Of the 154 tracts offered, BLM received 101 bids; 93 were accepted. 

 The eight rejected bids were for tracts BLM considered more valuable 

 than the highest bid received (2,p.l). 



Lease sales for the South Atlantic OCS region were originally planned 

 by BLM for November, 1976 (14, Fig. 2), but this schedule was not met due to 

 various legal and environmental delays. Most likely, tracts will be 

 offered for sale late in 1977, after the completed Draft Environmental Impact 

 Statement has been reviewed by all parties concerned and all comments and 

 problem areas are resolved. 

 4.4 PLANNING FOR PRODUCTION 



Planning in anticipation of oil and gas production in the Mid and 



South Atlantic OCS has been carried on for many years and along several 



fronts. A typical production scenario for consideration in the planning 



process is described in (8): 



The production phase includes offshore platform construction 

 and erection; pipeline construction; more extensive develop- 

 ment drilling (sometimes as many as 40 holes per platform); 

 construction and installation of production equipment, 

 including "Christmas trees" (the complex arrangement of 

 valves that control product flow and facilitate the rework- 

 ing of a well), and other related devices on the platforms or 

 the bottom; construction of processing units offshore for 

 separating sand, water and gas from oil, and onshore for 

 stripping heavier fractions from oil; and finally, maintenance 

 operations that keep the wells flowing. It is important to 

 remember that the term "production" does not include process- 

 ing activities such as refining. 



Under normal circumstances, transportation to shore of crude oil from 

 platforms at sea takes place through pipelines. Large diameter pipe (gen- 

 erally greater than 12-inch diameter) is welded together from short sections 

 (40 feet long) on a barge and allowed to sag under its own weight to the sea 



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