Thirty oil companies, including Chevron, Shell and BP, paid the United States Department of the Interior around $279 million in bids to lease land across the Gulf of Mexico, despite pushback against the sale from Florida’s entire congressional delegation.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released information on its website about its “Big Beautiful Gulf 1 Oil and Gas Lease Sale,” which took place on December 10, 2025.
According to the Bureau’s sale day statistics, BP paid the most, buying 50 blocks of land for nearly $61 million. Chevron paid the second most, buying 22 blocks of land for around $33 million.
“Today’s lease sale is another major milestone in rebuilding American Energy Dominance by unlocking investment, strengthening our energy security, creating jobs and ensuring Americans have access to affordable and reliable energy,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum wrote in a press release about the sale.
The sale took place six days after the entire Florida congregation signed a letter asking President Donald Trump about the Department of Interior’s plans to sell land off Florida’s coast to oil companies.
In the letter, Florida senators and representatives said leasing the land to oil companies would violate Trump’s 2020 executive order barring oil and gas leasing off Florida’s coast through 2032.
They also said the lease would threaten operations by the Gulf Test Range, a military training and testing complex, and would disrupt tourism, a major part of Florida’s economy.
“The risks posed by new offshore drilling far outweigh any short-term gains,” wrote the Florida delegation.
A press release by the Department of the Interior did not address concerns about Florida’s economy, but instead cited Trump’s executive order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” saying the sale aligned with the direction to federal agencies to accelerate offshore oil and gas development.
The Department of the Interior’s website says the leasing sale is required by the One big Beautiful Bill and named every sale a “Big Beautiful [land area] Oil and Gas Lease Sale.”
The next “Big Beautiful” oil and gas leasing auctions by the Department of the Interior will offer and in the Alaska Cook Inlet and more land in the Gulf of America. The auctions are scheduled for March 2026.
