The Explorers 2008: NPR-A sale nets $30.9M in high bids

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska oil and gas lease sale Sept. 24 drew $30.9 million in high bids on l50 tracts covering an area of about 1.6 million acres in both Northwest and Northeast NPR-A.

The sale of leases in Northeast NPR-A had been delayed since September 2006 as a result of a court challenge by a coalition of environmental groups. BLM subsequently withdrew prospective land north and east of Teshekpuk Lake from the 2008 sale.

ConocoPhillips Alaska, Anadarko Petroleum, Petro-Hunt LLC, Petro-Canada, FEX L.P. and Renaissance Umiat LLC all made bids, with all of these companies except Renaissance picking up tracts.

Dallas-based Petro-Hunt was a newcomer to Alaska oil and gas leasing, at least in the modern era — the company is associated with the Hunt family, which has a long association with Alaska. Petro-Hunt snapped up several groups of tracts, including a large fairway of tracts around and to the east of the Ikpikpuk River.

Herbert Hunt, advisor to Petro-Hunt management, told Petroleum News that the company is particularly interested in exploring for oil, although the NPR-A tracts are prospective for both oil and gas.

ConocoPhillips bid on tracts that extend its existing exploration fairway around the Moose’s Tooth unit in eastern NPR-A. Anadarko and Petro-Canada consolidated their lease positions in the Umiat area, while FEX picked up three tracts toward the center of the Northeast NPR-A planning area.

—Alan Bailey