Where are the bidders for Drill Here ?

To have an auction, you need at least two bidders … to have a good auction, you need two idiots … two bidders that “must have” the item to get maximum price.

But what if you have an auction, and the bidders don't participate ...

As previously mentioned, August 20th would be the first auction since the Republicans started their “Drill now, Drill here” charade, and the results are not good.

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) lease sale resulted in 53 companies submitting 423 bids on 319 tracts comprising over 1.8 million acres offshore Texas.

Assuming that all tracts got a bid, it does not reflect active bidding as most tracts would have received only one bid.
Collusion is always a concern … (I’ll bid on this tract and you bid on that tract) … but that would be only speculation at this point. That’s why that each high bid on a tract will go through an evaluation process within MMS to ensure the public receives fair market value before a lease is awarded.

The highest bid received on a tract was $61,110,000, submitted by Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC for Alaminos Canyon, Block 380.
A unit of Norway's Statoil ASA oil company spent nearly $286,000 to lobby the U.S. federal government in the first quarter of the year after spending $600,000 during 2007.

The Republican’s antics have resulted in suppressing bidding activity as the drillers have a shortage of rigs and personnel and anticipate more lease tracts being opened in the future.

One caveat that Rigzone mentions : “But even after a company invests up to a billion dollars or more in a lease during pre-production activities and spends several years engaged in multiple inspections, reviews, and strict government oversight, there's a very real possibility that no amount of oil or natural gas will be found or produced.”