The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced the region-wide Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 257 has yielded more than $93m in high bids.
According to the agency within the US Department of the Interior (DOI), a total of 33 companies took part in the lease sale.
Under the lease sale 257, the agency offered nearly 15,148 unleased blocks that are located from three to 231 miles (371.7km) offshore, in the Gulf’s Western, Central and Eastern Planning Areas.
The blocks are in water depths ranging from nine to more than 11,115ft (three to 3,400m).
The BOEM stated: “Today’s sale was consistent with a U.S. District Court’s preliminary injunction, while the government appeals the decision. The Biden-Harris administration is continuing its comprehensive review of its offshore and onshore oil and gas leasing programs and initiating reforms.
“Moving forward, BOEM will use updated greenhouse gas emission models to take substitution impacts and foreign oil consumption into account, resulting in the most robust projections ever of the climate impacts of offshore lease sales, as well as analyzing the social cost of carbon to better understand the true impacts of fossil fuel leasing decisions.”
Lease sale 257 is the eighth offshore sale conducted under the 2017-2022 National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
The programme includes 10 region-wide lease sales with two lease sales to be undertaken annually.
The blocks excluded in the lease sale 257 include those which are subject to the congressional moratorium established by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006.
Under the lease sale 256, which was announced by the BOEM in October last year, nearly 14,755 unleased blocks were offered in the Gulf of Mexico.
It yielded more than $120m in high bids for 93 tracts spread over 517,733 acres in federal waters.
