Just hours before bidding opened on leases for new oil and gas development on 20 million acres of the western Gulf of Mexico this morning, U.S. environmental officials announced that BP would be temporarily suspended from contracts with the government, effectively barring BP from being awarded any leases in the sale.

But by the time the gavel came down on what turned out to be an auction that garnered relatively modest interest, it was clear the suspension would have little practical immediate impact on BP’s ambitions in the Gulf of Mexico. While the company has agreed to pay the highest criminal penalty in U.S. history, $4 billion, to settle charges related to the disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, BP plans to