Mid-Atlantic summary report 2. [Monograph]

Lease Sale 40, the first sale on the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), was held in August 1976 and followed by Lease Sale 49 in February 1979. Exploratory drilling began in March 1978 and peaked in the winter of 1978 to 1979. The last well drilled in the Mid-Atlantic was plugged in October 1981. To date, there have been 28 exploratory wells drilled, and none of them has resulted in an announced commercial discovery. Test flows of hydrocarbons have been announced for five wells. Lease Sale 59, which was held in December 1981, resulted in 51 leased tracts. All of these tracts are located in deep water, and they have 10-year lease terms. The next exploratory drilling will probably occur on Lease Sale 59 tracts in the summer of 1983. Reoffering Sale RS-2 was held in August 1982, and 18 tracts were leased in the Mid-Atlantic OCS. All of these deepwater tracts had been previously offered in Lease Sale 59. Lease Sale 76 is tentatively scheduled to be held in April 1983, and Lease Sale 111 is tentatively scheduled to be held in June 1985. The most current (July 1982) estimates of risked resources for leased lands in the Mid-Atlanticmore » Region are .125 billion barrels of oil and 1.96 trillion cubic feet of gas. 41 references, 10 figures, 4 tables.« less