Although no one was expecting a barnburner only 3 months after the previous sale, BBG2 was historically weak for a Gulf-wide sale. The table below compares BBG2 with the previous 4 Gulf sales, none of which were particularly impressive.
However, the sale was not without highlights. There was some spirited bidding for tracts in the Green Canyon area. BP’s bid was the highest of 5 for GC Block 404. BP bid $21 million for the block, 45% of the high bids sum for the entire sale. The BP bid was also $20 million higher than the next highest bid for that tract (ouch!).
Also interesting was Chevron edging Shell $5,887,188.00 to $5,501,240.00 to acquire GC Block 492.
| Sale No. | 257 | 259 | 261 | BBG1 | BBG2 |
| date | 11/17/2021 | 3/29/2023 | 12/20/2023 | 12/10/2025 | 3/11/2026 |
| companies participating | 33 | 32 | 26 | 30 | 13 |
| total bids | 2233 | 2842 | 3161 | 219 | 38 |
| tracts receiving bids | 2143 | 2442 | 2751 | 181 | 25 |
| sum of all bids $millions | 198.5 | 309.8 | 441.9 | 371.9 | 69.9 |
| sum of high bids ($millions) | 101.7 | 263.8 | 382.2 | 279.4 | 47.0 |
| highest bid company block | $10,001,252 Anadarko AC 259 | $15,911,947 Chevron KC 96 | $25,500,085 Anadarko MC 389 | $18,592,086 Chevron KC 25 | $21,009,990 bp GC 404 |
| most high bids company sum ($millions) | 46 bp 29.0 | 75 Chevron 108.0 | 65 Shell 69.0 | 50 bp 61.0 | 6 Anadarko (Oxy) 4.0 |
| sum of high bids ($millions) company | 47.1 Chevron | 108 Chevron | 88.3 Hess | 61.0 bp | 22.6 bp |
| most high bids by independent | 14-DG Expl. | 13-Beacon 13-Red Willow | 22-Red Willow | 14-Murphy | 5-LLOG |
For historical comparison purposes, Gulf Sale 206 drew $3.7 billion ($5.6 billion in today’s dollars) in 2008. Twenty-siz sales between 1972 and 2013 garnered more than $1 billion in high bids.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 