HOUSTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips submittedthe highest bid on a single tract on Wednesday for drillingrights in the western Gulf of Mexico lease sale, which attractedthe second-lowest number of bids since 1983, regulators said.
The Houston-based global exploration and production company,which operates a single oil and gas platform in the Gulf, paid$30.58 million for rights to explore and drill in a tract about200 miles south of Galveston, Texas.
Overall, 12 companies submitted 61 bids on 53 tractstotaling $144.7 million, according to the U.S Bureau of OceanEnergy Management, which approves leases for oil and gasproducers to operate in the Gulf. Of those bids, $102.35 millionwere high bids, while $42.3 million were unsuccessful.
The tract that ConocoPhillips won with the highest bid isnearly 60 miles northeast of Royal Dutch Shell's Perdido platform, the newest in the Gulf, which started up aboutthree weeks before BP Plc's Macondo oil spill in 2010.
BP cannot obtain new federal contracts, including new leasesin the Gulf, under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banissued last November. The company was not among the dozen thatsubmitted bids for Wednesday's sale.
Earlier this month, BP, the largest leaseholder in the Gulfand second-biggest oil producer behind Shell, sued the U.S.government in hopes of convincing a judge to lift the ban. The ban does not affect BP's existing leases.
John Rodi, regional director of the Gulf of Mexico for theBureau of Ocean Energy Management, said on Wednesday that the"relatively low" number of bidders illustrates how companiesincreasingly buy fewer leases in targeted areas as technology togauge how much oil might be there improves.
Baird Oil and Gas Research said in a note to investors thatreduced bidding likely came after "artificially high" demandafter the BP spill, which delayed lease sales to late 2011.
ConocoPhillips submitted the top sum of high bids inWednesday's sale at $50.3 million, followed by Chevron Corp at $32.8 million, Maersk with $6.8 millionand Shell with $4.2 million.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp had the most unsuccessfulbids at $18.1 million. The company submitted $1.7 million inhigh bids.
