GoM lease sale draws mixed reviews

Aug. 21’s Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 253 in New Orleans generated more than $159M in high bids for 151 tracts covering 835,000 acres in federal waters. Twenty-seven companies participated in the lease sale, submitting about $175M in bids. The total from the lease sale, and in March, is the “highest since 2015 for high bids,” Interior Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Andrea Travnicek, said in a statement. The lease-sale included 14,585 unleased blocks, located from three to 231 miles offshore, in the Gulf’s Western, Central and Eastern planning areas in water depths from nine to more than 11,115 feet. “The Gulf of Mexico is the crown jewel of our nation’s energy portfolio,” Mike Celata, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s New Orleans office, said in a statement. “As one of the most productive basins in the world, the development of its resources (is) essential to the nation’s energy security,” he stated. The somewhat modest results of the lease sale “reflect the cautiously optimistic attitude of an offshore industry still in recovery,” said National Ocean Industries Association VP Nicolette Nye. (Source: Work Boat 08/22/19)