Trade Association NOIA, representing America's Offshore Energy Industry, sees a postive trend in the Gulf of Mexico offshore industry

NOIA President Randall Luthi issued the following statement in advance of the forthcoming Central Gulf of Mexico Consolidated Lease Sale 216-222:

Overall, compared to the last two years, we are seeing a positive trend for the offshore industry in the Gulf of Mexico, and we are looking forward to Wednesday’s lease sale with cautious optimism.

“Not only is this the first Central Gulf of Mexico sale in two years and the last lease sale in the current five year OCS leasing plan, but the 2012-2017 plan is not yet out, so it is unclear when the next Central Gulf sale will occur.

These factors likely point to pent-up demand and interest in leases.  If you consider a few big discoveries in the Central Gulf over the past few years, such as Chevron’s Hadrian discovery and BP’s Tibor and Kaskida discoveries in deepwater and McMoran’s Davey Jones discovery in shallow water, there may be heavy interest in both deepwater and shallow water blocks.