BOEM announces results of US Gulf of Mexico lease sale

As required by the Inflation Reduction Act, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 261 on 20 December. The sale generated $382,168,507 in high bids for 311 tracts covering 1.7 million acres in federal waters of the GOM. A total of 26 companies participated in the lease sale, submitting 352 bids totaling $441,896,332.

Under a ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, BOEM included lease blocks previously excluded due to potential impacts to the Rice’s whale population from oil and gas activities in the GOM.

Lease Sale 261 offered 13,482 unleased blocks on 72.7 million acres in the Gulf’s Western, Central and Eastern Planning Areas.