Thread by @bstorrow

US offshore wind leasing, a brief history.

2015: 2 bidders for 2 leases. Combined winning bids $448,171
2016: 6 bidders, 1 lease. Winning bid $42 million
2018: 11 bidders, 3 leases. Combined bids $405 million.
2022 (so far): 25 bidders, 6 leases. Combined bids of $728 million

One lease, OCS-539, is now valued at $275 million. It still has three bidders.

It has 114,277 developable acres, power capacity of 1,387MW and is 32 miles to New Jersey.

It is the purple lease on this map.

Never mind. 20 minutes passed. 539 is now valued at $300 million.

Still two bidders.

You can follow the live results here. (Updated about ever y 20 minutes)

Two other leases (537 and 538) have now each surpassed the previous record of $135 million, and are valued at $164 million and $184 million, respectively.

It is starting to feel possible that this lease sale will eclipse $1 billion.

Lease 537 ($164M) has three bidders, 539 ($300M) has 2 bidders, 541 ($127M) has 5 bidders. 538 ($184M) has one bidder, as does 544 ($22M)

3:30 p.m. update. Closing in on $1 billion
539: $315M, 2 bidders
537: $189M, 2 bidders
538: $184M, 3 bidders
541: $152M, 2 bidders
542: $28M, 2 bidders
544: $22M, 3 bidders.

Here's the thing. People aren't dropping out. At Round 16, BOEM still has 14 bidders. That is the same as Round 1. Rules are one company can bid on one lease per round.
539: $350M, 3 bidders
538: $230M, 2 bidders
537: $214M, 1 bidder
541: $202M, 3 bidders
542: 63M, 3 bidders

544 has one bidder. Price is almost $50 million

4:30 update. Round 17. The culling of the herd has begun. 11 bidders. 3 have dropped out. The six leases have combined bids worth $1.2 billion. 539 has 2 bidders and is at $375 million

4:30 correction. Bad reporter math. We have 13 bidders. Only one has dropped.

4:50 p.m. Still 13 bidders. $1.3 billion in combined bids. Leases 542 and 544 now heating up.

542 is at $135 million with four bidders. 544 has one bidder at $75.

Right now what we're seeing are bidders moving around. Let's take Lease 539. In Round 16, it had 4 bids at price of $350 million. In Round 18, it has one bid at $390 million.

538 ($250M)and 542 ($135M) are where the action is now. Each has 4 bidders.

5:10, Round 19. Lot of movement.

Once again, we have 4 bidders on 539 at $390 million.

542, which had 4 bidders in the previous round, has 1 at $155 million.

Still 13 bidders for 6 leases. No end in sight.

BOEM to decide shortly on when to recess until the a.m.

Graphic representation (forgive the bad photoshop skills) of where we are after Round 19.

5:30 update. BOEM say auction will recess at 6 p.m. and resume tomorrow at 9 a.m.

Right now, lease 539 is valued at $410 million. Has one bidder.

We still have 13 bidders for 6 leases. Each lease is now worth at least $100 million.