The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has cancelled the Gulf of Mexico seabed auction after only one participant declared itself ready to bid on one or more of the three areas on offer.

“BOEM is cancelling this sale due to lack of competitive interest,” the authority stated.

RWE was the only one of the 25 pre-qualified bidders that said it was ready to bid.

A similar instance occurred last year when an auction for three sites off the US south coast ended after less than half an hour due to only one participant, again RWE, showing interest.

Naturally, RWE won the bid and obtained 414.7km² of seabed off Louisiana for $5.6m, at a 5% discount per square metre compared with what it paid for land off New York the year before.

While there was little interest shown in the latest auction, Hecate Energy announced that it wants to buy the rights to two areas off the south coast totalling 142,352 hectares (576km²), which were not offered in the cancelled auction.

Hecate’s move defies the industry trend of snubbing the Gulf of Mexico due to poor wind conditions in the area.

BOEM’s regional director for the Gulf of Mexico, James Kendall, said: “The Gulf region benefits from excellent offshore wind resources and existing energy infrastructure. The interest from industry leaders like Hecate and RWE demonstrates the commercial potential of the region.”

However, as pointed out by Energy Watch, Hecate is not a leader in the offshore wind industry. As of yet, the US company only has two offshore wind projects in the pipeline, which are not mature enough to appear on Hecate’s own list of projects under development.

Yesterday, the Biden administration announced $48.6m of funding for offshore wind research and development projects, as the nation looks to get back on track with its 2030 offshore wind capacity targets.