The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held its first offshore lease sale under the Trump administration’s expanded leasing program on December 10, 2025, generating $300.4 million in high bids for blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, with the highest average price per acre since 2017.
Sale Results
The Big Beautiful Gulf 1 lease sale attracted 30 companies that submitted 219 bids totaling $371.9 million across approximately 80 million acres of federal waters. BOEM accepted high bids on 181 blocks, representing about 1 million acres of the total area offered.
BP led all bidders with $61 million in total bids, followed by Australia’s Woodside Energy at $38 million and Chevron at $33 million. Murphy Exploration & Production Company placed fourth with $27.4 million in bids.
Expanded Leasing Program
The lease sale is the first of 30 planned for the Gulf of Mexico through 2040 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf contains an estimated 29.59 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 54.84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
BOEM set the royalty rate at 12.5 percent—the minimum permitted by statute—for both shallow and deepwater leases to encourage industry participation.
“When you are setting that level of certainty, they know they don’t have to come all at once,” said Laura Robbins, BOEM’s acting regional director, explaining the measured bidding activity relative to the large acreage offering.
Industry Response
The scheduled series of 30 lease sales provides regulatory predictability that the offshore industry has sought, according to the National Ocean Industries Association. The next Gulf of Mexico lease sale is scheduled for March 26, 2026.
Environmental Concerns
Environmental groups criticized the expanded leasing program. The Center for Biological Diversity noted that the Gulf already contains thousands of oil rigs and pipelines, while Oceana warned that the lease sale “will recklessly open millions of acres of our ocean to drilling and spilling.”
Certain areas were excluded from the lease sale, including blocks withdrawn on September 8, 2020, blocks beyond the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone in the Eastern Gap, and areas within the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
