Oil and gas exploration companies offered $7.8 million for the rights to search for oil on 154,610 acres of state land on Alaska’s North Slope and Beaufort Sea, according to results from the 2019 oil and gas lease sale conducted by the Division of Oil & Gas.
Researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks are mapping oil and gas seeps off Alaska’s coast to better understand hydrocarbon resources and seafloor ecosystems.
The Division of Oil and Gas received three bids encompassing 10,286 acres and totaling approximately $190,350 in bonus bids from Hilcorp Alaska.
Alaska’s oil potential is global in scale, and international organizations engaged in exploration or development (or both) have been seizing opportunities they see in the Last Frontier.
The Division of Oil and Gas will offer Special Alaska Lease Sale Area (SALSA) blocks in conjunction with the Fall 2019 oil and gas lease sale, Commissioner Corri A. Feige said.
In January 2018, the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) projected that after an enduring economic recession, things were beginning to look up for the oil and gas sector.
Working in Alaska’s North Slope can be challenging enough, but a few companies are taking that challenge a step further, drilling from manmade islands into promising basins miles off the coast.