A handful of companies bucked the industry downturn to spend $22.67 million on US Gulf leases this week, taking advantage of a depressed market to swoop for 33 mostly deep-water blocks.
Only five explorers came to play in Sale 246, including US independent Anadarko and UK supermajor BP, a record-low turnout even for the typically smaller Western Gulf sale.
The participation was the lowest of any Western or Central US Gulf sale since regulators began holding area-wide rounds in 1983, officials with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said.
It
