BP Is Top Winner of Trump’s First Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale (1)

A unit of BP Plc was the high bidder in a US auction for oil and gas drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, the first sale held under President Donald Trump’s second term. Energy companies offered more than $279 million in winning bids.

The Interior Department’s auction Wednesday was the first in the Gulf since 2023. Companies bid on 181 tracts across roughly 80 million acres of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump renamed the Gulf of America. The auction drew 219 bids and was widely viewed as a guage of industry confidence in finding ...