Gulf oil sale nets $264M under climate compromise.

Oil companies offered a combined $264 million for drilling rights in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, in a sale mandated by last year’s climate bill compromise. Winning bids were up 38% from the last auction and marked the most received in a sale since Gulf-wide bidding resumed in 2017. Developing the Gulf leases could produce more than 1 billion barrels of oil and more than 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over 50 years, according to a government analysis.