(OILPRO) –
By Liz Tysall
View the original article on Oilpro.com.
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The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released the results from their Central OCS Lease Sale 241 held March 23rd in New Orleans.
Thirty companies submitted 148 bids totaling $179.1 million and attracting $156.4 million in high bids on 128 blocks. This was the fewest number of bids the lease sale has attracted in two decades. And the sum of the high bids (down 70% y/y) was also the fourth lowest total on record.
Eastern OCS Lease Sale 226, which was held at the same time and offered 162 blocks spanning 595,475 acres, did not receive any bids.
The highest amount bid on any single block was $13.7 million for deepwater block Mississippi Canyon 434 by a partnership of Chevron and Venari. Houston Energy and Ridgewood Energy were the most active participants for shallow blocks bidding for 21 and 16 blocks, respectively.
By comparison, Central OCS Lease Sale 235 held in March 2015 received $583.2 million in total bids from 42 companies and attracted $538.8 million in high bids on 169 blocks. The highest amount bid on any single block was $52.2 million for deepwater block Walker Ridge 107 by a partnership of Houston Energy and Red Willow Offshore.
Although company interest in the lease sale fell to 20-year lows, environmentalist interest in the event was alive and well. A group of environmental activists crashed the event, shouting over the reading of the bids in protest.
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