US Gulf of Mexico rights sale draws $279m in bids from oil majors

BOEM said 30 companies submitted a total of 219 bids on 1.02 million acres, about 1.3 per cent of the acreage offered. BP was the most frequent bidder, according to sale documents, followed by Chevron and Shell.

Other top bidders included Anadarko, LLOG Exploration Offshore, Talos Energy and Murphy Exploration Production.

The auction’s highest bid was nearly $18.6 million, from Chevron, for a block in the Keithley Canyon deepwater area. The second highest was a joint bid of $15.2 million from Woodside Energy Deepwater and Repsol for a block in the Walker Ridge area.