Washington (Platts)--25Oct2012/355 pm EDT/1955 GMT

The Obama administration on Thursday released the final details of a western Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas lease sale planned for November.

The lease sale, scheduled for November 28 in New Orleans, will cover 20.8 million acres off the coast of Texas, according to the US Department of the Interior.

The sale will include 3,873 blocks located between nine and 250 miles off the coast of Texas in depths of 16 to more than 10,975 feet, according to the announcement.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates the lease sale could result in production of as much as 200 million barrels of oil and 938 Bcf of natural gas.

The lease sale follows a 21 million acre western Gulf lease sale in December 2011 and a 39 million acre central Gulf sale in June.

The lease sale in the western Gulf netted $325 million in high bids. The June sale took in total apparent high bids of $1.7 billion, making it the fourth-largest central Gulf auction in the 30-year history of area-wide leasing, according to the BOEM.

Another central Gulf lease sale for 38 million acres is scheduled for March 20, 2013.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar highlighted next month's lease sale as part of President Obama's "all-of-the-above" energy policy.

"Exploration and development of our western Gulf's vital energy resources will continue to help power our nation and drive our economy," Salazar said.

--Brian Scheid, brian_scheid@platts.com --Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, keiron_greenhalgh@platts.com

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