State Nets $17.5M in North Slope Lease Sale
Tracts all across the North Slope lease area drew the interest of nine bidding companies. Not shown on this map, one bidder each in the Beaufort Sea lease area and the Foothills to the south also secured leases.
Photo Credit: Alaska Department of Natural Resources
Companies new to the Alaska oil patch participated in the state’s annual North Slope lease sale, resulting in the most tracts leased since 2014. The Alaska Division of Oil & Gas calls the outcome the most successful in more than a decade in terms of acreage leased and cash bonus earned, as well.
$17.5 million for 287 Tracts
The sale had offered 3,121 tracts on about 5 million acres in the North Slope, the foothills to the south, and state waters in the Beaufort Sea. Eleven companies bid $17.5 million for 287 tracts, covering 519,000 acres. The cash bonus is $6.6 million more than a year ago, which was already the highest since 2018; this year’s sale ranks as the seventh-highest cash bonus since areawide lease sales began in 1998. All bids were uncontested, with each entrant acquiring every lease they sought.
Three new companies entered the region with winning bids. One of those is AK Frontier Energy, the only bidder on North Slope Foothills tracts. Four are adjacent to the Dalton Highway and Trans Alaska Pipeline System; three are farther west. The seven tracts comprise 37,989 acres and build upon last year’s first Foothills bids in a decade.
The other two new entrants are Frontier Exploration and Duncan Resources. Frontier Exploration—a company based in Sugar Land, Texas, with oil projects in New Mexico and Kansas as well—is likewise hugging the Dalton Highway, leasing three tracts adjacent to the Alkaid Unit being developed by Great Bear Pantheon. Duncan Resources, which shares a name with Great Bear founder Ed Duncan, looked slightly north, successfully bidding on three tracts along the pipeline route just south of Deadhorse.
The largest single bidder was Surprise Valley Resources of Houston, Texas, winning 116 bids on two significant lease blocks. One large block is east of the Toolik River Unit straddling the Dalton Highway south of the Alkaid and Talitha units; the other leases occupy a corner between the Kuparuk River Unit and the Quokka Unit being developed by Santos.
Through its subsidiary Oil Search (Alaska), Santos won bids for leases south of its Horseshoe Unit being developed just outside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Its partner in developing the Pikka Unit, the Spanish energy company Repsol, expanded its position with forty-five leases south of the Kuparuk River Unit, via its domestic subsidiary Repsol E&P USA.
Other bidders included Lagniappe Alaska, extending its position south of Point Thomson along the edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Captivate Energy Alaska, a subsidiary of Australia-based 88 Energy, which secured a block of tracts southeast of Deadhorse; and one tract south of the village of Nuiqsut, on the edge of the Colville River Unit, drew the interest of Three Mountain Oil.
Burgundy Xploration, also based in Houston, Texas, returns to the North Slope with winning bids on fifty-seven leases in two blocs west of the Toolik River Unit.
Only one company was interested in the state’s offshore offerings. Veteran bidder Samuel Cade won nine tracts around the Point Thomson and Greater Point Thomson units.
“The North Slope renaissance continues to build momentum,” says John Crowther, acting commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. “We have a record-setting lease sale at the same time we’re heading into one of the busiest construction seasons on the Slope in years. The future is bright.”
The lease sale on the North Slope builds upon the most bonus revenue in a decade from the Cook Inlet sale in June. Hilcorp was the uncontested bidder on five onshore and near-shore tracts that brought an estimated $872,072 in cash bonus to the state treasury.
That lease sale also included tracts in the Alaska Peninsula region, but no bids were received.
Big Lake Farm Obtains License to Propagate Patented Berry Bushes
A license to propagate patented hybrids of honeyberry and sour cherry opens a new chapter for Common Ground Alaska farm in Big Lake.
Korean Steel Supplier and Gas Buyer Signs Up for Alaska LNG
Glenfarne and POSCO finalized a strategic partnership to supply steel to build the Alaska LNG pipeline and a Heads of Agreement for the Korean manufacturer to buy gas.
Ketchikan Indian Community Launching First Tribal Wellness Center at Salmon Falls Resort
Ketchikan Indian Community acquired Salmon Falls Resort to convert from commercial tourism into the first residential substance abuse detox center in Southeast.
Also in this issue: building a company and planning an exit strategy; several ESOPs, and UAS’ foray into a new model for tuition. Enjoy!