Visit of Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he opened, and announced high bid totals for, the Minerals Management Service-sponsored federal sales of offshore oil and natural gas leases in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico (Lease Sale 224) and the Central Gulf of Mexico (Lease Sale 206). The sales, attracting a record-setting $ billion in high bids, inaugurated a program of enhanced revenue sharing with oil and gas producing Gulf states, along with higher royalty rates.

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