The world’s biggest oil companies preferred to bid on areas close to existing infrastructure and largely stayed out of unexplored acreage in last month’s lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which drew bids on just 1 percent of the total area up for grabs, despite the U.S. Administration touting it as the largest oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history. The lease sale offered 77.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico comprised of 14,431 blocks. The number of blocks that received bids was 148—just 1 percent of the blocks offered. The sum of high bids was US$124.8 million, with bids totaling US$139 million. The top companies based on the total number of high bids submitted ranked as follows: BP, Chevron, Shell, Total, and Hess Corporation, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said. In terms of the single highest bids, Total led the ranking, followed by […]