When bids were read in Anchorage this morning by Acting Director of the Division of Oil and Gas Kevin Banks, the state had 21 bids on 21 tracts in the Beaufort Sea sale and 18 bids on 18 tracts in the North Slope sale.

In the Beaufort Sea sale, Alaska investors J. Andrew Bachner (90 percent) and Keith C. Forsgren (10 percent), accounted for $573,996.80 of $704,482.40 bid in that sale, while a new company, Union Energy (Alaska) LLC, with an address in Switzerland, spent $449,971.20 in the North Slope sale (33.2 percent of the sale total of $1,354,828.80).

Other large bidders in the North Slope sale included Chevron — bidding as Union Oil Company of California — with a total of $327,603.20 bid on five tracts which had been part of the Whiskey Gulch unit south of the Kuparuk River unit.

FEX LP bid $298,828.80 on four tracts southwest of Chevron’s White Hills’ prospect on the southern edge of the North Slope lease sale area.

UltraStar Exploration bid $173,465.60 on two tracts between the southeastern edge of the Kuparuk River unit and the Rock Flour unit.

AVCG LLC bid $104,960 on four tracts, one south of Badami and three east of the Colville River unit.

Bachner and Forsgren accounted for 18 of 21 bids in the Beaufort Sea sale.

AVCG LLC took two tracts at Bullen Point on the eastern flank of the Badami unit.

ConocoPhillips Alaska took one tract at the northwest corner of the Colville River unit on the west side of the sale area, the farthest west tract sold, for $78,105.60.

In between it was all Bachner-Forsgren: they picked up all the unleased state offshore acreage between Northstar and Nikaitchuq, 17 of their 18 tracts, and one tract off the mouth of the Colville River.

Editor's note: Watch for the full story in the Oct. 28 issue of Petroleum News, which will be available online on Friday, Oct. 26 at www.petroleumnews.com