NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Oil and gas companies bid on about 1 percent of the Gulf of Mexico waterbottom offered in what the Trump administration has been calling the biggest offshore lease sale in U.S. history.
The government says 33 companies made $124.8 million in high bids Wednesday on 148 offshore tracts.
That’s up slightly from August, when 27 companies submitted $121.1 million in high bids on 90 tracts. That sale was the first since 1983 to offer all available Gulf acreage.
It offered 73 million acres (29 million hectares) compared to Wednesday’s 77 million acres (31 million hectares).
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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says 43 bids Wednesday were for tracts in shallow water less than 200 meters (218 yards) deep, up from about 10 in August. Regional director Michael Celata (suh-LAH-tuh) says royalty rates for such tracts were reduced very close to the August bidding deadline.