US government sells 400,000 acres offshore Texas

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

US government sells 400,000 acres offshore Texas
Emily Schmall Associated Press 2:55 p.m. CDT August 20, 2014

The federal government has sold more than 400,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast for oil and gas exploration and development, an official with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Wednesday.

The acreage represents a fraction of the 21.6 million acres the agency had offered as part of the Obama administration’s five-year program to aggressively develop resources on the Outer Continental Shelf. Previous offerings in the Western Gulf attracted buyers for about 60 million offshore acres, adding about $2.3 billion to the U.S. Treasury.

Wednesday’s sales, if approved, will bring in about $110 million, the agency’s Western Gulf of Mexico Deputy Director Michael Celata said.

BP PLC, which was allowed to participate in this year’s sale for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in 2010, submitted the most high bids and won 27 of the 81 tracts that sold.




Read more: http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/louisiana/2014/08/20/us-government-sells-acres-offshore-texas/14350511/

[blkmusclmachine]

1. Bad

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Isn't that just too special.

[L0oniX]

7. They waited till Ricky boy was booked to do this shit.

[Divernan]

3. Where will the govt. spend that money? Subsidizing more weapons sold to local police forces?

Hang on to your Big Oil and MIC stocks boys - the Dow Jones is goin' nowhere but up!

[Steerpike]

4. Now you're being silly!

Obviously if the revenue comes from resource development all profits go to arm Syria!

[L0oniX]

5. Gee ...what could go wrong with that. Fuck this shit!

[newthinking]

6. So we sell the land? Not lease it?

Or is that just a misstatement?

If it is sold, does that then give them more rights in case they pollute the area? Just wondering if someone can explain how this works.

[KoKo]

9. Sounds strange...I, also, thought Government Lands were leased and not sold..

Because it's Our Taxpayers Govt. Land...and that's what's interesting about this. We own it but Govt. Sold it....without our permission?

What's next...our National Parks?

[Divernan]

11. At his next Friday presser, O will say we just helped out some "folks" as in Big Oil Corporations,

as per the USSC's definition of corporations' status as persons.

Then Hillary Clinton will comment that in the fog of war, that is, the fog over the Gulf, she thinks we non one-percenters let the anguish we were privy to because of the coverage of BP's Gulf Oil Spill, or the Exxon Valdez spill re the devastation on marine life and the fishing industry unduly influence our emotions. She'll remind us that because of all that coverage (you know - huge acres of floating globs of oil, deformed sea life, oil covered mammals and sea birds) "and all the rest of that, makes it very difficult to sort through to get to the truth." *

So don't you worry your pretty little heads, all you Miz Scarletts out in DU Land. Because as god is their witness, Obama and Hillary and their BFFs, the One Percenters will never run out of scams to rip off the American taxpayer and will gladly take the time to tell us how to interpret reality. Now shall we all gather at our local rivers (poisoned by illegally dumped fracking waste water, fertilizer runoffs & oil spills) and sing the corporate Texas hymn - There's No Bidness like Big Bidness.

Today he'll sell the ocean floor and waters of the Gulf; tomorrow it will be rights to all the water in the Great Lakes.
_____________________________________________________________________________
*Direct quote from HRC: “It’s impossible to know what happens in the fog of war," Clinton said. "Some reports say, maybe it wasn’t the exact U.N. school that was bombed, but it was the annex to the school next door where they were firing the rockets. And I do think oftentimes that the anguish you are privy to because of the coverage, and the women and the children and all the rest of that, makes it very difficult to sort through to get to the truth."

http://news.yahoo.com/hillary-clinton-obama-foreign-policy-isis-gaza-failure-141410915.html

[ohnoyoudidnt]

12. That is a little disturbing.

Does that mean people can't fish or travel though the area without trespassing? What about the media? There may be some legal implications of concern. There has to be a reason for sale instead of lease and it is a safe bet that those reasons are not in the best interest of the public.

[whereisjustice]

8. President Obama is moonlighting for Remax, as a buyers broker. $110 million is like

trading Manhattan for beads and blankets.

Another bailout for rich people. And I bet every last fucking dime of BPs expenses will be tax deductible, AND they'll still get their windfall tax breaks.

Jesus H. the rich just keep getting richer and richer by fucking over the rest of the country.

[840high]

10. ...^ that

[glinda]

13. no kidding

[cheapdate]

14. It's a routine LEASE -- not an outright selling of the seafloor.

The initial lease on these blocks is generally 5 years, with options to extend to the lease periods based on certain conditions.

http://www.psg.deloitte.com/newslicensingrounds_us_130415.asp

(on edit : the above link is regarding oil and gas lease sale 227. This is the wrong lease sale. The lease sale referenced in the OP is 228. see link below.


http://www.offshore-mag.com/articles/2014/08/western-gulf-of-mexico-lease-sale-high-bids-total-more-than-109-million.html )

[newthinking]

15. Thanks for the clarification

That would be more consistent. Not that I agree we should be leasing more to BP after what they did to the gulf.

[cheapdate]

16. I'm not in favor of drilling in the Gulf either.

If I had my way, it would stop.

[Duppers]

17. thanks for the clarification. nt