The highest-profile happening was a new offshore petroleum lease sale — announced last Tuesday by the Department of Interior. It will make available the largest swath of drilling acreage ever seen in such a bid round. The Department of Interior said that Lease Sale 250 — scheduled for March 2018 — will offer 76,967,935 acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Making it the largest area ever included for bidding in the history of the U.S. industry. All told, a full 14,375 blocks will be made available — including shallow- and deep-water projects. This makes this sale a key gauge of ongoing interest in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which has been one of the world’s most active offshore plays the last few decades. And the opportunities in U.S. resources don’t stop there. Big openings are also coming in the […]