The Federal onshore oil and gas program was always secondary to the offshore program, at least in the opinion of those of us who worked in the offshore program 😉. That was before the shale era revolutionized US energy production.
The onshore program is now free to flex 💪 following recent sale results, most notably last week’s impressive BLM New Mexico sale that featured the Delaware Basin. See the attachment for details.
The table below compares the last two Big Beautiful Gulf sales and the record 2008 Gulf of Mexico sale with the BLM NM sale. Most astonishing is the record $357,129 per acre bid for a single NM tract. Devon Energy, which exited the Gulf in 2010, was the mega-bidder acquiring 24 tracts for $2.6 billion! (Devon is still bogged down in the Hogan/Houchin decommissioning dispute in the Pacific, a case which should temper enthusiasm for relaxed lease assignment and financial assurance policies.)
The attractiveness of the Permian, Delaware, and similar onshore basins has been greatly enhanced by vastly improved drilling and well completion technology. The short lead times to first production are a big advantage relative to offshore development.
The total high bids for Gulf Sale 206, which dwarfed the BBG1 and 2 sales, are still a Federal oil and gas leasing record when converted to 2026 dollars, but the sale area was much larger than for the NM sale.
| Sale | date | tracts bid on | acres bid on | total high bids | highest bid/acre |
| BLM NM | 5/20/2026 | 74 | 33,529 | $4,007,609,288 | $357,129 |
| BBG2 | 3/11/2026 | 25 | 140,753 | $46,976,423 | $3,647.57 |
| BBG1 | 12/10/2025 | 181 | 1,023,526 | $300,425,222 | $3,227.79 |
| 206 | 7/21/2008 | 615 | 3,323,047 | $3,677,688,245 ($5.7 million in 2026 dollars) | $18,333.47 ($28,300 in 2026 dollars) |
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 