By Upstream staff
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell topped the bidding in today’s sale of federal oil and gas leases in the central Gulf of Mexico, offering $90.5 million for Walker Ridge Block 7, the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) said.
Shell also topped the stakes in the value of high bids submitted, with $554.6 million offered on 69 bids, followed by US supermajor Chevron with $283.4 million bid on 44 tracts. Gulf players Marathon Oil, Cobalt Energy and Murphy Oil were also in the top five bidders by value.
However, UK supermajor BP recorded the most wins, with 83 bids submitted with a total value of $107 million dollars. Shell, Cobalt and Chevron were also in the top five along with Nexen Petroleum.
The MMS said today’s sale, Lease Sale 205 held in New Orleans, attracted $2.9 million in high bids, the second highest total in US history, as energy players wrestled for a stake of the action in the US’s premier producing region.
It said 1428 bids were received for 723 tracts, with the total value of all bids – winning and losing – hitting almost $5.3 billion.
The service said 5359 tracts were on offer today covering about 28.7 million acres off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It said about 40% of the tracts receiving bids were in ultra-deepwater below 1600 metres.
The deepest tract to receive a bid was for Amery Terrace Block 206 in 3398 metres of water.
“MMS expected the deep-water and ultra-deepwater areas of the central Gulf to receive a high level of interest in this sale,” said MMS Director Randall Luthi. “The progress being made both in terms of discoveries and advanced technology provide incentive for operators to explore these frontier areas.”
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03 October 2007 21:41 GMT | last updated: 03 October 2007 21:41 GMT
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
