The largest lease sale in American history in the offshore Gulf of Mexico yielded roughly $124.8 million in winning bids from drillers on today, a modest response to the Trump administration’s effort to pump up investment in the region, Reuters reports.
The Interior Department offered up a record 77 million acres for development with discounted royalty rates on the shallower tracts. But companies bid on just 1% of that acreage, with winning bids averaging $153 an acre—35% below levels at a similar auction last year, according to a Reuters review of the data.
Still, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which administered the auction, characterized the results as robust.
“I think we’re seeing continued consistent investment in the Gulf of Mexico,” BOEM spokesman Mike Celata said in a conference call with reporters, adding the forecast increasing oil and gas production from the region for years.
But 33 companies—including majors Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron and Total SA—had placed 159 bids on 148 blocks.
