Pursuant to section 50264(b) of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Pub. L. No. 117-169), Congress has directed BOEM to award leases to the highest valid bidders in Lease Sale 257, which was held on November 17, 2021. Consistent with this direction, BOEM has accepted 307 of the highest valid bids, totaling $189,888,271.
A total of 33 companies participated in the lease sale, generating $191,688,984 in high bids for 308 tracts covering 1.7 million acres in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. One bid was rejected for not providing the public with fair market value.
BOEM
Bottom line:
- One bid was rejected on FMV grounds.
- Exxon’s bids on 94 lease blocks adjacent to Texas, that were almost certainly for CCS purposes, were accepted. However, these are oil and gas leases issued as a result of an oil and gas lease sale, and the bids were no doubt evaluated as such. Absent prior oil and gas exploration and development on these leases, or some legal/legislative maneuvering to otherwise convert the leases, CCS operations may not be conducted.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 
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