Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Gulf of Mexico wind auction’

Surprisingly weak Gulf of Mexico wind lease sale

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , on August 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Only 1 of the 3 tracts was sold, and the amount bid was a modest $5.6 million. Given the extensive lease sale planning and promotion, this would seem to be a rather embarrassing outcome.

RWE Offshore US Gulf LLC won the Lake Charles tract. Neither of the 2 Galveston tracts received bids. RWE’s headquarters are located in Essen, Germany.

By comparison, the 5 California offshore wind leases, each of which is smaller and in far deeper water than the GoM tracts, received bids of $130 to 173 million. These leases were sold in December 2022. Smaller Atlantic wind tracts have also received much higher bids. State mandates and subsidies no doubt contributed to the inflated bidding in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Read Full Post »

Good work by BOEM in siting the Gulf of Mexico wind leases, but their analysis misidentifies 94 oil and gas leases

Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , on July 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

BOEM’s Final Sale Notice for the upcoming Gulf of Mexico wind auction identifies 3 lease areas (see map below). Wind operations in these areas should not significantly conflict with other GoM activities, including oil and gas operations.

Those who followed Exxon’s recent lease acquisitions may be amused by the map below from BOEM’s siting analysis document. The 94 Exxon leases acquired at Oil and Gas Lease Sale 257 (yellow blocks) are misidentified as “Carbon Capture Lease Blocks.” As has been discussed at length on this blog (most recently here), Sales 257 and 259 were oil and gas lease sales. Although Exxon’s intentions are now well known, they may not conduct carbon sequestration operations on these leases unless they are competitively reissued or converted. (Is BOEM’s siting document implying that conversion of the Exxon leases is a fait accompli?) The regulations for such conversions, and for CCS operational activities, have yet to be promulgated. A draft of these regulations is expected later this year, and the comments should be spirited and diverse.

Read Full Post »