Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Biden administration oil, gas auctions kick off with thin industry response

Published 06/29/2022, 04:26 PM
Updated 06/29/2022, 06:16 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021. Paul Ellis/Pool via REUTERS

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021. Paul Ellis/Pool via REUTERS

By Nichola Groom

(Reuters) -The Biden administration's first sale of oil and gas drilling rights on federal land garnered thin industry interest on Wednesday while environmental groups filed two separate lawsuits seeking to invalidate the results.

The sales, which will continue on Thursday and cover eight states, were viewed as a test of oil industry demand for federal acreage amid soaring fuel prices and calls from President Joe Biden to increase domestic output.

The first day of bidding on 120,000 acres in Wyoming wrapped up with no bids on more than a third of the 105 parcels offered, according to online auction platform EnergyNet. Of the $12.5 million in high bids generated on Wednesday, $8.9 million was for a single 1,480-acre parcel in Converse County.

An additional 17 parcels in Wyoming will be put up for sale on Thursday. Names of the bidders have not yet been released.

A drilling industry group blamed the limited interest on policies that have made oil and gas development on federal lands more difficult, such as higher royalties on production and Biden administration efforts to stop new leasing.

Biden's Interior Department had attempted to suspend the federal oil and gas leasing program to study its environmental and climate impacts but was blocked by a federal judge.

"After observing new obstacles to federal development, including the leasing ban and litigation, companies may have decided it’s just not worth the additional time, cost, and risk," Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said in an emailed statement.

The Interior Department's planned sales this week will resume on Thursday. More than 90% of the acreage is in Wyoming, a major oil producing state, while the rest are sprinkled across Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah.

A coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, sought to invalidate the sales by suing the Biden administration as the Wyoming lease sale started on Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington D.C., alleges that Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the law by failing to adequately analyze the sales' impact on climate change.

"BLM continues to recklessly lease large swaths of the western United States to oil and gas development without comprehensively reviewing these connected actions and analyzing the severity of the resulting climate impacts from the addition of thousands of tons of (greenhouse gas) emissions into the atmosphere," the groups said in the complaint.

A second lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of Friends of the Earth and the Wilderness Society in a case specific to the Wyoming sale.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021. Paul Ellis/Pool via REUTERS

Interior has said it was proceeding with the sales because of the previous court order blocking its attempted suspension, but with sharply diminished acreage and steeper royalties than auctions held by previous administrations.

Western Energy Alliance said the latest lawsuits were baseless because federal law "specifies that oil and natural gas is one of the primary uses of public lands."

Latest comments

liberals now suing each other. undisciplined babies can never be pleased. living in a world of overgrown children fighting over ideas they don't even understand.
The industry is not going to produce more to hurt their margin. It is a chance of a decade that energy prices are driven by external factors while cost of operation doesn't change much, why pump more to hurt your own margin and reserve underground? Makes no sense, and politically the industry won't make effort to lower energy price while democrats are in control. Any effort to lower inflation or energy price will be hurting Republicans chance at midterm. The industry need republican and it needs to help republicans on talking points.
there is a price where their greed will take over!
what are you doing here unless you too are a but greedy?
 it's not greed, it's just personal interest. politicians drives green initiative for their buddies in the industry, republican love traditional energy cuz their buddies in the industry. if the price of pump is set inaccurately as we have seen in recent news, people line up take all the advantage they could. Greed is everywhere, so it's not like it's greed, it's just human nature. companies don't care about its employee during layoff just as employees don't volunteer to pay reduction during hard time instead they look for new jobs. lol. it's just self interest everywhere which is a part of humanity.
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.