The Louisiana Superdome — the terrible former camp for Hurricane Katrina victims — will host the next Central Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Gulf of Mexico lease sales on March 19, 2008, in the first auctions under a new regime for oil companies.

The central Gulf area will be sold off in 5,000 blocks more than 28.5 million acres off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The acreage encompasses water from three metres to 3,400 metres deep.

In the East, 547,000 acres are up for grabs in water from 810 m to 3,100 m deep. The eastern plots were last available in 1988.

"Sale 224 (in the East) is the first sale where the revenue sharing provisions of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 will start immediately,” a statement said, adding that for the first time, coastal states will share in the proceeds from the sale.

Up to 1.9 billion barrels of oil and six trillion cubic feet of gas are said to be potentially at stake.

Meanwhile, royalties have shot up two percentage points to 18.75 percent and rental rates of between $6.25 and $9.50 an being included.