"These are clearly uncertain times, with COVID-19 and the low oil price," Celata stated. "I'm happy, provided everything that has actually occurred, at the size of the sale. The Gulf has a long future [for oil production]" Expectations for the sale were dim because of reduced worldwide oil demand and low oil prices triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Back in the 2014 period, we utilized to have billion-dollar auctions," Yahya said. "We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here." There were Official Info Here positioned during the Wednesday auction a recovery from March when just 84 were positioned, however below 165 in August of 2019. The greatest bids were placed by subsidiaries of European oil business Royal Dutch Shell, Equinor and BP, all of which positioned more than $17 million in quotes, with Shell spending the most on Wednesday at $28 million.
A handful of Texas energy business, consisting of a subsidiary of Murphy Oil, which just recently said it would transfer its headquarters to Houston from Arkansas, made smaller deals. Murphy positioned $5. 3 million in quotes. Agency authorities declined to comment during an interview on whether holding the lease sale was encouraged by the incoming Biden administration's stance on leasing federal lands and waters for oil production.
This auction had been pressed back from August, officials stated, due to COVID-19 (although Yahya stated the delay was likely an effort to wait for oil costs to support following the governmental election). "Without commenting on proposed policy by inbound administration authorities, our lease blocks are offered lot of times," stated Kate Mac, Gregor, deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior.
reliance on more carbon-intensive coal-fired power plants. "A budget friendly and reputable energy supply is important to a strong America," Staples said. Ecological groups criticized the lease sale as a last-ditch effort by the Trump administration to favor the oil and gas market rather of moving to transition the U.S. to kinds of energy that are less carbon-intensive.
"This lease sale is putting fuel on the flames of environment change," said Emma Pabst, a worldwide warming options advocate with Environment Texas. "It's steadily burning through what little time we have delegated act." Disclosure: BP America,.
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