, financing and government relations.