92 tracts sold in NPR-A sale
Ninety two tracts were bid on in the NPR-A lease sale for an apparent total of $11.27 million in cash bonus bids. The bidding covered 1 million acres. In a state lease sale on onshore state lands east of the petroleum reserve companies offered $6.58 million in bids on 56 tracts covering 108,320 acres and, separately, $1.2 million bid on 13 offshore Beaufort Sea tracts on 46,290 acres. What was most significant was the action by Oil Search, a Papua New Guinea company, to pick a large acreage position in the east-central slope area, its first move away from the Pikka area near the Colville River to the west, a discovery made by Armstrong Oil and Gas and Repsol.

Most of the new leases in the NPR-A were acquired by North Slope Exploration LLC, a group led by Armstrong. This is Armstrong’s first move into the federal petroleum reserve. The company has a long history on state lands east of the reserve where the company’s geologic work led to offshore discoveries and subsequent production (Oooguruk and Nikaitchuq fields, now owned by Eni Oil and Gas) as well as the large Pikka. Armstrong seems primarily focused on developing new prospects along the Nanushuk geologic formation to the west, while discoveries like Pikka were made to the east.

Oil Search moves east, near ANWR
Oil Search acquired a group of leases on the east-central North Slope area near the western border of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, and south of the Point Thomson gas and condensate field now operated by ExxonMobil. There have been discoveries in the area outside of Point Thomson, such as one at Sourdough, by BP, a small deposit that virtually straddles the boundary between state lands and ANWR. An independent company, Jade Energy, is now working to develop Sourdough with participation by BP and ExxonMobil, which own the nearby Point Thomson field. Another independent active in bidding for the onshore state acreage was Great Bear Petroleum, an Alaska-based independent that has also made recent discoveries. Great Bear’s acquisitions are in the central slope south of the producing Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River fields and near where the company has been exploring potential shale oil resources and also made a small discovery of conventional oil.

Beaufort Sea bidding
In the Beaufort Sea offshore, two individuals, Samuel Cade and Daniel Donkel, acquired five tracts offshore the Point Thomson area, also near ANWR, and farther west Narwhal LLC, an exploration group, acquired seven Beaufort Sea tracts near Smith Bay, where independent Caelus Energy has made a discovery that has not yet been fully tested.

$7.78 million paid to state in cash bonus bids
The preliminary total of cash bonus bids for the state’s North Slope onshore leases was $6.58 million for 56 lease tracts and the total for the 13 Beaufort Sea leases sold separately was $1.2 million. Procedurally the onshore North Slope and offshore Beaufort Sea tracts were offered in separate lease sales, but they were held in sequence. Both the state and BLM offer yearly areawide sales on the slope to offer all unsold state or federal lands in areas that are designated for leasing, typically large areas.