stlhead, giving those oil exploration leases, which are sitting idle, are subsidies for the oil companies...we're giving them acess to public resources on public lands because they are supposed to be providing a public benefit.




http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23051078/

Seven companies offered bids totaling nearly $3.4 billion. High bids added up to nearly $2.7 billion on 2.76 million acres.

Shell, bidding as Shelf Gulf of Mexico Inc., submitted 275 high bids adding up to $2.1 billion. Shell bid $105 million for one tract that worked out to be $18,497 per acre.

ConocoPhillips submitted 98 high bids adding up to $506 million and competed with Shell for dozens of other. ConocoPhillips was unsuccessful on 47 tracts for which it bid $593.6 million. Shell was unsuccessful on 27 tracts for which it had bid another $82 million.

Five other companies had high bids. Repsol E&P USA Inc. had 93 high bids that added up to $14.4 million. Eni Petroleum US LLC had 17 for $8.9 million and Statoil Hydro USA E&P, Inc., had 16 high bids for $14.4 million. Iona Energy Co. (US) Limited and North American Civil Recoveries Arbitrage had one each for $61,000 and $400 respectively.