The Interior Department has reinstated the highest valid bids from a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil and gas auction held in November, opening the way for expanding production from the offshore.

GOM lease map

Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Wednesday accepted 307 high bids from Lease Sale 257, totaling close to $190 million. 

The only federal auction held in 2021 was invalidated in February by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras of the District of Columbia (No. 1:21-cv-02317-RC). Contreras said BOEM, which oversees the Outer Continental Shelf sales, “acted arbitrarily in excluding foreign consumption from its emissions analysis.” The auction had relied on an outdated analysis that was completed by the Trump administration, he noted.

[Want to visualize Henry Hub,...