Biden Begins Oil Drilling-Rights Sale in Fresh Blow to Activists

(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp., BP Plc. and other oil giants bid a combined $264 million in a Biden administration oil-drilling auction, a fresh affront to climate activists smarting from the White House’s approval of an Arctic exploration project.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• $52 Billion Chipmaking Plan Is Racing Toward Failure

• New Yorkers Are Moving to These Three Florida Cities

• $335,000 Pay for ‘AI Whisperer’ Jobs Appears in Red-Hot Market

• A $3 Trillion Threat to Global Financial Markets Looms in Japan

• US Air Force Plans to End Lockheed Hypersonic Weapon Program

The offshore sale — one of the nation’s largest ever — held by the Interior Department on Wednesday was one of several required under the Democrats’ climate law as a concession to Senator Joe Manchin to secure the bill’s passage in the Senate.

Chevron was the high bidder, offering $108 million for the rights to drill 75 tracts, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. BP won 37 bids totaling $46.6 million, while Shell Plc had 21 successful bids amounting to $20.1 million.

Climate activists including Earthjustice said the 1.7 millon-acre sale, which offered up almost all of the unspoken-for tracts in the Western and Central Gulf, was larger than required. The group filed a lawsuit to block the auction earlier this month.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

• College Students Are About to Put a Robot on the Moon Before NASA

• SVB’s Collapse Shows the World’s Favorite Safe Asset Isn’t Risk-Free

• The Triumph of UBS Is Also the Humbling of Swiss Banking

• John Wick’s Blowout Opening Lifts Lions Gate, But It Won’t Fix Starz

• The Texas Preacher’s $24 Million Ponzi Scheme

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.