Next oil and gas lease sale for U.S. Gulf scheduled for March

(The Center Square) – The next sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of America is set for March 11, one of dozens scheduled over the next 15 years as part of President Donald Trump’s push to increase domestic oil and gas production.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by Trump in July, mandates 30 auctions in offshore waters in the Gulf and six in Alaska’s Cooks Inlet before the end of 2040.

The March sale will open more than 80 million acres on the Outer Continental Shelf, as did the first auction in the series, livestreamed from New Orleans in December.

In that sale, 30 companies submitted 219 bids totaling $372 million, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The next sale supports an executive order signed by Trump in January 2025 that directs federal agencies to accelerate offshore energy development.

The money raised in the first sale in December, when the price of oil in the U.S. was near a multi-year low of $58 per barrel, was less than the $442 million in sales seen...