Texas Coastal Ranch Bought for $37.7M with Oil Spill Penalties Becomes Wildlife Area

A coalition of conservation groups purchased the 17,351-acre Powderhorn Ranch along the Texas coast in 2014 for $37.7 million. A significant portion of the funding was sourced from penalties paid by BP and Transocean following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. The acquisition aimed to preserve the ecologically significant coastal land from development. By 2018, over 15,000 acres of the ranch had been handed over to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The land now functions as a designated wildlife management area, marking a major conservation outcome from the oil spill settlements.