Northern Alaska lease sales scheduled for Nov. 19

Oct. 2, 2014
Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources has scheduled its annual North Slope, Beaufort Sea, and North Slope Foothills oil and gas lease sales for Nov. 19. The total lease area encompasses 14 million acres.

Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources has scheduled its annual North Slope, Beaufort Sea, and North Slope Foothills oil and gas lease sales for Nov. 19. The total lease area encompasses 14 million acres.

DNR specifies that bidding methods, minimum bids, and lease terms remain the same as northern Alaska lease sales held during 2011-13. The ANS and Beaufort Sea sale areas continue to include terms and conditions to incentivize exploration of tracts adjacent to federal lands, including the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Bidders must be qualified by 4 p.m. on Nov. 14 and bids must be received no later than 4 p.m. on Nov. 17. Bid opening will commence at 9 a.m. on Nov. 19 at the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center in Anchorage.

“The results from the past three sales show that investors have continued interest in obtaining new state oil and gas leases for exploration in northern Alaska,” said Bill Barron, director of Alaska’s Division of Oil & Gas.

The previous ANS and Beaufort Sea lease sales respectively garnered 90 bids from eight bidding groups on 89 tracts and two bids from one bidding group on two tracts (OGJ Online, Nov. 6, 2013). In May, the Cook Inlet and Alaska Peninsula oil and gas lease sales received 43 bids (OGJ Online, May 8, 2014).