(August 21, 2008)—Companies bid hundreds of millions of dollars to explore for oil and natural gas beneath nearly 2 million acres in the western Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Interior’s Minerals Management Service conducted the sale.

Up for grabs were 319 tracts comprised of about 1.8 million acres of offshore Texas.

More than fifty companies competed in the auction in New Orleans submitting 423 bids.

The sum of all bids received totaled $607.2 million.

The companies bid about $487.3 million to win the rights to drill 319 tracts of the Gulf.

Most of the ultra deep-water tracts, about 90 percent of the area put up for sale, didn't receive a single bite.

Irving-based Exxon Mobil posted the most winning bids. The company plans to spend $127.3 million to explore 130 tracts.

The highest bid of day, 61 million dollars, came from StatoilHydro USA, a subsidiary of the Norwegian oil giant.

Click here for the MMS - Gulf of Mexico region website.