This past weekend, our youngest daughter and two sons-in-law joined 20,000 others in the 54th Dallas Marathon. The three of them finished the half-marathon in near freezing weather. I was so moved by the community of thousands of volunteers and supporters, as they cheered on the brave athletes and provided water, food, and tissues.
Now, let’s dig into two pieces of energy news from across the world.
Shangyou Nie
Editor, Well Read
BP, Chevron, and Woodside Were the Top Bidders in the First U.S. Offshore Lease Sale in Two Years
Maxim Ibragimov/Shutterstock.com
BP, Chevron, and Woodside were the highest bidders among 30 companies bidding in Big Beautiful Gulf 1, the first lease sale under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The lease sale resulted in 181 tracts attracting 219 bids. The total value for the winning bids was $279.4 million— roughly $100 million less than the last lease sale of December 2023.
For the first time in a decade, companies were invited to attend the lease sale in person, and live-streaming was available for public viewing.
Lease sale results
Top bidders:
According to BOEM, 181 tracts/blocks received bids. The total number of bids was 219, with an average 1.21 bids per block.
According to BOEM, BP was the apparent winner with 51 high bids totaling $61.9 million.
Chevron was the apparent winner with 24 high bids totaling $53.1 million.
Woodside was the apparent winner with eight high bids totaling $48 million.
Rounding out the top five winners were Murphy (14 high bids, $27.4 million) and Beacon (four high bids, $20.0 million).
Key records:
The majority of the bids (168) were for blocks in water depths of 400 meters or in deepwater.
The highest single bid was Chevron’s $18.6-million bid for NG15-05 in Keathley Canyon.
Woodside offered the second and third highest single block bids ($15.2 million and $12.2 million) for Walker Ridge blocks 443 and 444.
The latest leases were offered at 12.5 percent royalty rate, the lowest deepwater royalty rate since 2007.
The bigger picture:
Thirty Gulf leases and six in Alaska’s Cook Inlet are planned under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Last month, the Department of Interior proposed opening 34 offshore lease sales, including 21 in Alaska, six along the Pacific Coast, and seven in Gulf of Mexico (America).
Offshore areas from Florida and Alabama were included for the first time in three decades, according to Bloomberg.
The fishing and tourism industries, as well as environmental groups, have long expressed opposition against opening the west coast of Florida for oil exploration.
The lower total high bids in this lease sale might reflect a lower oil environment.
From 1 September–30 November 2025, Brent price averaged $65/barrel. It averaged $89/barrel from the 1 September–30 November 2023.
What they’re saying:
“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,” said Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior.
“This lease sale continued the infrastructure-led exploration approach taken by many companies, especially near the recent/future 20K production hubs around Anchor, Shenandoah, and Sparta,” said one unnamed representative whose company competed in the latest lease round.
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TotalEnergies Won the Prized Bid to Join Galp in Namibia
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Portuguese energy company Galp Energia announced it has chosen French major TotalEnergies to join the appraisal and development program for the billion-barrel Mopane oil discovery in Namibia’s Petroleum Exploration License 83. TotalEnergies will assume operatorship for the block and claim 40 percent equity.
TotalEnergies will cover half of Galp’s investment costs for exploration, appraisal, and development in Mopane.
In an asset swap, Galp will acquire 10 percent equity in PEL 56, with the Venus discovery, and a 9.4 percent in PEL 91—both operated by TotalEnergies.
There is no mention of cash payment for TotalEnergies to enter PEL 83, though the deal implied a roughly $2.5 -billion valuation for PEL 83, according to Upstream.
The transaction is subject to approvals by existing partners and the Namibia government. It’s expected to close in early 2026.
Post-deal:
The new ownership for PEL 83 will include TotalEnergies and Galp (40 percent each), Custos Energy (10 percent), and state company Namcor (10 percent).
TotalEnergies and partners plan to drill at least three exploration and appraisal wells in 2026 and 2027 to establish a “development hub” around the Mopane discovery.
PEL 56 will have equity owners TotalEnergies (operator, 35.25 percent percent), QatarEnergy (35.25 percent), Galp (10 percent), Impact (9.5 percent), and state company Namcor (10 percent).
In PEL 56, TotalEnergies said that it is “fully committed to the development of the Venus discovery” and working toward a final investment decision in 2026.
Venus will have a capacity of 160,000 barrels of oil per day, using a FPSO.
PEL 91 will have equity owners TotalEnergies (operator, 33.09 percent), Qatar Energies (33.03 percent), Impact (9.5 percent), Galp (9.39 percent), and Namcor (15 percent).
To enable Galp entries into the two TotalEnergies operated blocks, QatarEnergy had to reduce its holdings in both blocks. It was not known what QatarEnergy may have obtained in return for these concessions.
Activity in Namibia:
Namibia has been one of the most exciting exploration areas for the industry, with large deepwater oil and gas discoveries by TotalEnergies, Galp, Shell, and others.
Despite the discoveries of multiple billion barrels of oil in place, the challenging reservoir conditions have forced Shell to write off hundreds of millions in exploration expenditures.
The Mopane oil discovery is closer to the Namibia coastline and located about 100 kilometers to the northeast of the Venus oil discovery.
According to Bloomberg, the Namibian government is considering introducing additional fiscal incentives to enable faster development of its discovered oil resources.
In the meantime, according to Justin Cochrane, technical research associate director for upstream Africa intelligence at S&P Global, African independent explorer ReconAfrica announced that its Kavango West-1X well has detected 400 meters of gross pay through wireline logs.
The wildcat is located in PEL 73, in an onshore basin near the border between Angola and Namibia.
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