By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 19 -- Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. offered the highest bid during an Apr. 18 lease sale in Anchorage for frontier areas of the Outer Continental Shelf. Beaufort Sea Lease Sale 202 received bids for 92 blocks, the US Minerals Management Service reported.
Companies submitted high bids totaling $42.1 million. Shell submitted the top 10 single-highest bids with its highest bid being $14.1 million for Flaxman Island Block 6609. In total, Shell submitted 49 bids worth $39.3 million.
The sale area covered 502 million acres off Alaska's northern coast extending from the Canadian border on the east to near Barrow, Alas., on the west. The area is 3-60 nautical miles off Alaska's Arctic coast in 33-2,970 ft of water. Most of the area lies in 330 ft or less of water.
MMS said the last Beaufort Sea offering, Lease Sale 195, was in March 2005 (OGJ, Mar. 26, 2007, Newsletter).
