Shelling out: Shell pays for US Gulf rights.
Shell leads bidding for US Gulf acreage
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell paid $153.6 million for 39 leases in the US Gulf, the most of any bidder at the sale.
The company also submitted the highest single bid, paying $65.6 million for Mississippi Canyon Block 721.
The deep-water tract (2620 feet to 5240 feet or 800 metres to 1600 metres) received two bids.
After Shell, the top buyers at the sale were: UK supermajor BP, which bid $77.1 million for 25 tracts; US giant Marathon Oil, which bid $62.4 million for 16 tracts; US independent Noble Energy, which bid $54.1 million for 22 tracts and Australian giant BHP Billiton $50.3 million for 28 tracts.
In all, US Minerals Management Service (MMS) accepted high bids totalling $690.2 million on 328 leases in the central US Gulf.
Seventy companies submitted 476 bids on 348 tracts in the sale, which was held 18 March.
Following the sale, the MMS passed each bid through a two-phase evaluation to ensure the government received fair market value for the leases.
MMS rejected high bids totalling $12.7 million on 19 tracts as below fair market value.
One successful high bidder forfeited the lease and 20% of the bid amount after deciding it no longer was interested in the tract.
A consortium of four US players: Hunt Oil, El Paso E&P, EOG Resources and CL&F Resources bid $264,000 for South Timbalier Block 182 in the shallow water Gulf and then declined to follow through on the buy, an MMS spokeswoman told UpstreamOnline.
The companies forfeited $52,836 on the bid.