BP, Chevron among biggest winners in first U.S. Gulf oil lease sale in Trump term
Energy companies offered more than $279 million in winning bids Wednesday at the U.S. government's first sale of oil and gas drilling rights in the U.S. Gulf since 2023, led by BP ( BP), which offered nearly $61 million for 50 successful bids.
BP was followed by Woodside Energy ( WDS), which offered $38 million for eight successful bids, and Chevron ( CVX), with 22 successful bids totaliing $33 million, the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management reported.
The auction's highest bid was nearly $18.6 million, from Chevron ( CVX) for a block in the Keithley Canyon deepwater area, and the second highest was a $15.2 million joint bid from Woodside Energy ( WDS) and Repsol ( REPYF) ( REPYY) for a block in the Walker Ridge area.
The sale generated ~$100 million less in high bids than the last Gulf lease sale in 2023, but oil companies bid more per acre than at any government auction in the region since 2017, according to a Reuters analysis of the sale results.
Officials attributed the drop in bidding compared to the last sale to the predictable new schedule implemented by the Trump administration, compared to the Biden era's historically small number of auctions as part of an effort to move away from fossil fuels.
Oil companies "are not pressed to come in all at once," the acting director of the Gulf region for the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said after the sale. "We feel like this was a very successful sale."
President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act mandates 30 Gulf lease sales and requires six more in Alaska's Cook Inlet, and draft plans unveiled last month call for holding 34 additional sales, including new areas off the coasts of California, Alaska and Florida. |
