Kerr--Mcgee Corporation v. Rogers C. B. Morton, Secretary of the Interior

Appellants seek to compel the Secretary of the Interior to award them an oil and gas lease on Tract 2124 on the Outer Continental Shelf. See 43 U.S.C. § 1337(a) (1970). All bids on Tract 2124 were rejected as being too low, including the high bid submitted by appellants which was 16 per cent of the risk-free value set by the Government. Adjacent tracts received high bids of between 51 and 731 per cent of the risk-free value. Kerr-McGee’s bid on Tract 2124 was $142 per acre. Adjacent tracts drew high bids per acre of $720 to $5,674. In his notice of bid in this case the Secretary clearly…