Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

U.S. To Sell Area the Size of New Mexico For Offshore Drilling Just 5 Days After COP26

Newsweek

• 80 million acres is the total area in the Gulf of Mexico that is open for possible leasing in Sale 257. The area receiving bids will be only a small fraction of that.
• In the previous sale (256), which was almost exactly one year ago, the same area was open for sale and only 0.6% of that area received bids. Only 93 of the nearly 15,000 tracts offered received bids. 7 of the high bids were rejected, so only 86 new leases were issued.
• There are currently only 2,027 active GoM leases (10.8 million acres), less than half the number that existed in 1/2016 (4460) and less than 1/3 the number that existed in the beginning of 2011.
• US offshore leases are among the smallest in the world, only a fraction of the sized of those offered by most other nations with offshore oil and gas programs.
• Modern deepwater development is noteworthy for high production from very few platforms. Only 57 surface facilities account for more than 90% of current GoM oil production.