The Biden administration held an auction for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, offering millions of acres after months of litigation had held up the sale.

Administered by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the sale offered more than 72 million acres for auction, with the agency receiving 352 bids on 311 lease tracts from 20 companies, although 26 companies ended up participating in the sale. The agency announced it had received nearly $442 million for all bids, with high bids amounting to more than $382 million.

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The auction was mandated in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) added provisions to the climate bill that would revive three canceled offshore oil and gas lease sales — to the lament of environmentalists, who have been calling for less drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the deal was delayed from its September date after the agency added last-minute environmental restrictions and scaled the sale back to 67 million acres as part of a settlement with environmentalists.

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Industry group American Petroleum Institute, along with the state of Louisiana and U.S. oil company Chevron, sued the BOEM after the agency issued its notice of sale. A federal judge in southwest Louisiana ordered the sale to proceed without the environmental restrictions, which led to an appeal by environmental groups. This further delayed the sale while oral arguments were heard.

In November, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the auction would be rescheduled to Dec. 20 and would cover the original span of 72.7 million acres.