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Offshore Drilling Bids Cover Small Area

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The Associated Press

Published: August 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - Dozens of energy companies bid Tuesday to explore nearly two million acres of the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and natural gas, but no offers were made for 90 percent of the acreage on the auction block.

The Interior Department on Tuesday received 423 bids from 47 companies to explore a swath of the Gulf of Mexico off Texas. The bids cover 319 of the 3,412 tracts the federal government put up for lease, or about 10 percent of the 18 million acres available.

Randall Luthi, director of the department's Minerals Management Service, called the sale "an important next step in the journey to ensuring the nation's energy security."

But the preliminary results of the lease sale also underscore the problems politicians face in arguing for more domestic production to ease high energy prices: Making more land available does not necessarily mean it will be drilled. Also, most of Tuesday's offers - 237 - were for 10-year terms, an extended timetable that will have little impact on gasoline prices now.

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