BP, Woodside and Chevron are big winners at Gulf of Mexico oil and gas auction

BP, Woodside Energy and Chevron were the top winners on Wednesday at the US government's first sale of oil and gas drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico since 2023, reports Reuters.

The auction, which ended with $279.4 million in high bids, was the first of 30 mandated by US President Donald Trump's tax cut and spending bill, which he signed into law in July.

The sale generated about $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.

The Trump administration's plans for regular offshore leasing are a significant departure from that of former President Joe Biden, whose administration had planned for a historically small number of oil and gas auctions as part of an effort to move away from fossil fuels and address climate change.

Administration officials attributed the drop in bidding from oil companies compared to the last sale, which was during the Biden era, to the predictable schedule the Interior Department was implementing.

"They are not pressed to come in all at once," Laura Robbins, acting director of the Gulf region for the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said at an online press conference following the sale. "We feel like this was a very successful sale."

BOEM said 30 companies submitted a total of 219 bids on 1.02 million acres, about 1.3 per cent of the acreage offered. Just 30 blocks received more than one bid.

BP was the high bidder on 50 tracts, according to sale documents, followed by Chevron with 22, Murphy Exploration & Production with 14, and Shell and Repsol each with 12 high bids.