A federal offshore lease auction in the Gulf of Mexico today netted about $275 million in winning bids, the U.S. Department of Interior says.
The agency in a news release says the high bids were for 163 tracts covering roughly 913,000 acres in the Central Planning Area of the Outer Continental Shelf off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The sale included all unleased and non-protected areas, and is the final to be held for the current five-year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. More than 48 million acres were up for auction.
“Today’s strong sale reflects continued industry optimism and interest in the Gulf’s Outer Continental Shelf, a keystone of the nation’s offshore oil and gas resources and a vital part of President (Donald) Trump’s plan to make the United States energy independent,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says in a statement.
Earlier today, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, 350 Louisiana and DisasterMap.net issued a new report that says the National Response Center, the federal point of contact for oil spills, received 479 reports about oil industry accidents in 2016.
The groups in a statement called for the cancellation of the auction, saying they were echoing the calls made on Tuesday during a rally at U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s office to protect the Gulf of Mexico.
“Sen. Cassidy and our entire congressional delegation should be leading the charge in protecting our Gulf of Mexico from an oil industry that has a terrible track record of pollution and endangerment,” says Louisiana Bucket Brigade Director Anne Rolfes in a statement. “Tourism and fishing and our restaurant industries depend on a clean Gulf of Mexico. The oil industry puts all those jobs at risk.”
In his statement, Zinke says the Trump administration is committed to responsible energy development that spurs economic opportunities, generates jobs for American workers, and produces revenues for local, state, and federal partners.
“Expanded Gulf production is critical to America’s economic and energy security, and will play a greater role as we move to break our dependence on foreign oil and strengthen the nation’s energy independence,” he says.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates the sale could result in the production of 460 million to 890 million barrels of oil, and 1.9 trillion to 3.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
