Obama Administration To Open Gulf For Drilling

Great news for the oil and gas industry!

President Obama announces a new oil and gas lease sale that will make 38-million acres in the central Gulf of Mexico available for drilling. The Interior Department estimates the sale could produce a billion barrels of oil and 4-trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association President Don Briggs says this is the first lease sale in the central Gulf since the BP oil spill.

Briggs says he's happy about the sale but, he says, it isn't really new.

Briggs says this same patch of Gulf was originally set to go on sale in March, but the date was pushed back to coincide with the President's State of the Union address.

The lease sale will be June 20th in New Orleans.