(NEW ORLEANS) - The Department of Interior says it has set a June date for the next Gulf offshore oil and natural gas lease sale.
The sale will include all available unleased areas in the Central Planning Area offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The sale will take place in New Orleans on June 20.
The proposed lease sale includes approximately 7,250 unleased blocks covering nearly 38 million acres.
The blocks are located from three to about 230 miles offshore, in water depths ranging from nine to more than 11,115 feet in the central Gulf of Mexico.
Federal officials estimate the region contains close to 31 billion barrels of oil and 134 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are currently undiscovered and technically recoverable.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
