U.S. oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp were among the top buyers at a federal auction of oil leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday that generated more than $190 million – the highest since 2019.

The auction was a boon for federal coffers, but a potential setback for the climate policies of U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration tried to suspend federal lease sales to fight global warming before a court forced them to proceed.

The United States was also among nearly 200 nations that adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact this month in a deal that for the first time asked governments to accelerate cuts in planet-warming emissions by limiting support for fossil fuels.

In the sale, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an arm of Biden’s Department of Interior, offered 80 million acres accounting for almost all available unleased Gulf of Mexico blocks. About 1.7 million acres were sold.

Chevron was the auction’s biggest spender with $47.1 million, followed by Anadarko, owned by Occidental Petroleum Corp., BP and Royal Dutch Shell.

Exxon rounded out the top five, snapping up nearly a third of the tracts that sold for $14.9 million, making it the biggest buyer by acreage.

One analyst said Exxon’s purchase of 94 shallow water blocks could be preparation for the company’s first carbon capture and storage project, a proposal that Exxon floated in April.

Anadarko, meanwhile, placed the highest single bid in Wednesday’s auction — more than $10 million — for a tract in the deepwater Alaminos Canyon.

 

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