Shell has bid highest and deepest for the 27 blocks offered in the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lease Sale No. 205, the first central Gulf of Mexico auction, according to auctioneer, the Minerals Management Service.

The Anglo-Dutch multinational bid on the deepest Gulf tract at Block 206’s Amery Terrace in 3,398 metres of water. Shell Offshore also bid highest for a tract — the $90,488,445 it offered for Walker Ridge in Block 7 — the highest of its 94 bids that totalled $647 million.

The MMS called it a record sale that attracted $2.9 billion in bids, including 1,428 bids on 723 tracts of a total 5,359 tracts on offer.

Marathon’s Oil Corp. confirmed its bids stood for a $221.7 million investment in 13 operated deepwater blocks where water depths run to 8,300 feet. The company already has pans for an an exploration well during fourth-quarter 2007 at the Flathead Prospect.

The GoM auction attracted 84 companies and their losing and winning bids reached $5.25 billion for 28.7 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

ws@scandoil.com