GoM lease sale generates $121M

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced the region-wide Gulf of Mexico lease sale generated $121,143,055 in high bids for 90 tracts covering 508,096 acres in federal waters of the GoM. A total of 27 companies participated in the sale, submitting 99 bids totaling $137,006,181. The sale offered the largest amount of acreage in the history of the federal offshore program in the GoM, including parcels offshore Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. “The path to American energy dominance starts in the Gulf, and the hard work of rig and platform workers, support staff onshore, and the industries that support them cannot go unnoticed,” said Zinke. Lease Sale 249 was live-streamed from New Orleans. (Source: US Interior Department 08/16/17) The Associated Press described the GoM lease-sale as "tepid".