Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 248 yields just $18 million in high bids

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said Wednesday that Lease Sale 248 garnered just $18,067,020 in high bids for 24 tracts covering 138,240 acres in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area.

According to BOEM, a total of three offshore energy companies participated in 24 bids. The sum of all bids received totaled $18,067,020. The last auction covering the western portion of the Gulf, Lease Sale 246 in August 2015, drew $22,675,212 in high bids, whereas Lease Sale 238, held in August 2014, yielded $110 million in high bids.  

“Though this sale reflects today’s market conditions and industry’s current development strategy, the bidding confirms that there is continued interest in the deepwater areas of the Gulf,” BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper said.

Wednesday’s auction is the eleventh Gulf of Mexico offshore sale and the final one for the Western Planning Area, under the Obama Administration’s Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017.

In this sale, BOEM offered 23.8 million acres in federal waters offshore Texas for oil and gas exploration and development. The sale included approximately 4,399 blocks, located from nine to 250 nautical miles offshore, in water depths ranging from 16 ft to more than 10,975 ft.