See the updated comparison table in the previous BOE post.
The questions raised prior to the sale have been answered:
- Which majors will be the most active bidders? BP (50 high bids), Chevron (22), and Shell (12)
- Will former Gulf of Mexico stalwarts Exxon and Conoco Phillips participate for the first time in years? They did not.
- How many companies will submit bids? Would like that to be a number >35. Only 30 companies participated.
- How many tracts will receive bids? A number >300 would be very encouraging. Only 181 tracts received bids.
- Will the total high bids exceed $400 million? No, the total was $279.4 million.
- Will we see an increase in shelf interest? Shelf bidding continued to be limited (map). Renaissance, Byron, Arena, GOM Shelf LLC, Walter, W&T, Cantium, and WYOTEX Offshore submitted bids for shelf leases.
- Which independents will be the most active? Woodside and Murphy are large independents, and their participation was most impressive. Murphy submitted 14 high bids totaling $27.4 million. Woodside had 8 high bids including the sale’s two highest for a total of $38.1 million, second only to BP in terms of the sum of their high bids.
See the sale summary data. The top bidders list is pasted below.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 