The sale, held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in a conference room in the Louisiana Superdome, attracted 241 bids from 20 companies for 161 tracts off the Texas coast.

The auction raised a total of more than $712 million, officials said, with one bid for a single lot coming in from ConocoPhillips at more than $103 million.

Officials in Louisiana said the sale of oil and gas leases represents the second-largest revenue stream for the federal government, behind the federal income tax.

"The Gulf is back in business," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in an interview with CNBC.

Among the bidders for the tracts was BP itself.

"All companies are going to have an opportunity to come and to bid on the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas development," Salazar said. "For us, the oil and gas is part of President Obama's energy portfolio. We believe strongly in renewable energy, but we also recognize that oil and gas will help power our economy forward."

There was a celebratory mood at the Superdome, where hundreds of oil and gas executives gathered to watch the bids unsealed and read in public for the first time. After making remarks and reading the first bids, Secretary Salazar headed to midfield at the stadium to playfully toss a football with members of his entourage.

"We're excited to get back to work in the Gulf," said Andy Radford, a senior policy adviser with the trade group American Petroleum Institute. "There's quite a bit of pent-up demand for leases in this area. It's been over two years since we've had a lease sale in this area."

Environmental groups were not happy with the decision to reopen the lease process.